In one of its largest efforts to get students back on track academically, Los Angeles Unified is offering students an optional two additional days of learning and catch-up over winter break next week. But teachers and families say they’re uncertain about how these days will unfold and whether the plan will really help students. Some educators and families argue that the extra days of instruction won’t do much to catch students up academically, especially ...

Do you count on EdSource’s education coverage? If so, please make your donation today to keep us going without a paywall or ads. As ransomware attacks continue to target education systems, school districts across California and the nation are trying to figure out how to best reduce the risk and protect their data and information technology. “It’s not a question of if a school system will experience a cybersecurity incident. It’s only a matter of when,” said cybersecurity expert Doug Levin, the ...

For Eduardo, early doses of pandemic reality hit him back on March 11: The NBA season was canceled, Tom Hanks got sick and the University of Southern California extended its remote learning plan. The coronavirus crisis was just catching fire -- fear was growing quickly around the United States as the number of reported cases passed 1,200. Two months later, Eduardo, 20, remembers the day he left the USC campus and boarded a train for home, anxiously keeping his distance from other passengers as it rolled south from Los Angeles to San Diego. ...

Four boroughs’ rejections of a proposal to replace Rikers Island with community jails represent setbacks to years of deliberations over what to do about the notoriously dangerous and overcrowded Rikers complex. Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to replace Rikers Island with smaller jails in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx, in part to move prisoners closer to their homes. But the plan is facing intense backlash from residents after community boards soundly rejected the city’s proposal. ...