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Q&A: LAUSD District Superintendent Frances Baez on her challenges and achievements
Determined to provide herself with a quality education in the 1980s when opportunities for Latino students were limited, a young Frances Baez endured more than two hour bus rides from her Boyle Heights neighborhood to a LAUSD affiliated charter school in Pacific Palisades. “I had to take a bus and go across the city to...
By Nicholas Dinh | October 13, 2022
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Analysis: High-quality classwork + tutoring: Proven recipe for closing the learning gap
Imagine you are making a cake for a loved one and serving it later in the day. You don’t have a lot of time. Do you opt for the tried-and-true family recipe or just put together the key ingredients — some flour, eggs, butter and baking soda — until it feels right? Schools have a...
By Amanda Neitzel | October 12, 2022
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Surviving genocide: Native boarding school archives reveal defiance, loss & love
It is a desperate plea from a father seeking information about his missing son. Morris Jenis Jr.’s father knew only his son, a Native American student at the Genoa Indian School in Nebraska 100 years ago, had not been seen in a year. Morris ran away from the school in 1921 — “deserted,” according to...
By Marianna McMurdock and Meghan Gallagher | October 10, 2022
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LA parents sound off after cyberattack leaves students vulnerable
For Christie Pesicka, the Los Angeles Unified School District cyberattack hits home. During “The Interview” hack in 2014, Pesicka was one of thousands of Sony Pictures employees that had their private information exposed in the midst of aggressive attacks by a North Korean hacker group. Now, as a mom, Pesicka worries about protecting her son...
By Joshua Bay | October 6, 2022
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Leaving Los Angeles: These 10 LAUSD schools lost the most students during COVID
Enrollment in Los Angeles Unified schools has been dipping for years, declining even more during the pandemic — but which schools saw the biggest drops and why? The enrollment drop of close to 6% during the pandemic came from a concoction of factors including families moving out of state, students switching to non-LAUSD schools with...
By Cari Spencer | October 6, 2022
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Commentary: The best way to honor Latino culture is by honoring Latino family values
It’s Hispanic Heritage Month and the signs and advertisements celebrating the culture are abundant. I feel, as I often do this time of year, mixed emotions. As a Mexican-American educator, I understand the good intentions behind the signs; celebrating diversity and honoring different cultures should be applauded. But if we really want to celebrate the...
By Joel Ramirez | October 5, 2022
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LAUSD downplays student harm after cyber gang posts sensitive data online
Updated, Oct. 4 The Vice Society ransomware gang reportedly published over the weekend a trove of sensitive student records from the Los Angeles school district. The data was posted to the gang’s dark-web “leak site,” after education leaders refused to pay — and at first even acknowledge — a ransom. Yet in a press conference...
By Mark Keierleber | October 3, 2022
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College mental health supports reduce suicide risk 84% in LGBTQ students
LGBTQ students whose college or university provides mental health services had 84% lower odds of attempting suicide in the past year than those who had no access, according to a new brief from The Trevor Project. And while the vast majority, 86%, reported that their college offers such services, a significant number of students cited barriers to...
By Beth Hawkins | October 3, 2022
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Trevor Project to Refund Donation From Student Surveillance Company Accused of LGBTQ Bias Following 74 Investigation
The Trevor Project, a leading group combatting LGBTQ youth suicide, took money from Gaggle, whose online monitoring tool zeroes in on queer students.
By Mark Keierleber | September 30, 2022
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In Congress and the courts, charter supporters seek to undo grant revisions
Charter advocates were partially successful three months ago in getting the U.S. Department of Education to ease what they saw as onerous new rules for a program that provides start-up funds to new schools. But that compromise hasn’t stopped advocates in two states and members of Congress from trying to remove the remaining changes to the $440...
By Linda Jacobson | September 29, 2022