LAUSD

Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Sep 15 2011

Between the Lines

My friend, Tavis Smiley, has a new documentary out on the plight of the Black male in America.

It’s a subject that has been part of the intellectual and academic discourse for the past decade. For the last five years, it has been the No. 1 issue in public education. For the past four years, it has been a subject of intense debate in Los Angeles, which has the worst large school district in the nation, right here in Tavis’ own backyard.

Sep 12 2011

Magic Johnson-EdisonLearning Assist

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin “Magic” Johnson announced today he is partnering with a New York-based for-profit education company to help dropouts and at-risk students in failing schools in urban school districts across the country.

Magic Johnson Enterprises will join with EdisonLearning to set up dropout prevention and recovery centers for high school-age students who have already left school or are at risk of leaving and want to earn a standard high school diploma.

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Sep 8 2011

Group uses music education to aid at-risk teens

City Sound Drum and Bugle Corps is an inner-city youth program that uses performing arts as a means to attract and teach at-risk teens discipline, self-respect, and patriotism. Through the program, youth members are able to achieve their personal goals and further their education. City Sound members come from diverse segments of the Los Angeles population.

Sikivu Hutchinson  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Sep 1 2011

Suspensions of African American youth soar as the school system—and parenting—fails them.

Sitting in the sparsely filled auditorium of Gardena High School in Los Angeles at the beginning of an annual senior awards ceremony, I looked around, and wondered; where the hell are the Black parents? I was attending the ceremony to see students from my Women’s Leadership Project program—the majority of whom are African American and en route to four-year colleges—receive much-deserved awards for service and academic achievement. 

Aug 31 2011

United Teachers Los Angeles must approve change

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Applicants from the district will receive first consideration to operate schools under a policy change unanimously approved by the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education and criticized by the head of the California Charter Schools Association.

Under the previous policy, outside teams, such as charter school operators and nonprofit groups, could compete with in-district teams of teachers and educators to operate new campuses and existing, chronically low-performing schools.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.