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Teacher Spotlight: Alliance’s Molly Carmody on how a companion dog is bringing emotional support to her students and breaking down learning barriers in her special education classroom
This interview is one in a series spotlighting Los Angeles teachers, their unique and innovative classroom approaches, and their thoughts on how the education system can better support teachers in guiding students to success. Early in her career as a special education teacher, Molly Carmody knew her most vulnerable students needed additional support in the classroom....
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | August 14, 2019
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Schools keep punishing girls — especially students of color — who report sexual assaults, and the Trump administration’s Title IX reforms won’t stop it
This article was produced in partnership with The74Million.org Early in the morning on Nov. 7, 2017, a teacher noticed a 14-year-old girl crying in the hallway at Carol City High School in Miami-Dade County. The girl, who was later referred to in court papers as Jane Doe, reportedly told the teacher, “I think I was...
By Tyler Kingkade | August 14, 2019
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Kahlenberg: School segregation isn’t a big issue in L.A. — but it should be. N.Y. and Chicago are working to integrate their schools, and L.A. should, too. Gonez’s proposal is a good first step
In the first Democratic presidential debate, the dispute between Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris over school desegregation pivoted to California. On the defensive for his past opposition to mandatory busing, Biden noted that as California’s attorney general, Harris did nothing to desegregate the state’s schools. The same could be said of most...
By Richard Kahlenberg | August 12, 2019
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‘Nudging’ students to college matriculation: How KIPP schools are using text messages to combat summer melt and ensure alumni make it to their first day on campus
While cell phones in the classroom can detract from student learning, one school program is taking advantage of the fact that a generation of digital natives can’t stay off their phones. KIPP Public Charter Schools, a national charter school network of more than 200 schools, rolled out the National Nudge Texting Pilot this summer. The...
By Lauren Costantino | August 12, 2019
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Teacher Spotlight: Mendez High’s Alicia Morris on her ‘Computer Science for All’ initiative and letting innovation take place by ‘not being so risk-averse’
This interview is one in a series spotlighting Los Angeles teachers, their unique and innovative classroom approaches, and their thoughts on how the education system can better support teachers in guiding students to success. Alicia Morris’s career as a production auditor in Hollywood was in full swing when she became a parent and decided to switch...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | August 7, 2019
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Antonucci: 19,000 state university faculty members withdraw from California Teachers Association
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The California Faculty Association, which represents some 19,000 employees of the California State University system, abruptly ended its affiliation with both the California Teachers Association and National Education Association, a relationship that began in 1981. It was by far the largest secession of a union...
By Mike Antonucci | August 7, 2019
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Report: As tuition rises, how private schools and microschools are working to increase access for low- and middle-income families
More than 5 million students in the U.S. attend 35,000 private K-12 schools, but recent changes to the types of schools that remain open mean there are fewer affordable options for low- and middle-income parents who want a private education for their children. Many Catholic schools, which historically have sought to educate students from low-...
By Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters | August 7, 2019
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‘We’ve got a real crisis:’ Half of U.S. teachers have considered leaving profession, PDK poll finds
Half of the nation’s teachers have seriously considered quitting in recent years, amid concerns about low pay, stress and lack of respect, a new poll finds. “We’ve got a real crisis going on,” said Joshua P. Starr, CEO of PDK International, the teachers’ professional association that conducts the annual poll. “There’s absolutely a real issue,...
By Carolyn Phenicie | August 5, 2019
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What’s an emotion scientist? Inside the new concept shaping social-emotional learning
When Nilda Irizarry was a sophomore in her Springfield, Massachusetts, high school, she didn’t raise her hand and she didn’t participate in class discussions. Although she loved learning, she was certain she didn’t fit in. But her teacher Patricia Gardner saw something very different. One day, she pulled Irizarry aside and asked why she didn’t...
By Kate Stringer | August 5, 2019
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Jordan: What LeBron James can teach us about chronic absenteeism — and what schools can do about it
Amid the fanfare over the public school that NBA star LeBron James opened last year in Akron, Ohio, came a poignant interview acknowledging a problem he faced as a student: chronic absenteeism. Moving from home to home with his mother, living across town from his school with no car or bus route to get him...
By Phyllis W. Jordan | August 5, 2019