Weekend Reads: How Los Angeles’s graduation rate skyrocketed overnight

  • After factoring in makeup work, Los Angeles’s expected graduation rate shot up 9 points. (KPCC)
  • A St. Louis student would be able to stay at his charter school after his family moves to the suburbs — if he were white. (The Root)
  • The Broader, Bolder Approach to Education coalition is back and more mainstream than when it started in 2008. (Answer Sheet)
  • A Baltimore teacher calls for funding to help schools move away from “no excuses” discipline. (Edushyster)
  • Two new studies support the case for improving schools by giving them more money. (Slate)
  • A cover story on Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’s widow and a longtime education advocate, delves into her high school redesign competition. (Vogue)
  • Fewer than half of children eligible for federal Head Start early childhood education get it. (Republic 3.0)
  • The former chef at Copenhagen’s acclaimed Noma wants to chef-ify American school lunches. (Take Part)
  • Florida could soon count coding as a foreign language, but they’re not really the same. (Vox)
  • Computer science is a new graduation requirement in Chicago. (TechCrunch)
  • Texas A&M is investigating after Dallas high schoolers touring the campus were taunted with racial epithets. (Texas Tribune)
  • Here’s how one librarian-less school in Philadelphia is filling the void. (The Notebook)
  • Teachers of poor students and students with disabilities can get free ebooks through a new White House app. (EdSurge)
  • John King got a friendly reception during hearings to confirm him as education secretary. (Politics K-12)
  • What you need to know about King’s tenure as New York’s education chief. (Chalkbeat)
  • Five great books featuring black girls, recommended by a New Jersey 9-year-old who wants alternatives to stories about “white boys or dogs.” (NPRed)