A charitable physical education program that is in nearly 100 LAUSD middle and high schools has led to dramatic increases in student performances in state fitness tests, according to a UCLA study released today. The UCLA Health Sound Body Sound Mind program offers grants for commercial-grade fitness equipment to under-resourced schools and offers a curriculum...

Just what was it that landed Rafe Esquith, a nationally-renowned teacher, in LA Unified’s “teacher jail”? A line from Mark Twain, his lawyer said in a letter to the district. Esquith’s lawyer, Ben Meiselas, told the district no parent had complained, nor had a student complained. LAUSD officials, ever more sensitive to classroom issues and protections of students since...

By Ellen Patten and Jens Manuel Korgstad The share of American children living in poverty has declined slightly since 2010 as the nation’s economy has improved. But the poverty rate has changed little for black children, the group most likely to be living in poverty, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau...

The LA Unified investigation of popular teacher Rafe Esquith is now focusing on the nonprofit theater group he founded in 1989, The Hobart Shakespeareans. “It looks like the bizarre accusations of abuse have been forgotten, and now they’re moving on a request to see 15 years of financial records for the Shakespearean group,” said Ben...

UTLA, the LA Unified teachers union, has been operating at a deficit for seven of the last 10 years, the union’s treasurer, Arlene Inouye, wrote in the group’s May newsletter. She said union officials approved deficit budgets for three years during the past decade, but when actual expenses were applied, the union overspent in four additional years since 2006,...

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) came out swinging, and swinging hard, when it endorsed Hillary Clinton for president over the weekend. It was the first major union to endorse any candidate in either party, and the timing of the news seemed to come “at an opportune moment for Mrs. Clinton” just as she is...

By The Editorial Board It’s time once again for solidarity on the Los Angeles Unified school board, at least in the eyes of its members. This happens every two years, when newly elected members are seated. After bruising campaigns, they all metaphorically join hands and vow to work together in unity. Meh. Board members don’t...

High-profile attorney Mark Geragos has notified LAUSD that he intends to file a class action lawsuit about the so-called “teacher jails” that could involve hundreds–and potentially thousands–of past and present teachers. The required notice for the class action lawsuit was stamped and received by the school board on June 22, and 45 days from that...

*UPDATE A burglary near an LA Unified school lead to a police chase today, with another school being put on lockdown as the result of a search for the suspects. Los Angeles school police notified the LAPD around 5:04 a.m. that multiple suspects were trying to burglarize Joseph Pomeroy Widney High School at 2302 Gramercy Place,...

By Laura Moser This week marks the closest Congress has come to replacing the widely reviled No Child Left Behind Act since it officially expired in 2007. Democrats and Republicans are squabbling over the usual issues: high-stakes testing and whether kids should be able to opt out of it; how accountable teachers and schools should be...