*UPDATE Nearly three months after missing a self-imposed deadline, LA Unified is finally close to filling 10 positions to help thousands of native English speakers who struggle to learn academic English. With nine hired, there’s one to go. The school board passed the “Strengthen Support for Standard English Learners” resolution last June and devised a plan...

Sylvia Rousseau, the temporary liaison for LA Unified School District 1, is leaving her post on a high note. Throughout her four-month tenure, Rousseau has been an avid advocate for the district’s Standard English Learners, a group of “invisible” students, as she calls them, who consistently perform well below grade level on all types of...

After less than two months on her temporary position as liaison for LA Unified’s District 1, Sylvia Rousseau says she’s figured out how to improve the academic performance of the most troubled schools: zero in on what’s called Standard English Learners. Rousseau, a USC professor and former local superintendent in the district who was appointed...

Fresh off his (unsuccessful) effort to get a District 1 voice onto the LA Unified school board right away, trustee Steve Zimmer is returning to the monthly board meeting tomorrow with a plan that would lead to another voice with influence on the board: Students. Zimmer is introducing a measure — the Student Engagement and...