LA School Report

Parent sues LAUSD after teacher reportedly used racially charged comments A Brentwood parent is suing the school district, charging that a male teacher made offensive and racially charged comments in his class. CBS Los Angeles 66 California teams competing in 3-day academic decathlon Twenty teams from Los Angeles-area schools will be in Sacramento Friday to...

LA Unified officials yesterday unveiled results of the Arts Equity Index, the most comprehensive arts inventory the district has ever taken, and the findings show the district has a bad case of “art poverty.” Very few of the district’s 650,000 students have access to robust and uninterrupted arts programs from elementary school through high school,...

A team from Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnet won first place in the 2015 Aspen Challenge: Los Angeles competition at last Saturday, beating out teams from 15 other schools. The challenge asked students to propose solutions to global problems, and Westchester’s 10-member team took on water sustainability awareness in Los Angeles, according to a LA Unified press...

By Stephen Mucher | Los Angeles Times Los Angeles teachers and school district administrators are doing battle once again. Contract talks broke down last month after 18 rounds of negotiations on raises, healthcare costs, class size, employee evaluation and charter schools. Mediation begins next week. Strike language and recriminations grow louder. Given the potential long-term...

LA Unified officials are close to clearing a two-year backlog of assessments aimed at identifying thousands of students who would qualify for the highly-prized Gifted and Talented Education program. Why has it taken so long? For one reason, says the district, parents of many gifted students proved they, too, are gifted — at cheating. For...

Venice high school sex allegations not so clear-cut Authorities acknowledged Wednesday that they are still trying to sort out exactly what happened and that no criminal charges have been brought. Los Angeles Times Schools in need to get more LAUSD arts funding Some LA Unified students in poorer schools are short-changed when it comes to...

The graduation rate for high school students in California grew to 81.4 percent in the 2012-13 school year, according to data released this week by the U.S. Department of Education. The number is slightly up from the previous year’s 80.2 percent, but it still leaves California 31st among states and Washington D.C. in high school graduation...

Andrew Thomas, who finished third in the recent District 5 school board race with 26 percent of the vote, said today he would not endorse either candidate in the May 19 runoff, Ref Rodriguez and Bennett Kayser. “I ran for this seat to bring the voices of parents and kids to the school board,” Thomas...

By Carly Berwick | The Atlantic Last month, New York City’s Department of Education, under Chancellor Carmen Fariña, called for an end to principal-led school suspensions without prior approval—a practice that grew in popularity during the Bloomberg years as part of a focus on “broken windows,” or small crimes that herald disorder. And the Los Angeles Unified...