On the day she made a decision leading to suspension from her “dream” journalism teaching job at an L.A. Unified high school named for slain reporter Daniel Pearl, Adriana Chavira had no second thoughts and taught her classes as usual. But the chain of events stemming from publication of a November, 2021 student newspaper article...

In yet another data point on missed learning during the pandemic, ACT scores from this year’s high school graduates dropped to their lowest level in three decades, according to a report released Wednesday. Exam-takers averaged 19.8 out of a possible 36 total points on the college admissions test, the first time since 1991 that nationwide results dipped...

After the police in more than a dozen South Carolina communities fielded calls last week alerting them to active school shootings, officers rushed to campuses where students and educators hid in fear for their lives. Ever since the mass school shooting in May at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school, families nationwide have been on high...

Determined to provide herself with a quality education in the 1980s when opportunities for Latino students were limited, a young Frances Baez endured more than two hour bus rides from her Boyle Heights neighborhood to a LAUSD affiliated charter school in Pacific Palisades.  “I had to take a bus and go across the city to...

Imagine you are making a cake for a loved one and serving it later in the day. You don’t have a lot of time. Do you opt for the tried-and-true family recipe or just put together the key ingredients — some flour, eggs, butter and baking soda — until it feels right? Schools have a...

It is a desperate plea from a father seeking information about his missing son. Morris Jenis Jr.’s father knew only his son, a Native American student at the Genoa Indian School in Nebraska 100 years ago, had not been seen in a year. Morris ran away from the school in 1921 — “deserted,” according to...

For Christie Pesicka, the Los Angeles Unified School District cyberattack hits home. During “The Interview” hack in 2014, Pesicka was one of thousands of Sony Pictures employees that had their private information exposed in the midst of aggressive attacks by a North Korean hacker group. Now, as a mom, Pesicka worries about protecting her son...

Enrollment in Los Angeles Unified schools has been dipping for years, declining even more during the pandemic — but which schools saw the biggest drops and why? The enrollment drop of close to 6% during the pandemic came from a concoction of factors including families moving out of state, students switching to non-LAUSD schools with...

It’s Hispanic Heritage Month and the signs and advertisements celebrating the culture are abundant. I feel, as I often do this time of year, mixed emotions. As a Mexican-American educator, I understand the good intentions behind the signs; celebrating diversity and honoring different cultures should be applauded. But if we really want to celebrate the...

Updated, Oct. 4 The Vice Society ransomware gang reportedly published over the weekend a trove of sensitive student records from the Los Angeles school district. The data was posted to the gang’s dark-web “leak site,” after education leaders refused to pay — and at first even acknowledge — a ransom. Yet in a press conference...