LA School Report

By the Times Editorial Board Because of new rules designed to raise graduation standards, officials of the Los Angeles Unified School District woke up in December to the grim news that only half of its students were on track to graduate, down from 74 percent the year before. The problem was that this was the first...

AP classes are tougher, but students are better prepared for college Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge courses are increasing rapidly in high schools. This includes places like Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C., where 99 percent of the students are low-income and few land on the high-achievement end of any bell curve. But teachers...

Maria Silva worked hard to find the right schools for her kids. As a stay-at-home mom, she could spend the time and effort it took to research schools and she was willing and able to drive her daughter from their home in Bell to downtown Los Angeles to attend a magnet high school. A mother of...

  After studying technology issues for more than a year, an LA Unified task force this week offered their ideas for the district after the botched iPad debacle that was supposed to result in one computer device in every student’s hands. The price tag would be $311 million for “a 1:1 environment,” providing every student with a tablet...

Un emprendimiento masivo para aumentar el acceso a una educación de alta calidad para decenas de miles de estudiantes de bajos recursos en Los Angeles fue revelado hoy a través de un esperado plan de Great Public Schools Now (GPSN, Excelentes Escuelas Públicas Ahora), una organización sin fines de lucro que recibe una buena cantidad...

Looking over some of the things Trump has said and not said about education There’s still a mystery swirling at the center of the Trump platform: education. Rarely has a politician successfully gotten this far after saying so little about our nation’s classrooms. By Carolyn Phenicie, The 74 State budget heads to Gov. Brown: How education...

Myrna Castrejon, who was named executive director of Great Public Schools Now in January, was thrust into the spotlight this week with the release of the organization’s plan to increase access to high-performing schools for 160,000 students it identified as attending failing schools in poor areas. Castrejon came from the California Charter Schools Association, where...

Sometimes staying late at the LA Unified school board meetings has its benefits. Particularly when quirky things happen in only-in-LA moments. About 8:45 p.m. Tuesday late into the meeting, most of the audience members had cleared out of the school board auditorium and the 200 or so protesters outside were gone. There were almost as many...

LAUSD may create college savings accounts for its 640,000 students The school district would partner with the city of Los Angeles and outside groups including the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce to hammer out the specifics of how the accounts would be opened, and possibly include matching funds for deposits. By Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, KPCC Study: schools...