LA School Report

This interview is one in a series spotlighting Los Angeles teachers, their unique and innovative classroom approaches, and their thoughts on how the education system can better support teachers in guiding students to success. Michelle Torres never planned to become a teacher but her own struggles as a college student made her realize that through...

A child’s educational foundation begins at home — no matter what that house may look like. Socioeconomic class and racial identity do not determine how committed parents are to their child’s success, because families and dedicated school leaders come in all colors and tax brackets. But let’s be real: Being white and wealthy does open...

In a Nov. 4 commentary on LA School Report, Jeimee Estrada, the executive director of Educators for Excellence, presents a rational and compelling set of reasons why growth data should be the basis for measuring schools and students. Especially important is her focus on how the use of growth data better serves students on the...

“Why can’t we just teach kids to add numbers anymore? It seems like 2 + 2 doesn’t equal 4 these days.” As an educator, I have encountered this conversation in parent-teacher conferences, with my chiropractor, and numerous times at parties and on airplanes, to name just a few occasions. People want to know why students...

After years of growth, the future of California’s charter sector is in doubt. With the passage of Assembly Bill 1505, which places numerous restrictions on the expansion and operation of charter schools in the Golden State, opponents of charters have claimed their biggest prize since the 2016 election when President Donald Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, replaced...

This interview is one in a series spotlighting Los Angeles teachers, their unique and innovative classroom approaches, and their thoughts on how the education system can better support teachers in guiding students to success. Teaching low-income Latino students in East Los Angeles didn’t happen by chance for Mercedes Jimenez, a third-grade teacher at KIPP Iluminar...

Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared during oral arguments Tuesday to side with the Trump administration’s efforts to terminate a program that protects some 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as young children. The case could deal a hard blow to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and put its...

The release of the Nation’s Report Card last week was the exclamation point following a long line of 2018-19 state exam results that came out across the country in the last few months. There are three things I expect to hear every year around this time: ●  We don’t even need to see the results. You...

The teaching shortage in one stretch of rural California is so bad that 600 educators are licensed through emergency credentials. The nearest public universities with teaching programs are 50 and 80 miles away. But a new nearly $7 million federal grant is tapping both online learning and year-long classroom experience to train teachers to bolster...

Anyone paying half-attention to schools knows about the acronym STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, the four pillars supporting a career-ready future for students. There’s hardly another term in the education world that’s as commonly referenced. But when strung together, just what do those four letters — or five if you’re observing National STEM/STEAM Day tomorrow...