Racism and stereotypes continue to plague LA Unified, and it’s up to leaders to change that, according to a UCLA professor who is holding seminars at some schools. Tyrone C. Howard, associate dean for equity and inclusion at UCLA’s graduate school of education and information studies, spoke to the Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Equity Committee...

LA Unified’s chief academic officer came before board members Tuesday with an upbeat-titled report called “Breaking Our Own Records,” but instead of resting on the improvement in overall test scores, the four school board members in attendance grilled her for nearly two hours throwing out terms like “frustrating,” “depressing” and “disappointing” and saying the district is...

While the latest academic reports from the LA Unified school district were positive overall, school board President Steve Zimmer expressed frustration at some of the data presented at Tuesday’s board meeting and said he foresees potential problems ahead. Zimmer asked for a breakdown of how many students are graduating with D grades and in what subjects. “How many...

  California’s largest coalition of community colleges is finalizing two new programs with the nation’s second-largest school district to give LA Unified students a free year of college tuition and encourage them to enroll in college classes while still in high school. The details are expected to be announced in September, with the goal of offering...

  After studying technology issues for more than a year, an LA Unified task force this week offered their ideas for the district after the botched iPad debacle that was supposed to result in one computer device in every student’s hands. The price tag would be $311 million for “a 1:1 environment,” providing every student with a tablet...

LA Unified increased its official graduation rate to a new high last school year, with 72.2 percent of students receiving a diploma, the district announced this week. The number is a two-point increase over the previous year, which was also a record high. Since 2009-10, when the state began using four-year cohort rates as the official...

Teachers were praised at a committee meeting Tuesday by LA Unified’s Chief Academic Officer Frances Gipson, honoring this week of celebrating educators, national Teacher Appreciation Week. “We want to celebrate our teachers, as this is Teacher Appreciation Day, and I want to mark that some of us in this room do not have credentials, but we...

While LA Unified’s projected graduation rate continues to tick up this spring as seniors complete extra credit recovery courses to make up those they previously failed, 30 percent of those the district considers “on track” for graduation currently aren’t because they are failing at least one A through G class. To be labeled “on track” a...

In the extensive U.S. News & World Report ranking of all the public high schools in the country, LA’s top 10 include four independent charters, three magnets and three traditional schools. The Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies was the top-ranked LA school and the only LA Unified school in California’s top 20. It was 18th...

LA Unified announced this month that the district may graduate 80 percent of its seniors this year, a record high, but a growing number of critics say that record is suspect because online credit recovery courses are largely responsible for the achievement. The news of the potentially record-breaking graduation rate came mere weeks after a projection in...