LAUSD Enrollment Drops Yet Again But There Are Signs Of Hope, Plus A Preview Of Annual Test Scores
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s student enrollment numbers are down again this school year — but not by as much as district leaders expected, a hopeful sign after two straight years of alarming drops in the wake of the pandemic.
The new figures district officials released Tuesday suggest that many of the same broader demographic forces continue to batter LAUSD — including rising housing costs and a declining birthrate — but also that some of the COVID-related pressures on the district’s enrollment may be easing.
LAUSD’s K-12 enrollment stood at 422,276 students as of Sept. 23, the day designated for a new district-wide headcount. That figure doesn’t include students in adult programs, independent charter schools, or in pre-K programs, although it does include numbers from transitional kindergarten. And in other education news, the California Department of Education released preliminary test scores from some of the state’s largest districts, including LAUSD. This comes after the department delayed the release of the annual test scores. They show potentially steep drops in math and reading. Joining to discuss the latest on both enrollment and the test scores is Kyle Stokes, KPCC/LAist senior reporter covering K-12 education, and Carolyn Jones, senior reporter at EdSource.
Read the full story from LAist here
LAPD Chief Michel Moore On The Los Angeles City Council, Student Overdoses, Officer Staffing
Los Angeles Police Department ChiefMichel Moore joins Larry Mantle on AirTalk today for his monthly visit to discuss the latest in LAPD and law enforcement news.
Today’s topics include:
- LAPD and the LA City Council recording
- Potential office of unarmed responses future
- The latest on crime trends, including robberies
- Loyola Marymount University opinion survey of LA residents about police
- Police staffing issues and initiatives
- Student fentanyl deaths update
- Investigation into officers’ Jan. 6 participation
- LAPD staff disciplinary actions for non-compliance with vaccines
- Proper training for the use of less-than-lethal guns
- $4 million sexual harassment verdict for Captain Carranza
New Study Says Wildfire Smoke Is Counteracting California Carbon Emission Reductions
Over the past decade, California has been hit by nine out of ten of its largest fires on record. Wildfires have become the new normal in the state, a reality that KPCC and LAist science reporter has been dissecting in the new podcast The Big Burn. But a new study shows just how damaging to the environment our new reality has become. According to the study, the 2020 wildfire season alone created double the emissions that the state has managed to slash from 2003 to 2019, meaning an essential negation of California’s carbon reductions from the period. The state is attempting to reach carbon neutrality — taking out as much carbon from the atmosphere as it puts in — by 2045, but wildfires have become a real threat to the goal.
Joining Larry to discuss how California’s climate goals will be impacted by wildfires is deputy executive officer at the California Air Resources Board, Rajinder Sahota.
How Much Room Is There For A.I. In Education?
Artificial intelligence has been typically associated with generating new solutions to old problems, a concept that’s made it a perfect tool for those in education. For educators, software like Turnitin has been utilized to find plagiarism in typed assignments, making it more efficient to grade. But as outlets like Vice have noted, students have begun using artificial intelligence as well, to write those same papers they turn in. So in this world where AI continues to grow in its use–what room is there to use it in education? Is it hindering a student’s education or is it a reminder that new teaching methods need to be brought in to match our tech-savvy world?
Today on AirTalk, we break this topic down with Maya Ackerman, professor of computer science and engineering at Santa Clara University.