LA School Report

LA Unified is on the brink of a severe financial crisis and if officials don’t act now, the whole district could go bankrupt. That’s the overall conclusion of a report by an outside panel asked to look at the financial situation of LAUSD. Its findings are scheduled to be presented at the regular school board meeting...

By Elizabeth Lee White and Asian students in the United States continue to outperform their black and Latino counterparts nationwide, according to the  U.S. Department of Education’s 2015 Nation’s Report Card that assesses nationwide student achievement. Latino and black students are most effected by socio-economic challenges that keep them from excelling when compared to their...

Teachers sound off on dealing with texting in class Following the video that went viral and sparked outrage, teachers offer their best practices. Education World, by Nicole Gorman Math placement tests deserve more scrutiny The right courses in high school doesn’t guarantee access to college-level math courses at the state’s colleges and universities. EdSource, by...

A report out this week from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) found that California is just one of five states that has no formal policy requiring that teacher evaluations be tied in some way to student achievement measures. The report — State of the States 2015: Evaluating Teaching, Leading and Learning  — took a look...

Despite recent media reports that the arts are doing poorly at LA Unified schools, the director of the district’s arts programs, Rory Pullens, said quite to the contrary, things are better than they have been in a long time; it’s just that nobody knows it. “We are really encouraged and really excited about what’s been...

After years of rising graduation rates, LA Unified is facing a stunning reversal this year, with recent estimates showing that no more than 49 percent of seniors are on pace to receive a diploma in 2016. But there may be a chance to avoid the sudden drop. With graduation rates growing steadily over the last four...

The state Board of Education today approved a settlement in a lawsuit brought on behalf of students who lost valuable learning time because they were placed in classes that lacked any instructional value. Under the agreement reached in Cruz v. State of California, the state will provide immediate assistance to six high schools, including three...

By Lillian Mongeau What if you were told that your child didn’t qualify for a spot in second grade because he didn’t have freckles? Ridiculous, right? But there’s a law on the books in California that is exactly this arbitrary. Aspen Erickson, 5, is a kindergartener at Lakewood Elementary School in Sunnyvale, California, one of...

State Board penalizes ETS $3.1 million for late test scores The State Board of Education voted to penalize the Educational Testing Service $3.1 million for delivering the scores and reports on the new Smarter Balanced tests late. EdSource, by John Fensterwald Study: Most states link student learning to teacher reviews In many states, those performance...

The Los Angeles Times today listed former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as having a “medium chance” of becoming a finalist for the job of next superintendent of LA Unified. As the district’s search moves into a phase for identifying potential finalists, the story features a list of 43 possible candidates, based on what it called “interviews...