What's going on in the Los Angeles Unified School District? Budget cuts, layoffs and shortened school years are crippling the district. Neon Tommy reporters took an in-depth look at a small sample of schools throughout the district to see what about these schools leads L.A. Unified to have some of the lowest test scores in the state. While the Los Angeles Times "graded" teachers, Neon Tommy took a different approach, taking a snapshot of schools around the district to see if we could paint a picture of what is happening in our city's schools.

Our reporters visited classrooms at elementary, middle and high schools in the district, finding that the majority of principals were more than willing to open their doors to reporters and generally wanted to give our staff a realistic view of their schools.

Regardless of how grim some scenes witnessed may have been, many of the teachers and staff members observed appeared genuinely interested in the students' well-being and success—both in and out of the classroom.

Check out our scenes from various schools:

Arlington Heights Elementary
Community Magnet
Hyde Park Elementary
Lincoln High School
Millikan Middle School
Muir Middle School
Nimitiz Middle School