In an attempt to thwart plummeting graduation rates, the LA Unified school board unanimously approved a resolution yesterday easing high school graduation requirements and subsequently launched another districtwide study of A-G implementation. But not before sponsors agreed to last-minute changes and the superintendent pledged to enact an “immediate intervention” plan. While the previous version of...

By The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board California’s high school exit exam is certainly due for revision. The test, which requires high school graduates to demonstrate reasonably proficient reading and math skills to graduate, is out of step with the newly adopted Common Core standards, and aligning it with the new curriculum is important. But...

Amid a suddenly contentious environment, the Ethnic Studies Advisory Board met last week with a lot of new questions in front of it and the LA Unified school board was set to discuss the issue today. When the LA Unified school board voted in the fall to make ethnic studies a requirement for high school...

By Sandy Banks What if you could create your dream school for your kids, one that’s high-tech and hands-on; diverse and genteel; an urban beehive of creativity with a suburban sense of security? That’s what a group of young upscale parents in South Park set out to do three years ago. They loved their neighborhood’s...

The state of California faired poorly in a new report from the Education Law Center that grades states on how fair their educational funding system is in regard to providing extra funding for low-income districts. However, the report is based on data from 2012, before the state enacted the groundbreaking Local Control Funding Formula and...

School may be out for students and teachers but LA Unified School board members still have a lot of work ahead of them at tomorrow’s board meeting with several proposals intended to boost (or at least maintain) districtwide graduation rates. At the top of the list is a resolution to ease rigorous graduation requirements and...

By Elissa Nadworny  The national graduation rate is at an all-time high — 81 percent. It was such big news, President Obama touted it in this year’s State of the Union address. That got us thinking: What’s the story behind that 81 percent? Working with a team of reporters in 14 states, we set off...

Shuttling teachers between two campuses requires impeccable organization and skillful time management, and Guillermina Jauregui can’t wait for the day when she won’t have to do either anymore. That day could come at some point in 2019 if the LA Unified School Board decides next week to approve a new construction project to expand the...

School may be out for the summer, but things are not cooling down for the LA Unified school board as no less than three organizations are planing rallies or protests at Tuesday’s scheduled board meeting. The LA teachers union, UTLA, the Ethnic Studies Now Coalition and a conglomerate of organizations in favor of the district...

By Michele Siqueiros How does the daughter of a seamstress with a sixth grade education get to college?  For me, it was luck. As a good student I worked hard in school, but had I not been lucky in high school to be assigned the A-G high school courses required for consideration to the University of...