LA Unified students showed significant gains in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, according to data released today. Fourth-grade students recorded the highest gain – four points— among 21 urban school systems since 2011; fourth-graders also scored higher in math, and eighth-graders scored higher in reading. “I’m proud of the performance of our youth,” Superintendent...

The committee that oversees how LA Unified spends bond money today recommended that the district school board scale back the size of the next phase of iPad distribution. In rejecting the latest proposal from Superintendent John Deasy, the School Construction Bond Citizens’ Oversight Committee voted to reduce the number of iPads bought, to 38,535 from...

It’s the other delay yesterday that portends long-term consequences for LA Unified students. In the latest sign of the deep divide on the district school board, the members voted to hold off the next phase of the iPad program, rather than approve a carefully crafted compromise that the board had hammered out, and passed, at...

An aerial view of Saturn Elementary School in Mid City reveals a giant asphalt rectangle – about 70,000 square feet – taking up two-thirds of a city block. There’s one tree on the playground, and the only patch of grass runs along the front of the school. It’s a bleak portrait of an era when...

Since becoming Mayor Eric Garcetti’s top education advisor four months ago, Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana has made few public appearances but, today, for the first time, the 30-year educator took center stage alongside LA Unified officials. She was one of several speakers at the UCLA Community School in the Robert F. Kennedy Complex, kicking-off...

The California Charter Schools Association, or CCSA, has become the latest group pushing LA Unified leadership to hold an election to fill the seat left open by the sudden death of board member Marguerite LaMotte. As the school board continues to weigh the options of appointing a replacement or staging a special election — stakeholders around...

If history is any guide, a school board election is in the offing. As officials at the LA Unified school board scramble to work out options with the city and county on how best to fill the school board seat left vacant last week by the sudden death of longtime member Marguerite LaMotte, they are...

A day after the death of the LA Unified school board’s only African American member, Marguerite LaMotte, community leaders with ties to her south Los Angeles district began speaking out about how to fill the vacancy and who should fill it. “Unfortunately in these moments there is no opportunity to wait,” U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass...

With the filing deadline tomorrow, a new candidate has emerged to challenge Warren Fletcher as president of UTLA. Kevin Mottus, who frequently appears at LA Unified school board meetings to warn of adverse health effects of wireless digital devices, is the latest among three challengers to file for running, according to the union’s most recent...