The man who accused former Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines of sexually harassing him has resigned from his job at the school district in exchange for $93,000. Scot Graham, 59, had filed four lawsuits against the L.A. Unified School District and against Cortines, a widely respected educator...
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is embarking on a $53-million expansion by adding a wing with architectural lines evoking the shape of a blue whale and featuring an “immersive theater” with a high-definition projection system and 130-foot-long, 180-degree curved screen designed to simulate...
Did a high-ranking UC Berkeley official go easy on a law school dean accused of sexual harassment in order to secure a faculty appointment for himself? No way, said Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks. "This is absolutely untrue," Dirks said in a statement Friday. His comments follow the revelation...
To the editor: William Doyle's piece on quality schools should be required reading for all the publishers, pundits and politicians who now determine how our nation's schools should be run. To understand the breadth of Finland's renaissance in education, one must consider how the Finns get “good...
Granada Hills Charter High School, the defending national champion in the academic decathlon, continued its march toward another title Sunday with a victory in the statewide contest. The San Fernando Valley school beat out 68 teams in the three-day California Academic Decathlon in Sacramento. The...
John B. King Jr. is like no previous U.S. secretary of Education: He's half-black and half-Puerto Rican, and in his (successful) admissions essay to Harvard, he had to explain why he got kicked out of Phillips Academy Andover, the prestigious Massachusetts high school. King's mother suffered a...
To the editor: I am a former school district trustee, teacher of students and parent of three sons, and Sarah Carr's observations come close to my own on educational improvement. ("Making it easier to fire teachers won't fix American education," Opinion, March 15) However, retention of outstanding...
To the editor: The Times complains that a report including a Statement of Principles Against Intolerance to be considered by the University of California Board of Regents “goes dangerously astray: It conflates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.” However, it is not the report that conflates the two,...
Theater director Martin Acosta’s words nearly leaped off the program: “There’s a silent tragedy crossing my country, Mexico.” That tragedy would be the many thousands of Central American teens and children escaping violence in their home countries and making the dangerous journey to the U.S. alone,...
With sexual harassment controversies roiling multiple campuses in the University of California system, UC President Janet Napolitano on Friday announced new measures designed to prevent future incidents and ensure that punishments, when necessary, are uniform system-wide.In an open letter addressed...
It was just before October that physicians across the nation began warning their patients of a potentially nasty flu season. For much of winter, however, California appeared to have dodged a bullet. It seemed to be faring better than many other states. On Friday, California's good fortune was confirmed...
A 63-year-old public health professor at Loma Linda University was arrested Thursday on suspicion of sexual battery during a meeting with a student in his office, authorities said. Mahmood G. Ghamsary, an associate professor who previously directed the private university's biostatistics program,...
For the first time in 15 years, California has no real accountability system for schools. The state's Academic Performance Index, which judged student progress mainly by test scores, was washed away in the switch to Common Core standards, and the shape of whatever will replace it is fuzzy. The...
The Harvard education professor Howard Gardner once advised Americans, “Learn from Finland, which has the most effective schools and which does just about the opposite of what we are doing in the United States.” Following his recommendation, I enrolled my 7-year-old son in a primary school in Joensuu,...
A man who stabbed four people at UC Merced last year before he was fatally shot by police appears to have been inspired by the militant group Islamic State but acted alone, the FBI said Thursday.The FBI released a statement saying a review of Faisal Mohammad’s electronic devices found that he drew...
Since Arne Duncan left his job as U.S. secretary of Education in December, a problem has been nagging him: the high numbers of kids dropping out of school, joining gangs and getting killed in his city, Chicago. So he’s taken on a new job, he said Thursday, that will help him find opportunities...
The Los Angeles Chapter of the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame has named a new high school football coaches award after Los Angeles Times sportswriter Eric Sondheimer. The first recipient of the award is Gregg Barden, coach at Los Angeles' Belmont High. Barden will be honored Friday night...
Two people were sent to the hospital and listed in critical condition Thursday morning after their car collided with a Los Angeles Unified school bus in Watts, authorities said. The two vehicles crashed near East 103rd Street and Compton Avenue, a short distance away from Compton Avenue Elementary...
In a first for the nation, April 24 will be officially designated "Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day" in the Glendale Unified School District after a unanimous vote by school board members on Tuesday. Glendale Unified is the first school district in the country to establish a day in remembrance...
A Department of Justice immigration judge recently made headlines for testifying that 3- and 4-year-old migrant children could be taught immigration law and could competently represent themselves in court.“You can do a fair hearing,” said Judge Jack H. Weil. “[Children] get it. It's not the most...
Two weeks after the beating of Rodney King, a Korean-born shopkeeper shot a 15-year-old black girl named Latasha Harlins in the back of her head in a dispute over a bottle of orange juice. Unlike King, the teen did not live to tell about it. The two racially charged incidents sparked outrage in...
Every day teachers nationwide balance the tension between instructing attentive students and dealing fairly with those who disrupt classes. A study released late Wednesday reports that charter schools across the country suspended students at a higher rate than traditional public schools. But the...
For almost a year, the University of California has been struggling to address complaints that campus protests against Israel have crossed the line into harassment of Jewish students, but to respond in a way that wouldn't undermine the university's commitment to free speech. The latest effort,...
Two students at Palisades Charter High School were arrested in connection with racist graffiti that was spray-painted on a sign and an iconic mural at the Westside campus, police said late Tuesday. Both students are under the age of 18 and were released to their parents, the Los Angeles Police...
South Los Angeles parents who give their children's elementary school an “F” are exploring legal recourse after the L.A. Unified School District announced on Saturday that a state law allowing parents to take over failing schools does not apply to the district. In rejecting the petition concerning...
A comprehensive new study of measles and pertussis outbreaks in the United States suggests that adults’ reluctance or refusal to vaccinate themselves and their children has played a key role in the resurgence of diseases that had been largely eradicated in this country. In an analysis published...