LA School Report

A major contributor to LA Unified’s pending fiscal crisis is unfunded federal and state mandates that have deprived the district of hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years. The exact number is difficult to calculate because the total not only reflects the amount the district seeks in reimbursement but what percentage the governments return to...

At a high school called the Critical Design and Gaming School, you’d think every student had a device on and was playing a game all the time. Not so. In fact, during one recent morning lesson, students opened up boxes of traditional board games to play with each other. “They find out pretty quickly it’s...

By Matt Murray Arne Duncan has been pushing the cause of education all his career. And as he prepares to step down as education secretary after seven years, he is asking CEOs to join him in the fight. In today’s global marketplace, it’s critical for the U.S. to develop in young people the skills that will...

New flow of money for arts education heads to LAUSD schools The Los Angeles Unified School District announced Monday that schools received more than a million dollars in new funding for arts education from the state. KPCC, by Priska Neely There’s more to a ‘growth mindset’ than assuming you have it Stanford University psychology professor...

An independent Financial Review Panel recently dropped some sobering news: LAUSD is headed toward a financial cliff and, without changes in operation, faces a $600 million budget shortfall by 2019. The reasons for the dark financial clouds ahead are varied, but one often cited is declining enrollment. The district has lost 100,000 students in recent years due to...

Niche, a company that researches and compiles information on schools, has released its 2016 rankings of the Best Public High Schools in the country, a list that includes charters and magnet schools. Despite looking at more than 100,000 schools and ranking them in areas like academics, teachers, student culture, diversity, resources and facilities, not a single...

It’s getting down to crunch time: Thanksgiving . . . Christmas . . . Last day on the job for LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines. By next week, names for his replacement will begin to flow with a list of candidates that could include such well-regarded figures from across the county as Rudy Crew, a former Chancellor of...

By Jane Meredith Adams School suspension rates have fallen in California for students of every ethnicity in the last three years, a sign that a shift in discipline practices in many school districts is starting to have an effect, according to a study released Monday by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the UCLA Civil...

Suit accusing popular LAUSD teacher of racism dropped A student had sued her teacher, alleging he made racially charged remarks during a history lesson on civil rights. City News Service Commentary: L.A. new front in education war A big and perhaps decisive charter school battle is brewing in the state’s largest – and in many...

And now for the weather forecast: More than $17 million in roof repairs still need to be completed at LAUSD schools before El Niño arrives in January. The district also needs to replace aging equipment at the Emergency Operations Center at a cost of $225,000 a year, and it will cost about $5 per student...