The LA Unified school board faced a difficult decision in June. It had previously voted to raise the bar on its graduation requirements starting in 2016 in an effort to get more students into college, but it was clear not enough students were ready for the challenge and graduation rates would plummet if aggressive action...

Internationally renowned education expert Pedro Noguera warned members of the LA Unified school board and superintendent that unless more serious measures are taken, the nation’s second-largest school district is destined to lose more students. “The future is dire,” Noguera told the Committee of the Whole on Tuesday afternoon. He pointed to entire neighborhoods in Philadelphia...

While LA Unified’s projected graduation rate continues to tick up this spring as seniors complete extra credit recovery courses to make up those they previously failed, 30 percent of those the district considers “on track” for graduation currently aren’t because they are failing at least one A through G class. To be labeled “on track” a...

The nation’s 12th-grade students did slightly worse on national math and reading tests in 2015 than high school seniors did in 2013, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress results released today, even as high school graduation rates got better. The overall score decreases were quite small — roughly two points in math and a single...

As it was with middle schools, demographics contrast starkly at the top and bottom LA Unified elementary schools on the California Office to Reform Education’s (CORE) accountability index. The schools with the lowest five scores are located in economically challenged neighborhoods and have higher levels of disabled students, English learners and non-white students. Like with middle schools, but...

Science lessons set to rap music. Aspirations in envelopes pinned to the ceiling. And a commitment to live alongside students. Tunji Adebayo, who teaches 7th and 8th grade science at Lou Dantzler Preparatory Charter Middle School, was honored Monday night for his innovation and dedication at Teach For America’s “Celebrating Changemakers in Education.” “Tunji’s dedication to...

When it comes to the performance of some minority groups and high-needs students, LA Unified high schools showed more ability than their middle school counterparts in beating the odds on the California Office to Reform Education’s (CORE) new school accountability index. While the performance of the district’s middle schools tended to break along familiar lines...

The Fight for the Soul of the Cities, which has disrupted school meetings with calls to end the militarization of school police and reduce their forces, said they are not satisfied with the response from the LA Unified school board. After students and activists protested Friday afternoon outside LA Unified’s Beaudry headquarters, school board members Steve Zimmer, George...

This month, a California appeals court restored the state’s teacher tenure laws, which had been ruled unconstitutional by a lower court two years ago. But the ruling was hardly a ringing endorsement of California’s approach to tenure. Here’s what’s not in dispute in the case, Vergara v. California, even after the appeals court’s decision: Thousands...

LA Unified is expanding a Camps to College program that helps students coming out of juvenile detention camps get back into school and graduate. Since the program launched two years ago in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Mental Health Department and the Los Angeles Probation Office, it has served 1,189 students. Most of them have...