LA School Report

LA Unified’s $15 million credit recovery program has already been making a big impact on its projected high school graduation rate this year, and a school-by-school breakdown report released by the district shows that the progress is across the board. The report, which highlights how many students are on track to complete their “A through...

An LAUSD teacher is named National Teacher of the Year finalist Daniel Jocz’s curriculum includes a more inclusive approach to history and an assist from Taylor Swift. Los Angeles Magazine, by Emily Goldberg Some schools have bake sales. This West Hollywood fundraiser got Beyoncé, Los Angeles Times Oil and gas firm reactivates long-idle wells near L.A....

The LA Unified school board will consider major upgrades at school sites throughout the district at their regular meeting Tuesday. The Facilities Services Division is asking the board to approve district bonds for projects including replacing a half-century-old canopy over a stairwell, replacing 60-year-old bleachers, upgrading walk-in freezers at 305 schools and replacing ovens, ice machines and...

George McKenna doesn’t talk about it much, but Denzel Washington played him in a TV movie called “The George McKenna Story.” Fellow LA Unified school board members may occasionally rib him about it, and on a recent tour of an elementary school, Superintendent Michelle King pointed it out to impress the students. “This man had...

The tag line of the film “The George McKenna Story” (also known as “Hard Lessons”) is a punny George McKenna-ism characteristic of the man it profiled. “He risked it all to make the grade,” is how the movie was advertised. In it, the heroic principal sacrifices relationships, career and safety to do the right thing for...

By Nadra Nittle As evidence mounts that punitive discipline makes students more likely to go to prison than to college, school districts in greater Los Angeles, such as Long Beach Unified and Lynwood Unified, are shifting away from suspending students or citing them for truancy. Instead, they’re making greater use of restorative justice programs, as...

Advocates voice ‘grave concern’ over LAUSD’s charter schools review process Charter school leaders are rallying behind applicants who hope to open a new charter high school, intensifying their accusation that Los Angeles Unified School District officials are playing politics with charter applications. KPCC, by Kyle Stokes LA Unified keeps schools open after receiving ‘non-credible’ threat,...

LA Unified Local District Northwest Superintendent Vivian Ekchian faced an angry and skeptical group of West Hills residents Thursday evening as she presented the district’s plan to redevelop a long-shuttered and dilapidated elementary school into a high school serving 500 students. The anger stemmed from the school board’s sudden cancellation last month of a plan that had...

By Caroline Bermudez With the Los Angeles Board of Education poised to consider the expansion of another successful charter school at its March 8 meeting, parents demanding more choice deserve to know what is driving the district’s questionable practices around charter review. There is an anti-charter narrative so strong that it defies reason, and few...

Filling the gap for unaccompanied children caught in judicial limbo LAUSD and districts like it have been singularly burdened with addressing the extensive needs of unaccompanied immigrant children. The Chronicle of Social Change, by Gabriel Fuentes Free prom dresses, shoes donated to homeless LAUSD girls, KABC Governor appoints 3 SoCal residents to CSU Board of Trustees, City News...