*UPDATED Palms Middle School Principal Derek Moriuchi jokes with fellow administrators that one must be “kind of special” to want to teach middle schoolers. “They do do weird things and their hormones are all over the place,” he said. “But we get that.” Palms Middle School, on the westside of Los Angeles, is among the...

When Principals Maria Ozaeta and Anita Maxon interviewed prospective teachers this summer for the Dr. Julian Nava Learning Academy, the one question they repeatedly asked themselves was: Does this teacher have a heart? The pilot school campus has had challenges in the last couple of years, teacher turnover being one. They hired 11 brand new...

(Click on the red dot on the map for the school name and its rankings.) *UPDATED LA Unified middle schools rank far behind their elementary and high school counterparts and trail middle schools throughout the state, an LA School Report analysis of statewide school ranking data from California Charter Schools Association has found. And in...

Middle school enrollment has consistently declined over the past 10 years in district schools. One school lost 858 students. But charters and magnet programs are growing.  LA Unified is attempting to quell the enrollment drop-off as 133,000 students have left the district since 2006-07 and middle schools have emerged as a key battleground. During the past 10 years, the...

The district’s best teachers should be teaching at struggling schools, some LA Unified school board members suggested last week, with at least one board member calling for a future discussion on the issue. The comments were made during a Committee of the Whole meeting last week on how the district can improve and “reimagine” middle school,...

Despite for the first time taking into consideration the performance of subgroups like English learners, students with disabilities and those from low-income families, there is still a wide gulf between the top and bottom LA Unified middle schools at LA Unified when it comes to their score on the California Office to Reform Education’s (CORE)...