LA School Report

Add LA Unified to the list of organizations that wants nothing to do with businessman and presidential candidate Donald Trump. The district’s Beyond the Bell branch said today it will not hold the eighth-annual Beyond the Bell Golf Classic, which was scheduled for Nov. 23, at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. The...

A petition inspired by UTLA social justice activist Jose Lara is calling for the immediate removal of the name D.W. Griffith from an East Los Angeles middle school because his 1915 film, “The Birth of a Nation,” celebrated the Ku Klux Klan. The demand follows nationwide calls for the removal of Confederate flags from public spaces in the aftermath of...

A new poll shows that Americans strongly support the idea of school vouchers, something that 24 states — not including California — offer in some version. The Schooling in America Survey also found that most American’s disapprove of the federal government’s handing of education even while they lack a basic understanding of how much the country spends...

A group of about 170 parents is organizing to keep LA Unified from cutting a Mandarin Immersion program in Mar Vista by raising money and hiring consultants and lobbyists to make their case with members of the board and their staffs. “It’s not over,” parent Jenn Pullen, an organizer of the group, Parents for Progressive Education, told LA School...

By Matt Collette Cheryl Schafer was a veteran math teacher by the time Common Core arrived in New York back in 2010. It was apparent to her almost immediately that teachers didn’t have the materials they needed to teach to the new national standards. Take a middle school staple like the Pythagorean Theorem: “One text series had...

Ed-tech start-ups envision L.A. as a hub for the growing sector A growing contingent of LA start-ups wants the attention to shift to a new sector: educational technology. Los Angeles Times Contemplating better training for substitutes The shortage of substitute teachers nationwide is shining a spotlight on the adequacy of those who are available. SI&A...

Jose Lara, a prominent leader of the LA teachers union, UTLA, was recently named the 2015 Social Justice Activist of the Year by the National Education Association (NEA). Lara helped lead a successful grassroots effort to get the LA Unified school board to adopt ethnic studies as a graduation requirement. He is vice president of the El...

An estimated 400 LA Unified seniors without their high school diplomas this summer may have already graduated … or they may not have, and there is nothing they can do about it at the moment. The state’s decision to suspend the July California High School Exit Exam (CASHEE) while the state Legislature debates its future...

English learner students are performing better in charter schools than in traditional schools, according to a new report released by the California Charter Schools Association. The report, “Success for English Learners in Charter Schools,” found that throughout the state, independent charter schools are serving nearly 2 percent more English learner (EL) students than traditional schools....

By The Editorial Board To some people, even 150 years after the end of the Civil War, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee remains a symbol of honor, chivalry and courage; his memory conjures the Old South, a lost cause and a more romantic era. That’s why his name remains on schools, highways and monuments across...