LA School Report

By Ref Rodriguez Middle school can make it or break it for a student. Close to 200,000 students in Los Angeles public schools are middle grade students. That’s 200,000 students who are either launched onto the path to high school graduation or knocked off track. And even though research has definitively shown that middle grades...

By Sonali Kohli  If your child attends a public school, you might find yourself asking questions. Who is in charge of making sure the principal is good? Who controls contracts with food vendors so that your kids have healthy lunches? Who is responsible for acquiring textbooks? Who sets the tone on what teachers should be doing?...

Report: Schools increasingly turn to ‘underprepared’ teachers to fill vacancies The report points to numerous studies that it says have found that the use of underprepared or substitute teachers can “harm student achievement.” EdSource, by Louis Freedberg Angelenos weigh in on new LAUSD superintendent We asked Angelenos what they thought of the choice of Michelle...

If you’re at Crenshaw High School, wouldn’t you want to know that baseball legend Darryl Strawberry graduated from there? How about that “Star Wars” composer John Williams went to North Hollywood High, or that Leonardo DiCaprio dropped out of his junior year at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies so he could pursue acting?...

Three LA Unified board committee meetings that were delayed a month by the superintendent search are scheduled back-to-back-to-back tomorrow, all at district headquarters. Some of the issues on the agendas involve the continuing discussion about what it would mean to turn LAUSD into an all-charter school district, early childhood education and new information dealing with...

By The Editorial Board The controversial Eli Broad-backed initiative that was designed to double charter-school attendance in the Los Angeles Unified School District has been shape-shifting ever since an early draft was leaked months ago. The goal of enrolling half of the district’s students in charter schools within eight years has been dropped. Now, those...

Acting U.S. Education Secretary: Civil rights community must be vigilant John King plans to use his first speech as acting U.S. Education Secretary to call on the civil rights community to be vigilant as the nation ushers in the ESSA. Washington Post, by Emma Brown Advocates demand state end improper use of force on special...

The California Court of Appeal, Second District has scheduled for Feb. 25 oral arguments in the landmark Vergara v. California lawsuit. The appeal decision will be closely watched throughout the state and beyond, as the future of California’s teacher employment laws surrounding tenure, seniority and dismissal hang in the balance. In 2014, Judge Rolf Treu struck down the...

The new executive director of Great Public Schools Now says a hostile LA Unified board resolution, angry union leaders or public opinion will not threaten the group’s goal to create successful schools, whoever’s in charge of them. If anything, said Myrna Castrejón, the widespread opposition to her organization, its plans and founder, Eli Broad, are...

With middle school principals’ sharing their best practices and dire needs, an LA Unified board committee yesterday set off on a new initiative to improve the academic and social skills of students one principal described as “hormones with arms and legs.” The discussion in the Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Equity Committee came two days after...