LA School Report

It’s been nearly 11 months since Anastasiia Puzhalina and her family arrived in Tacoma, Washington, after a white-knuckled journey out of Ukraine. With no home, no income and no idea of how their children would adjust to a new school, they were consumed with worry. But, a year after Russia invaded its neighbor, upending the...

Imagine a classroom of curious elementary students grasping clipboards, eager to conduct an experiment to see if the small car they built can protect their egg “passenger” in a head-on collision. It’s a lesson that not only reinforces their understanding of engineering design, but also offers practical examples of physics in action. And it’s fun....

Americans are skeptical of science. Public ambivalence has shown itself clearly in concerns over the safety and necessity of vaccines and in the dismissal of public health guidance designed to curtail the spread of COVID-19. None of this is surprising, given the anemic state of science education in the U.S. Far too many young people...

When Rory Hu came across a news article about the global decline in honey bee populations, she was inspired to do something about it. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, it puts the global food supply at serious risk. The teen from San Jose, California, dug deeper, discovering in her research that harmful pesticides can damage...

Update, March 13: SEIU Local 99 announced over the weekend that it plans to hold a 3-day unfair labor practice strike to protest what it characterizes as harassment from LAUSD. The union will announce dates for the strike this Wednesday at a joint rally with the teachers union, UTLA. An FAQ on UTLA’s website says...

The nation’s schools are facing a crisis. The pandemic slowed student learning, and schools and families are eager to see academic improvement as quickly as possible. Access to trained school counselors can help students succeed in their classes, but there are too few counselors supporting too many kids with too varied challenges. This problem predates...

For Los Angeles Unified senior Yanxi Rodriguez, there was no sign the school day would deviate from any of the others that had passed in January — until her computer science teacher told her to check her email.  “Mr. Flores told me, ‘Congratulations, did you see your email?’ And I’m like, ‘What email? I don’t...

The percentage of third graders on track in reading hasn’t budged since this time last year, new data shows — a reminder of the literacy setbacks experienced by kindergartners when schools shut down in 2020. Even so, the test’s administrators are interpreting the flatline at 54% as good news. Paul Gazzerro, director of data analysis at curriculum...

As a little girl growing up in El Salvador, Aracely Valdes loved school and dreamed of becoming a teacher. Yet, when she enrolled in the Fort Worth, Texas, public schools at age 15, a new immigrant who spoke no English, the path to fulfilling her dream was far from clear.  Then, in her final year...

Indeever Madireddy, 17, is an avid fish lover. Not as food, but as pets. The San Jose, California teen meticulously raises his freshwater angelfish from egg to adulthood. But when one of his prized fish died, he was struck with an idea: use the fish for genetic mapping. Indeever says this is important for use...