Maria Ruiz says she has had enough of the inequality present at Eastside schools.

Her son, a Roosevelt High School student, has been in the English Learner program for over five years, something she says, could have been prevented if schools had adequate resources available to move these students on.

“These are the students who are the most disenfranchised and in most need of additional resources,” said Ruiz.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday praised the L.A. Board of Education and Supt. John Deasy for coming to an agreement for the superintendent to remain on the job, but insisted they smooth over their strained relationship and work together going forward.

Luego de una reunión a puertas cerradas de casi 7 horas, la junta directiva del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Angeles (LAUSD) ratificó a John Deasy como superintendente del distrito hasta junio del 2016, luego de días de fuerte especulación sobre su posible renuncia.

La mayoría de sus siete miembros dio a Deasy una evaluación “satisfactoria” durante su evaluación anual, que fue esperada con una gran anticipación.

“Agradezco a la junta por las honestas conversaciones, para que podamos trabajar juntos en sacar de la pobreza a la juventud de esta maravillosa ciudad”, fueron las primeras palabras de Deasy, después de un rotundo silencio sobre los rumores de su renuncia,  que surgieran desde el jueves pasado, a raíz de que el diario Los Angeles Times reportara sus intenciones de dejar el puesto de más alto rango en el segundo distrito más grande del país.

La coalición de organizaciones comunitarias Promesa Boyle Heights, celebró esta semana, muy a su estilo, con tamales y champurrado, los logros alcanzados en el progreso de la juventud de este vecindario al Este de Los Ángeles.

Desde el 2010, la coalición integrada por Innercity Struggle, Proyecto Pastoral, East LA Community Corporation, Communities In Schools, y más de otra docena de organizaciones, han venido implementando iniciativas que buscan mejorar las condiciones de vida, y particularmente la educación de unos 20 mil residentes de Boyle Heights.

The Los Angeles Unified school board voted Tuesday to ban suspensions of defiant students, directing officials to use alternative disciplinary practices instead.

Los Angeles Unified has become the first school district in the state to ban defiance as grounds for suspension.

LOS ANGELES—Damien Valentine was suspended from school for the first time as a seventh-grader in South Central Los Angeles, after arguing with a math teacher who had asked him to change seats.

Mr. Valentine, now a 16-year-old sophomore, said he was sent home for a day-and-a-half for "willful defiance," a term encompassing a variety of misbehavior that California schools can use as reason to remove students from the classroom.

This week, the Los Angeles Unified School District—the second-largest in the nation—decided to end the practice of suspending or expelling students for "willful defiance," starting this fall. District officials said the practice disproportionately affects minority students' education and leads to more disciplinary problems for students down the line.

by the district's school board "ends a policy that failed to keep our students learning or our streets safe," said district board member Nury Martinez.

On March 15^th, 2013, InnerCity Struggle hosted a lunch-time event at Mendez Learning Center in Boyle Heights to raise awareness about Restorative Justice policies. Friday’s event was part of an Educational Justice Week program where youth organizers from InnerCity Struggle have conducted classroom workshops to students at Mendez Learning Center focused on the impacts of the ‘school to prison pipeline’ and to promote higher education.

Student leaders of InnerCity Struggle’s youth component, United Students, are working on a “School Climate Student Bill of Rights” campaign with a coalition of Los Angeles County organizations called Brothers, Sons, Selves (BSS). The campaign is focused on reducing the rate of suspensions and expulsions that disproportionately affect young students of color, particularly young men of color.

Los 2,900 estudiantes que conforman el cuerpo estudiantil de la legendaria preparatoria Roosevelt del Este de Los Ángeles, debaten actualmente su futuro.

Después de haber luchado por años por reducir la sobrepoblación estudiantil y buscar maneras de elevar el nivel académico que por décadas dejaba mucho que desear, en el ciclo escolar 2010-2011, bajo la dirección de la Partnership for Los Ángeles Schools (PLAS), esta escuela fue dividida en 7 pequeñas escuelas independientes.

I get a lot of mixed feedback when I say that adults need to learn to speak openly about race with young children. They are afraid of spoiling their childhood or crushing their natural curiosities. However, when we look at the root causes of racial inequity in this country, we see that they grow out of the lessons we learn in our earliest years. In fact, honest conversations about race have a positive impact on children, honoring their observations and lived experiences, and better preparing them to recognize and undo social injustice in their lives. Then, why don’t we do it more?

The truth is that most of us adults have incomplete and competing ideas about the role of race in our own lives. Young children’s comments often illuminate theuncomfortable gap between our good intentions and the thorny truths of the world.