Education Group

Los Angeles school officials on Monday urged parents whose children attend chronically underperforming schools to apply for free tutoring in math and English, which begins in November. The Los Angeles Unified School District mailed applications earlier this month to 186,000 students, from 104 schools, who are eligible for the extra assistance.

The student's admissions essay for Boston University's MBA program was about persevering in the business world. "I have worked for organizations in which the culture has been open and nurturing, and for others that have been elitist. In the latter case, arrogance becomes pervasive, straining external partnerships. " Another applicant's essay for UCLA's Anderson School of Management was about his father. He "worked for organizations in which the culture has been open and nurturing, and for others that have been elitist.

Re "France is having a midweek crisis," Column One, Nov. 6 The controversy over French children having to attend class on Wednesdays brought to mind a quote by a friend - a teacher - who once said, "The mind can only absorb what punishment that the fanny can take. " Too many hours during a single sitting do not necessarily translate to productivity. Rich Flynn Huntington Beach ALSO: Letters: Justice poorly served Letters: Legalizing street vendors Letters: Prayer and the Supreme Court

Re "Romney spars with teachers over class size," May 25 Here's one for Mitt Romney. You want to fix U.S. education, civil rights issues, poverty spirals and low unemployment rates? Try this: Pass a law that mandates compulsory and free medical services to all children of citizens from birth to age 18. This revolution would make quantum leaps in eliminating the poverty barrier and the achievement gap, and maybe then class size wouldn't matter. President Obama has been our only president to connect achievement to proper medical care.

With regard to education in general: The failure of our society in almost every respect proves that stupidity is something that has to be learned. JOSEPH MANDELBERG Granada Hills

Danish director Lone Scherfig always has an easy touch with relationships, never overplaying the hand she's been dealt. That grace suffuses her enchanting new film, "An Education," a coming-of-age story set in 1960s London with Carey Mulligan as its star and perhaps the year's most refreshing new face. Though Mulligan is, in the technical sense, not a discovery, having waltzed nicely through a number of smaller roles (including playing a Bennet sister in 2005's "Pride & Prejudice"), this is the one that should cede a rapid rise.

Researchers looking into the possible effects of affirmative action programs on law schools and the legal profession should have access to state bar exam scores and other records if individuals' privacy can be ensured, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The unanimous decision was a boost for UCLA law professor Richard Sander, who has been battling the state bar for five years to obtain the data. Sander wants the information to test his controversial theory that racial preferences in law school admissions might hurt minority students by putting them in overly competitive environments.

Occidental College has been barraged with bogus allegations of sexual assault in recent days after two groups, one claiming to represent "men's rights," set out to undermine the school's anonymous reporting system, a college spokesman said. Shortly after members of the online communities Reddit and 4Chan began discussing the idea late Monday, Occidental spokesman Jim Tranquada said, the campus was flooded with reports - some by people who claimed to have been assaulted by "Occidental College," "feminists" or "Fatty McFatFat.

Under pressure from an oversight panel, Los Angeles school officials have sharply reduced the number of iPads they say are needed to carry out new state standardized tests. The change adds up to a $25-million savings, but examination of the testing plan has raised more questions about the $1-billion effort to provide the devices to every student, teacher and school administrator in the nation's second-largest school system. The issue surfaced at a Wednesday meeting of the School Construction Bond Citizens' Oversight Committee, which reviews L.A. Unified's spending of voter-approved bonds to build and modernize campuses.

To see teacher Rose Gilbert - a nonstop, 5-foot dynamo - in front of a high school classroom was to see a master at work. "I'm on fire," she would tell her 12th-graders in Room 204 at Palisades Charter High School, emphasizing the point by wearing a red plastic firefighter's helmet. Yet, even after more than half a century of imparting a love of Homer, Camus, Faulkner and Joyce to her youthful charges, she never seemed to burn out. Each semester for more than 50 years, into her 90s, Gilbert lectured on dozens of classic works, including "The Great Gatsby," "The Iliad" and "The Stranger.

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday delayed a decision on how to fill the seat of former member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, who died earlier this month. Three members wanted to postpone the discussion until after LaMotte's funeral, while three others supported taking up the issue immediately. But four votes were required for action, so the board never debated the central question: whether to appoint a replacement or call a special election. "Not taking an action is an action," said Monica Garcia, who wanted the board to discuss its options.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Gov. Jerry Brown blasted the notion of government-imposed standards for public schools, saying he opposed efforts from Washington and Sacramento to dictate education policy. Using "data on a national or state level I think misses the point - that learning is very individual, very personal," Brown said during an on-stage interview Monday with the Atlantic magazine's James Bennet at the Computer History Museum. "It comes back to the teacher and the principal.

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