There’s been heightened awareness and activism in recent years surrounding the discipline gap, or the occurrence that minorities — black males in particular — are disproportionately suspended or expelled relative to other racial and gender subgroups. But what’s received less attention are some of the other surprising trends embedded deep in data out of California....

*Updated Aug. 8 Between 2011 and 2017, out-of-school suspensions in California fell 46 percent, and the rate of suspensions dropped by more than a third. That students are suspended less frequently is welcome news for civil rights advocates who’ve long been concerned about the fact that certain groups — black students, foster youth, and students...

*Updated July 27 Fewer than half of California’s high school graduates last year met the minimum requirements for the state’s public universities, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Education. That’s despite what the department calls a “significant upward trend” in graduation rates this decade. But that upward trend ended with Thursday’s...

*Updated July 26 The ouster of Los Angeles Unified School District board member Ref Rodriguez — who resigned Monday after pleading guilty to money-laundering charges — means the remaining board members must now decide when and how to replace him. They have 60 days to decide a path forward, and the clock is ticking. Right...

It’s official: Los Angeles Unified’s Ref Rodriguez is out. Early Monday, the embattled school board member pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy and four misdemeanor counts for making campaign contributions in another person’s name. As part of a deal with prosecutors, he agreed to immediately resign from office. Rodriguez won’t serve any jail...

Pedro Terán knew what he was getting into. Terán, 33, was living in Saltillo, Mexico, two years ago when his sister posted an ad on Facebook that said the Dallas Independent School District was looking for teachers. The district had sent recruiters to Monterrey, about an hour from Terán’s home, to find educators to help...

*UPDATE: California’s ESSA plan was approved on July 12, the day after it was submitted. After nearly a year of discussion and three rounds of revisions, California’s Board of Education on Wednesday approved its final version of its state accountability plan known as ESSA, to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Here are...

At Tuesday’s annual meeting of the LA Unified school board, Mónica García was elected to another term as president and a proposed parcel tax that would have generated $500 million a year for the cash-strapped district failed to garner enough support to make the November ballot. After a lengthy discussion — during which some board...

*Updated June 14 While the nation is anxiously watching for a decision on Janus v. AFSCME, a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that could determine whether government unions can continue to charge non-members a fee for representing them, a federal appeals court in California tossed out a case Monday that could have had even...

With the school reform-minded candidate knocked out of the race for California governor, and two remaining candidates on separate sides of the aisle, hot-button issues like immigration are likely to overshadow education in the months leading up to November’s general election. Now, the focus and energy around education will likely shift to the nonpartisan race...