Parents of students at 20th Street Elementary in Central LA have unanimously approved a district proposal to turn around the low-performing school, starting next year. As a result, the local parent union is dropping plans for a school-wide take over under the state Parent Trigger law. The deal with LA Unified ensures that all of...

Comedian and actor George Lopez has started a campaign on Omaze.com to raise money for the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education, a charity that contributes to LA Unified. Anyone interested can enter a contest to go “lowriding” with Lopez around Los Angeles in a vintage lowrider, join him for a meal at one of his favorite LA...

The California Department of Education released its annual list of 1,000 underperforming schools earlier this month. The list includes 95 from LA Unified, and students attending them can now apply for an open enrollment transfer to any other public school in California for the next academic year. The list is compiled each year as a result...

The head of Parent Revolution said today that LA Unified has reversed course, lifting the ban on using the “Parent Trigger” law this year to overhaul failing district schools. “As one of Superintendent Cortines’s first moves, it’s a sign that the district will be respectful of the law,” Ben Austin, founder of the group that...

Today, available by LIVESTREAM, the seven members of LA Unified school board will meet for the first time since the high-profile resignation of Superintendent John Deasy and the selection of Ray Cortines as interim replacement. At 10:00 a.m., the board is set to hear an update on the troubled computer system, MiSiS, which, has caused management...

When California’s first set of “Parent Trigger” schools in Adelanto Unified and LA Unified were taken over in 2013, the expectation was that a once failing school could turn innovative teaching and learning methods into academic improvement. Advocates of the controversial law argued that that an overhaul was required for progress. Short of parent testimonials, advocates...

Gloria Romero, the former state senator who authored the California Parent Trigger law is asking LA Unified board president Richard Vladovic to schedule a public discussion on the district’s legal opinion that the law does not apply this year. District lawyers say the Federal waiver granted LA Unified and seven other California school districts, allowing...

* UPDATED Parent Revolution, an organization that helps parents petition for change at poor-performing schools, is disputing an LA Unified legal opinion that says the state law that gives parents that right is invalid this year. The conflict came to light in an LA Times story this morning, citing an opinion from a district lawyer...

It now appears that just the specter of a “Parent Trigger” action is enough for parents to get what they want. Lerina Cordero, mother of a first grade boy at West Athens Elementary in south Los Angeles, says parents there had been trying for years to get the school’s leadership to stop rampant bullying and...