LA School Report

By Jane Mayer and Jesse Soza, Ed.D. Two previous articles in this series, here and here, have detailed the enormity and the complexity of the teacher turnover problem in our country: more than 1 million teachers entering and exiting the classroom every year, and somewhere between 40 percent to 50 percent permanently exiting within five. This lack...

California bill to extend school choice law faces allegations of inequity The “district of choice” law currently allows about 10,000 students across the state to enroll in 47 participating school districts without seeking the permission of their home districts, which are often loath to let them — and the funding attached to them — go....

LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King said at a news conference last week that the district’s improvement over last year on the state’s standardized tests was among “the highest gains that were achieved among urban districts in California.” But was it really? LA Unified was fourth among the 10 largest districts in the state in overall improvement,...

LA Unified officials persistently wring their hands about losing students year after year, but meanwhile the number of employees continues to rise. In their latest tally, school district employees rose from 59,563 in the 2014-2015 school year to 59,823 last year and 60,191 in the 2016-2017 school year. (A final accounting of the actual hires will be available...

El Camino charter has one month to address alleged shortcomings A casual observer could be excused for thinking there must be two El Camino high schools in Los Angeles. One, a well-managed, long-running success story that delivers solid and sometimes spectacular academic results. The other, in need of appropriate oversight, with a free-spending principal and...

A $1,139 dinner at a steakhouse. A $95 bottle of fine Syrah wine. A $73 bill for flowers. Those charges and others made by staff of a successful charter school were cited this week at an LA Unified School Board meeting and led the district to take the first steps to revoking the school’s charter. El...

Los Angeles charter schools are outperforming traditional schools in math and English A math teacher at LA Unified’s Luther Burbank Middle School takes the latest CAASPP (California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance) scores and finds charter schools outperformed traditional schools in both math and English. He also lists three schools that serve diverse and poor...

How many students actually started school last week at LA Unified? It’s a question that the second-largest school district in the country is a bit sensitive about, especially because enrollment means money. The media cavalierly bandied about a wide array of numbers that may not seem significant but can equate to a difference as big...

A total of 20 schools—14 district schools and six charter schools—that fall under the LA Unified umbrella are among the bottom 5 percent of low-performing schools in the state of California. The schools are eligible for School Improvement Grants (SIG) money that can result in $2 million a year for five years if the school administrators...

Why this small Pacoima school saw big gains in state testing The percentage of third- through fifth-graders who met or exceeded the Smarter Balanced assessments in English language arts at Vena Avenue Elementary & Gifted Magnet increased from 44 percent in 2014-15 to 66 percent in 2015-16. Meanwhile, 52 percent of third- to fifth- graders met or exceeded...