By Howard Blume As many as three-quarters of Los Angeles 10th-graders are at risk of being denied diplomas by graduation because they are not on track to meet rigorous new college prep class requirements. This has prompted some in the L.A. Unified School District, including Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, to suggest reconsidering the requirements, which...

* UPDATED Two weeks from the May 19 runoff elections, outside money continues to pour in for two incumbents on the LA Unified board — Tamar Galatzan in District 3 and President Richard Vladovic in District 7. A third incumbent — Bennett Kayser in District 5 — still trails far behind his challenger, Ref Rodriguez....

More than 158,000 students are currently on waiting lists to get into charter schools in the state, according to an estimate released by the California Charter Schools Association. The number is a record high. “Evidence over the past five years argues that the public has never been more supportive of charter public schools than they...

The HBO show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” took on the issue of standardized tests on Sunday, criticizing the pressure it creates for students, teachers and administrators. Oliver made no secret of where he stood, pointing out that some test booklets include instructions on what a teacher should do if an anxious student vomits...

By Eryn Brown and Teresa Watanabe Since state laws made it harder for California elementary school kids to get their hands on sugary drinks and junk food snacks on campus, researchers found, students’ risk of becoming overweight or obese fell slightly — but mostly if they came from higher-income neighborhoods. Examining body mass index measurements...

LA Unified school board members will be busy this week in a series of committee meetings as a prelude to the board’s monthly meeting next week. The Successful School Climate Committee, chaired by Monica Garcia, will be gathering tomorrow to discuss the implementation of the Student Bill of Rights. The district passed the new set...

LA Unified is on the brink of cutting a highly-successful preschool program for some of the district’s poorest children at the same time that members of the California state assembly are trying to expand early education programs for all low-income pre-Kindergarten students. The district’s School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP) is just one of a...

By Patricia Levesque and Kevin Welner | New York Times It is much easier to correctly identify a problem than to come up with a workable solution. When No Child Left Behind was signed into law in 2002, the United States did indeed have a problem — one that was identified, at least partially, by...

A few hours on a Saturday afternoon at a Special Olympics event over 30 years ago changed the course of Teri Hayden’s life, and now it looks as if those few hours have changed the lives of hundreds of disabled student athletes at LA Unified. After several years of pitches and proposals from Hayden —...

* UPDATED The state’s two teachers unions — the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers — filed their appeal today in the landmark education case they lost last year, Vergara v. California. The lower court ruling declared unconstitutional state laws that govern teacher seniority, dismissal and layoffs. The unions called the lawsuit...