The LA Unified school board is scheduled to hold an open session meeting today at 1 p.m. Items up for discussion are two resolutions aimed at identifying, encouraging and replicating successful schools within the district. Other potential board actions include approval of a $40 million operating budget for MiSiS, the district’s student data computer system, and discussion...

Often, big social movements start with just one worried parent. That’s the case in Redwood City, just south of San Francisco, where two new charter schools recently opened their doors. In Redwood City, that worried parent was Maritza Leal, a mother of three who, along with her husband, played a major role in bringing a...

Members of the LA Unified school board are taking the lead in identifying, encouraging and replicating successful schools with two resolutions that will be discussed at Tuesday’s board meeting. One, sponsored by Monica Garcia and Ref Rodriguez, called Offering Families More – Promoting, Celebrating and Replicating Success Across LAUSD, asks that the district identify best strategies...

According to an analysis of a new school accountability system developed by six California school districts including LA Unified, the district’s 13 lowest performers are all elementary schools, the best high school is Harbor Teacher Prep Academy and the worst high school is Jordan High. These conclusions were made following an LA School Report analysis of LA Unified schools evaluated...

What’s for lunch? How about Sweet Potatoes Chicken Quesadilla, a healthy slaw with cumin-lime crema and a Grilled Pineapple Downtown with graham crackers, cinnamon and apple reduction? And it’s all less than 730 calories and costs $1.14! Sounds like an impossible gourmet meal, but that’s the recipe that a team from Santee Education Complex cooked up...

Angelica Lopez Moyes is amazed that her 1st-grade son can speak Mandarin. But she is concerned that his dual-language immersion program at Castelar Street Elementary School could  be jeopardized if a charter is co-located on the campus. Castelar, founded in 1882 and the second-oldest school in Los Angeles, has 570 students and is at about 75 percent...

On Friday, 19 students from seven LA Unified schools will participate in a cook-off that will send a team to compete nationally in Washington, D.C. Their task: to create a nutritionally balanced school meal for $1.14, the district’s lunch budget. Their challenge is not unlike one the massive LA Unified Food Services division is facing: how to feed more than...

Each year, students cram into lecture halls to take classes that won’t get them any closer to a college degree — shelling out $1.5 billion to learn concepts they should’ve mastered in high school. One in four college freshmen who enroll in college directly after high school enroll in remedial classes. Remedial students who begin at four-year...

This is college acceptance season, the weeks when millions of high school seniors pore over their offers and agonize about which campus offers the best fit and the best financing. The real pressure is off, the essays and test scores a distant memory. Until you consider the results of a new study that revealed this: More than...