The summer is over, and while the bickering inspired by the LAUSD’s messy finances continues among teachers, administrators and politicians, many students in the district are occupying classroom desks once again. If they’re lucky, they might even have chairs. If not, it’ll be a fight for a comfy spot leaning against the supply cupboard.

Today, Education Week featured my series on the children of immigrants in California. “Breaking Through” tells the stories of a number of naturalized immigrant children who are fighting for social ascension against a number of barriers. The stories are based in Los Angeles and the farm-worker city of Delano in the San Joaquin [...]

Yesenia Zamarripas is about to enter her sophomore year at Crenshaw High School. Her Mexican parents speak very little English, and so it’s been hard for Yesenia to keep up with her peers. Now, the pressure is mounting, and there’s no time to fall behind.

The drop-out rate for the Los Angeles Unified School District declined by 17 percent overall during the 2007-08 academic year. However, more than 12,000 African-American and Latino students failed to graduate, making up the majority of the total number of drop-outs in the district.

Angry parents gather outside John Liechty Middle School (Courtesy of NBC)

Silent Protests at Liechty Middle School

Initial reports suggested that 65 students from Liechty Middle School were denied diplomas after silently protesting against graduation speaker and LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia during the ceremony on Thursday, June 18. On Monday, 50 of those diplomas [...]

LISTEN: Inside America’s schools, a battle of perceptions is waging. Latino children and the children of immigrants are struggling to make tracks in a country with bifurcated views on immigration and deeply entrenched racial delineations.

LISTEN: The only way to unravel the dissolution of second generation Latino immigrants in Los Angeles, says Santee teacher Jose Lara, is to promote social justice education. “Multi-culturalism tends to be when we all just except each other and tolerate each other,” said Lara. “But we need more than that. We need justice.”

Although immigration policy has a tangible effect on the everyday lives of many students at Santee, it is the wider issue of race and cultural dissonance that permeates all corners of the city.

Children from working class, low-income communities already have a plethora of problems to contend with as they pursue their academic careers. But with the LAUSD facing a severe budget crunch, inner-city schools and at-risk youths will be hardest hit by dwindling resources and teacher layoffs. The result of upcoming changes to the city’s public school [...]

Jose Lara’s classroom is bright and empty on this Friday afternoon. Light falls through the large windows onto shiny desks. The room, shocked once again by the silence that follows a day’s learning, echoes the slightest sound for comfort.

Pasted on the far wall is a poster advertising “The Mexican Revolution of 1910″ with clay-colored drawings [...]