After receiving one of the worst rankings over four years, California moved up a notch this year in the federal government’s evaluation of its special education efforts. As one of three states in 2014 that received a “needs intervention” ranking in special education from the U.S. Department of Education, California this year jumped one level, to...

Taking over as new president of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA), Juan Flecha says the time has come to take advantage of an improving economy and restore support staff and janitors at LA Unified schools. In an interview with LA School Report, Flecha outlined plans he has for the 3,000 certificated and classified administrators...

In just the first week of July, the number of library aide positions at LAUSD being “separated” from the district was reduced to 14 from 22. Superintendent Ramon Cortines is trying to find ways to save the remaining positions before the school year begins next month. “These 14 ladies got notices that say they are...

By Katherine Reynolds Lewis Leigh Robinson was out for a lunchtime walk one brisk day during the spring of 2013 when a call came from the principal at her school. Will, a third-grader with a history of acting up in class, was flipping out on the playground. He’d taken off his belt and was flailing it around...

Add LA Unified to the list of organizations that wants nothing to do with businessman and presidential candidate Donald Trump. The district’s Beyond the Bell branch said today it will not hold the eighth-annual Beyond the Bell Golf Classic, which was scheduled for Nov. 23, at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. The...

A petition inspired by UTLA social justice activist Jose Lara is calling for the immediate removal of the name D.W. Griffith from an East Los Angeles middle school because his 1915 film, “The Birth of a Nation,” celebrated the Ku Klux Klan. The demand follows nationwide calls for the removal of Confederate flags from public spaces in the aftermath of...

A new poll shows that Americans strongly support the idea of school vouchers, something that 24 states — not including California — offer in some version. The Schooling in America Survey also found that most American’s disapprove of the federal government’s handing of education even while they lack a basic understanding of how much the country spends...

A group of about 170 parents is organizing to keep LA Unified from cutting a Mandarin Immersion program in Mar Vista by raising money and hiring consultants and lobbyists to make their case with members of the board and their staffs. “It’s not over,” parent Jenn Pullen, an organizer of the group, Parents for Progressive Education, told LA School...

By Matt Collette Cheryl Schafer was a veteran math teacher by the time Common Core arrived in New York back in 2010. It was apparent to her almost immediately that teachers didn’t have the materials they needed to teach to the new national standards. Take a middle school staple like the Pythagorean Theorem: “One text series had...

Jose Lara, a prominent leader of the LA teachers union, UTLA, was recently named the 2015 Social Justice Activist of the Year by the National Education Association (NEA). Lara helped lead a successful grassroots effort to get the LA Unified school board to adopt ethnic studies as a graduation requirement. He is vice president of the El...