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  • Preliminary LAUSD test scores show recovery from pandemic learning loss

    Preliminary LAUSD test scores show recovery from pandemic learning loss


    Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho, right, with students at Miles Avenue Elementary School in Huntington Park.

    Credit: Twitter / LAUSDSup

    The Los Angeles Unified School District is showing signs of recovery from the learning losses it incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced Tuesday at a press conference, following his Opening of Schools Address at The Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall.

    The preliminary scores for the California Smarter Balanced Assessments show that English proficiency increased from roughly 41% to 43% among LAUSD students. Meanwhile, district students’ math scores went up by more than 2 percentage points — reaching a 32.8% proficiency rate across the district, a spokesperson for LAUSD confirmed. The scores were first reported Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

    Carvalho said the increase in math scores was particularly impressive given the subject had always been LAUSD’s “achilles heel.”

    “For every grade level tester — those are Grades 3 to 11 — both in English Language Arts as well as mathematics, our students beat the odds,” he said Tuesday. “They rose to the expectation we had with them.”

    Since 2015, when the state began its current testing system, there has only been one other year when scores have gone up at every grade level. 

    According to a district announcement on X Tuesday evening, students “are achieving success” in both English Language Arts and math, irrespective of their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or gender. 

    Specifically, students who are English learners — and make up a significant portion of LAUSD’s student population — made the most significant progress of any sub-group, Carvalho also said Tuesday. He added that foster youth was the only sub-group that did not make the same strides. 

    The district has not yet released its science scores; last year, it was LAUSD’s weakest link, with only 22% of students meeting or exceeding state standards. 

    At this point, the California Department of Education has not released scores for the state as a whole, so it is impossible to know how Los Angeles Unified performed in comparison to other districts. 

    In fall 2022, Carvalho vowed to curb the district’s pandemic learning losses. Last year, halfway to that benchmark, math scores went up by small margins, while scores in English Language Arts declined slightly. 

    Experts at the time called the district’s goal of returning to 2018-19 levels in another year ambitious but possible if they specifically target students who are struggling. 

    “I just want to appreciate and celebrate the amazing work of our schools in achieving the progress that has been discussed today,” said LAUSD school board member Kelly Gonez at Tuesday’s press conference. “When you think about the struggles that our families are facing, they are significant.”

    She applauded the principals, teachers and classified staff members who support Los Angeles Unified students on a daily basis — especially as students continue to struggle with mental health challenges in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

    “Everyday we’re showing up for our students, and it’s showing results,” Gonez said. “I believe that we’re at the tipping point of really achieving the ambitious goals that we have for our students in our school district. And I’m excited for the best school year yet.”





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  • LAUSD ordered to hand over records in long-running funding dispute with archdiocese

    LAUSD ordered to hand over records in long-running funding dispute with archdiocese


    Credit: Julie Leopo/EdSource

    Despite Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s promise two years ago to settle the conflict, Los Angeles Unified continues denying millions of dollars in federal aid that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles argues it is owed for ongoing services to low-income students in Catholic schools. The archdiocese maintains that the district is diverting the money to bolster its students’ funding.

    Both the California and the U.S. departments of education have chastised the district for breaking federal regulations in dealings with the archdiocese. Now, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ordered the district to turn over documents and data that it withheld.

     That information, which should illuminate the district’s decisions, could either restart stalemated talks or lead the archdiocese to turn to the courts to order a settlement after seven years of fighting.

    “We do not believe further litigation is necessary, and we can achieve equity for non-public school students,” said Paul Escala, the archdiocese’s superintendent of schools. “However, we will pursue all means to see that all students receive their legally entitled services.”

    Title I rules for private schools

    Congress requires that low-income students in private and public schools receive equivalent Title I funding to pay for counseling, tutoring, teacher aides, and learning specialists. The dispute with LAUSD concerns how much money should be allocated for the archdiocese’s schools and how to ensure the funding gets to the students.

    Under Congress’s rules, private and religious schools do not receive Title I funding directly. Instead, districts determine the eligibility of private and religious schools within their borders, administer the funding, and provide the services directly or through vendors after consulting with the schools. Los Angeles Unified, until recently, hired the Title I staff and put them on its payroll (see Frequently Asked Questions by the California Department of Education).

    The system worked amicably for years. Districts can choose from several ways to determine Title I eligibility, and LA Unified picked the fairest and most efficient method for the 100-plus schools within the archdiocese with low-income students, Escala said. The district used census data to determine the number of Title I-eligible students in an attendance area, then awarded a proportionate share of the money to archdiocese schools. Long Beach Unified uses the same method.

    More paperwork, more confusion, less money

    Then in 2018-19 and the following year, coinciding with the new administration of Superintendent Austin Beutner, the district chose another option for calculating private schools’ eligibility — student registrations for the federal school lunch program. Not only did this method require a lot more time, paperwork and verification by the schools, but the district changed the reporting rules several times with little notice and failed “to engage in timely and meaningful consultation,” the California Department of Education concluded in a 58-page report issued in June 2021 in response to a formal complaint by the archdiocese.

    Los Angeles Unified’s Office of Inspector General removed hundreds of students’ eligibility after examining parents’ school lunch forms in the two dozen schools it chose to audit and failed to include any students from other schools it didn’t audit.

    The result was to cut Title I funding to the archdiocese by more than 92%, from about $9.5 million in services 2017-18 for 102 schools to $767,000 for fewer than two dozen schools, according to Escala. In 2023-24, funding crept up to about $2 million for 43 schools. The district cut its total share allocated to private schools from between 2% and 2.6% of about $291 million to 0.5%, according to the California Department of Education.

    ‘Totally unreasonable’ demands 

    The state Department of Education harshly criticized the district. The timetable for demanding documentation was “totally unreasonable,” and the district “engaged in a pattern of arbitrary unilateral decisions” and failed to justify its decisions to the archdiocese, the report said.

    In ignoring the archdiocese’s Public Records Act requests for documentation to justify the cuts, the district took a “hide-the-ball approach (that) breached both the spirit and the letter” of the law, the report said.

    The spirit of Title I, as stated in the law’s preamble, Escala said, is to maximize participation. The intent of other options like surveys and free-lunch verification is for schools to prove they have higher proportions of low-income families than neighboring schools, he said.

    LAUSD is doing the opposite, Escala said.

    “The district’s using these other methods as a way of filtering and screening and reducing participation,” he said. “You’re extracting children you know qualify simply because a “t” wasn’t crossed or an “i” wasn’t dotted. It is beyond reproach, because they (LAUSD officials) don’t apply the same standard to their own schools.” 

    LAUSD had an obligation to give (the Archdiocese) the requested information. LAUSD’s hide-the-ball approach breached both the spirit and the letter of the duty to consult. — The California Department of Education in a June 2021 ruling

    LA Unified declined to comment on the state’s report, and last week, a spokesperson wrote in an email that “Los Angeles Unified does not typically comment on pending or ongoing litigation.”

    Districts have a financial incentive to minimize private schools’ funding eligibility. The federal government awards the total Title I funding to districts, which determine how much should be allocated for services to private and religious school students. Lawyers for the archdiocese point out that the less money that districts award, the more Title I funding they can spend on their own students.

    The district appears to understand this, said Kevin Troy, an attorney for the archdiocese, citing a Jan. 29, 2019, email from the principal auditor of the district’s Office of the Inspector General to the archdiocese, in which the auditor stated that the archdiocese “receives over $10 million of Title I funds from the LAUSD every year — money that could otherwise be allocated to LAUSD schools.”

    “There’s a moral and ethical question on the table,” Escala said.  “You (LA Unified) have got children in need, and you’re not serving them right,” he added, referring to students in archdiocese schools.

    The impact on one high school

    Mark Johnson, principal of Bishop Mora Salesian High School, has seen the effect of the cuts on students. Before the cutback, Title I paid for a reading intervention teacher and part-time aide who worked with 40 to 50 students weekly — about 1 out of 8 students at the all-boy, 400-student school in the low-income Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Although on the district’s payroll, the teacher fit in like any other staff member, building personal relationships with the students and collaborating with their teachers. 

    “She (the teacher) had her own classroom and was just a regular teacher as far as any of our kids knew,” he said. She would work with the lowest-performing students on basic reading comprehension skills. “If they were working on a tough piece of literature, she would help them break it down so that they could write an analytical paragraph or essay.”

    Pulling out students also reduced the class size for the remaining students, he said. Now, there is only enough money for a two-day-a-week coach from a contractor who sees at most a dozen students a week.

    “We’re serving kids who are significantly behind grade level and families that deal with poverty and all the things that come along with that,” Johnson said. “So this kind of antagonistic relationship that has developed (with the district) ultimately hurts kids.”

    The California Department of Education gave the district 60 days from its June 2021 ruling to consult with the archdiocese to fix deficiencies pointed out in the report and then recalibrate the proportional share of Title I funding for archdiocese schools. It ordered the district to begin providing the increased services for 2020-21, the next school year.

    Instead, the district appealed the decision to the U.S. Department of Education, which issued its own findings in November 2023. In his decision, Adam Schott, deputy assistant secretary for policy and programs, found that the district could justify reducing the eligibility count based on its analysis of parents’ forms. But by doing that, they cut the funding for the dozens of schools that the district did not audit. He credited the district with consulting with the archdiocese to an extent, but said the district’s overall approach in demanding documentation was “inconsistent and confusing.”

    Schott also ruled that the district violated federal regulations by claiming it didn’t have to share data with the archdiocese on how much it spent on Title I services for students and how much was unspent at the end of each year. 

    In December 2021, the archdiocese sued the district in Los Angeles Superior Court for ignoring multiple requests under the state Public Records Act to turn over Title I spending records and other relevant information. The court held off ruling until the complaint process played out.

    On July 16, Judge Curtis Kin ordered the district to turn over all relevant documents, emails and records to the archdiocese by Aug. 20 and to pay $82,141 to the diocese in attorneys’ fees.

    An appeal to Superintendent Carvalho

    Weeks after he started work as Los Angeles Unified superintendent in February 2022, Alberto Carvalho told EdSource he had familiarized himself with the case and added, “I’m going to resolve this issue sooner rather than later.” He declined to elaborate due to litigation.

    “What I can tell you,” he added, “is that we need more objective, transparent tools by which we assess and fund this guaranteed federal entitlement that’s driven by poverty.”

    Escala said he remains hopeful. “I believe that Superintendent Carvalho has the ability to direct his staff towards that outcome. I have a great degree of confidence that when brought to him, this can get adjudicated appropriately.”





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  • LAUSD board votes to add $9 billion school construction bond to November ballot 

    LAUSD board votes to add $9 billion school construction bond to November ballot 


    LAUSD’s Nueva Vista Elementary School in Bell.

    Photo Credit: Betty Márquez Rosales

    Voters in November will decide whether to give the Los Angeles Unified School District $9 billion in bond money to upgrade and improve school facilities, the school board decided unanimously Wednesday. 

    The bond is the largest ever put on the ballot by Los Angeles Unified and is just shy of a statewide school bond measure for $10 billion that will also be on the November ballot. For LAUSD’s bond measure to pass, at least 55% of voters will need to vote in favor — which would lead to an uptick in property taxes by roughly $25.04 for every $100,000 of assessed value, according to a district estimate.

    District officials stated that the money is critical, and its schools’ needs urgent. 

    “We have seen schools that are built as Taj Mahals, with the latest and greatest technology, with beautiful green spaces, with outdoor classrooms, with stunning athletic facilities,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Wednesday. “Then you drive down the road one mile, and you see a completely different world that I cannot explain, and frankly, I cannot accept.” 

    More than 60% of LAUSD campuses are at least a half-century old, according to a board report. And schools across the district have more than $80 billion “of unfunded school facility and technology needs.”

    Meanwhile, the costs of construction continue to grow — and have soared by 36% in the past four years, according to the report. 

    If passed, the $9 billion in bond money would help with efforts, including: 

    • Ensuring schools have adequate safety features and are seismically sound 
    • Modernizing campuses in-keeping with “21st century learning”
    • Improving disability access 
    • Reducing discrepancies across older and newer schools 
    • Expanding outdoor spaces, transitioning to a new food service model and improving energy efficiency

    According to district materials, roughly “525 school buildings may need to be retrofitted, modernized, or replaced for earthquake safety.” 

    Amid widespread support at Wednesday’s meeting, Michael Hamner, the chair of LAUSD’s Bond Oversight Committee, said the district did not involve his committee enough in the bond’s development. 

    “While we understand the district’s infrastructure needs are greater than the pool of resources currently available to fund them, the process by which this bond measure was developed and put forward, without consultation of key stakeholders groups such as ourselves — and therefore outside public view — prevents us from providing any meaningful comment,” he said Wednesday. 

    In response, Carvalho stated that while the process of moving forward with this bond was condensed, the district will “not spare any opportunity” to consider the views of various stakeholders. 

    Amidst a declining district enrollment, some have also claimed the district should wait to move forward with a bond measure until they have a better understanding of their needs — especially as LAUSD is relying on taxpayers’ money. 

    Carvalho doubled down, however, on the project’s urgency. 

    He said that regardless of potential changes to enrollment and square footage, the district’s  “critical need for facilities improvement will still be by far an excess of what we currently have and what we will have in the near future.” 

    According to school board member Rocio Rivas, improved facilities are associated with better academic outcomes, improved attendance and better mental health among students.  

    “Kids know when they have not the best — they don’t have it as good,” Board President Jackie Goldberg said Wednesday. “And they do feel, somehow or another, that maybe [they’re] just not worth as much.” 





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  • Harmony Project: Harnessing the power of music to boost LAUSD students

    Harmony Project: Harnessing the power of music to boost LAUSD students


    The Harmony Projects offer free music education to low-income children in Los Angeles.

    credit: the Harmony Project

    When Rigoberto Sanchez-Mejia was just 5 years old, he started taking music lessons at the Harmony Project in Los Angeles. He started out on the drums and the piano, but as soon as he picked up the violin, he knew he had found his instrument.

    “Once I found the violin, that was it. It’s a big part of me,” said the soft-spoken 17-year-old who’s planning to study biochemistry at UC San Diego in the fall. “It was love at first sight.”

    Getting their first instrument is an emotionally stirring experience for many children, but for the low-income students served by the Harmony Project, it’s often a life-changing event as well. Amid the youth mental health crisis in the wake of the pandemic, some find that music can be soothing as well as intellectually enriching.

    “I feel like it calms me down,” said Sanchez-Mejia, who plays jazz, classical and mariachi music with his beloved stringed instrument. “The best way I can explain it is sort of when everything is going a bit crazy in my head, there’s a bit too much going on, the violin is just able to calm those down a bit, so I can focus. I’m not worrying about 10 things at once.”

    At Harmony, music is an art form and a lifeline that helps pave the way for college. The largest nonprofit music education organization in Los Angeles, serving Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD) as well as Compton and South Central among other areas, boasts a staggering 97% high school graduation rate. Roughly 79% of these young artists also become first-generation college students despite the myriad obstacles caused by poverty and worsened by the pandemic.

    Students learn music and more at the Harmony Project in Los Angeles.
    credit: the Harmony Project

    “It’s rough,” said Executive Director Natalie Jackson. “The last two years we have been seeing kids with so much more anxiety, so much more struggle, so much more loneliness.”

    Founded by Margaret Martin in 2001 primarily as a public health intervention, the Harmony Project gives the children of the city’s hardscrabble neighborhoods access to free music education. The core belief here, that music lessons sharpen brain function, setting the stage for academic success, was famously studied by neuroscientist Nina Kraus. Giving children in poverty, who are at a far greater risk of dropping out of school than their higher-income peers, a cognitive boost early on can have a lasting impact on the course of their lives. 

    “Harmony has changed my life,” said Sanchez-Mejia. “It introduced me to the world of music, and through that I made so many connections and met so many people that really helped set the path I take now, going to college, having the escape of music, and being able to get opportunities others may not.” 

    Sanchez-Mejia is one of more than 4,000 students enrolled in this research-backed arts education initiative, which taps into the neuroscience of music to spark learning. Playing an instrument strengthens the brain’s ability to capture the depth and richness of language, experts say, boosting the cornerstone skill of literacy. Music is the key that unlocks the brain’s full potential.

    “Music education and empowering youth to connect through music is at the core of everything we do at the Harmony Project,” said Jackson. “We envision a world where all youth have equal access to opportunities to make music and the resources needed to thrive in college and beyond.”

    Discipline is among the program’s grace notes. Children pursue music for years, from K to 12, helping them develop a dogged sense of persistence and keen commitment to their craft and ambitions in music and beyond. That’s partly because the ability to focus for extended periods of time, a mandatory skill in music class, also buttresses all other academic pursuits.

    Wellness is another chord woven throughout the program. In addition to receiving an instrument to take home and free music classes, students also gain access to social services, from food to mental health care. During the pandemic, Harmony tried to provide whatever its families needed.

    “Our model is very holistic,” said Jackson. “We’re not just looking at a kid for an hour a day and focusing on whether or not they can play an A major scale. We’re looking to see how we can help the entire family in some way. Once we commit to a community, we really try to stay. Once a child is in our program, we commit for their entire childhood.”

    Children study music at the Harmony Project in Los Angeles.
    credit: the Harmony Project

    Jackson notes that most students now seem a year or two behind where they were before the pandemic. That learning loss hurts their ability to grasp music concepts initially, but she notes the music lessons also help them catch up.

    “Our third-graders aren’t really third-graders,” she said, “they are more like second-graders or first-graders.”

    She also sees more families now in which older children must find a job to make ends meet. That cuts into time for music, not to mention school.

    “It used to take two incomes to put food on the table, now sometimes it takes three,” said Jackson. “If they have to change their schedule to pick up an extra shift at Taco Bell, we try to accommodate them.”  

    Guillermo Tejeda, a jazz musician and educator, said that Harmony’s immersive approach to music education mixed with community outreach has inspired his own work with LA’s Neighborhood Orchestra.

    I “highly respect their work in providing music education to underprivileged children,” said Tejada. “Their holistic approach fosters community, discipline, and personal growth, leading to transformative academic results.”

    Others applaud the program’s embrace of rigor and research, the core of the science of learning, as well as empathy.

    “I’m impressed with the scope and reach of the Harmony Project,” said Merryl Goldberg, a veteran music and arts professor at Cal State San Marcos. “Building trusting relationships, this to me is fundamental to any success in life, and is often overlooked as a core component of a program. Compassion is crucial to a healthy community.”

    Rigoberto Sanchez-Mejia learned to love the violin through the Harmony Project
    credit: Harmony Project

    In an age of distraction, experts say the power of sustained concentration, honed through musical training, often boosts scholastic achievement. 

    Sanchez-Mejia has studied at Harmony for 12 years, taking part in the youth orchestra as well as helping mentor younger students while also getting on the honor roll at school. He credits Harmony with setting him on the path to college and helping him find his footing along the way.

    As a first-generation college student, practicality is top of mind. That’s why he initially struggled with whether to major in music or science at UCSD. 

    “It is a little scary being the first one to go to college in my family since I don’t really have anyone that I can rely on in my family,” he said, “and instead I have to go out my way to find my own resources.”

    In the end, he decided on a science major, but he says he’ll still play the violin 10-12 hours a week. He’s also hoping to snag a spot with Orange County’s Synesthesia Sinfonietta during college, even though it’s a brutal commute.

    “I ended up picking biochemistry mostly because it felt a little safer for my future, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving music behind at all,” he said.”I love the violin.” 





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  • LAUSD board passes resolution vowing to support parent employees

    LAUSD board passes resolution vowing to support parent employees


    Credit: Julie Leopo/EdSource

    Top Takeaways
    • The Los Angeles Unified School District school board passed a resolution to support parent employees.
    • The district will gather data to help understand employees’ needs and what it will take to fulfill them.
    • This resolution is just the beginning — and a more detailed plan is expected in November.

    The Los Angeles Unified School District’s school board unanimously approved at Tuesday’s meeting a resolution to support employees who are parents. 

    Currently, many LAUSD employees fail to qualify for California’s state-paid family leave, according to the resolution. During public comments at Tuesday’s meeting, several teachers and community members said they did not feel adequately supported by Los Angeles Unified when they had children. 

    “I’ve met countless educators, school staff members, who have had challenges with the whole parental package, with healthcare, with child care, with parental leave. And so this really, this resolution, really bore out of those stories and the opportunities to change L.A. Unified to be that employer of choice for parents,” said Ortiz Franklin, who introduced the resolution, alongside board members Karla Griego and Kelly Gonez. 

    “We have a big vision in this district for our kids to achieve at really high levels. And, we know that our staff needs to be well to be able to do that — and this is going to support them in their journey, to support our kids.”

    The resolution — “Parental Package: LAUSD as an Equitable Employer of Choice for Thriving Families” — addresses various stages of parenthood, including family planning, pregnancy and parental leave and childcare. 

    It also aims to boost employee retention in a female-dominated field and make LAUSD a model for other districts across the nation. 

    Tuesday’s resolution is just the beginning of a longer process. 

    It calls for data collection on various factors, including employee demographics, the amount of time employees take off, the number of employees who have children enrolled in Los Angeles Unified’s early education programs, healthcare plan coverage and any financial impacts of providing over 12 weeks of family leave. 

    The district will also conduct a study to gauge employees’ interest in having children, family planning needs, access to LAUSD’s provided reproductive support, healthcare benefits, obstacles employees encounter in taking time off, information about childcare and the nature of employees’ current children’s education. 

    Based on their findings, the Los Angeles Unified School District will have to come up with a plan by November. And in the meantime, the district will be expected to work toward providing adequate lactation spaces, identify liaisons to support parent employees and find affordable childcare providers to consult on an as-needed basis. 

    “After the birth of my first daughter, I returned to the classroom happily, excited. I nursed my baby and during my unpaid lunch break, that was fine, until it wasn’t,” said Tanya Reyes, a veteran teacher with LAUSD, who created a support group within United Teachers Los Angeles, the district’s teacher’s union, to support other working moms. “After the disagreement with my administrator, I was told my daughter was a liability. My pay was docked. Not once. Not twice — but three times.” 

    “Mothers need paid leave — not sick time, not borrowed time. Paid leave,” Reyes added during public comment at Tuesday’s board meeting. “Families need policies that protect us, and those policies must be enforced.”





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  • 10 LAUSD schools get a chance to opt out of standardized testing, create alternative measurements

    10 LAUSD schools get a chance to opt out of standardized testing, create alternative measurements


    CREDIT: Flickr/Alberto-G

    Ten Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) community schools will be given an opportunity to pilot new approaches to assessments in the 2025-26 academic year. 

    And once the schools adopt alternative assessments, they won’t have to participate in standardized tests, other than those mandated by state and federal governments, the district school board decided in a 4-3 vote on Tuesday. 

    The policy, which comes as part of the Supporting Meaningful Teaching and Learning in the LAUSD Community Schools Initiative, was authored by LAUSD school board President Jackie Goldberg and board members Rocio Rivas and Kelly Gonez. 

    Goldberg said that over the past several decades, corporate entities have turned education’s focus away from cultivating a love for learning — and toward test taking, which she believes has become the “be-all and judge-all of schools.” 

    She emphasized that multiple choice, standardized assessments are not the only way to gauge students’ learning. 

    “I knew where my students were, what they could read, what they understood, what they didn’t — because that’s what you do when you teach,” Goldberg said, adding that class discussions and projects can also be used to observe progress. “You’re continuously assessing.”

    Once the 10 community schools establish new “innovative, authentic, rigorous and relevant” methods of assessment, they will not be required to administer the district’s iReady diagnostic tests, which teachers have criticized for taking up large chunks of instructional time. 

    Rivas said students would be relieved of some of the anxiety and stress that comes from ongoing standardized testing. She read several messages she had received from students in the district during Tuesday’s meeting.

    “If we already take five state tests … in the end of the year, why do we take the end of the year iReady?” one student wrote in a letter to Rivas. “They both are the same reason: to show you what we know.” 

    “I was really stressed out — worrying about all of these tests. I also gained a lot of anxiety since testing started, and I could not focus on my own life because I was so stressed.” 

    LAUSD board member George McKenna, however, opposed the measure, questioning how students are supposed to learn without being given tests to work toward. He added that the initiative has “promise” but that he did not trust the policy would be implemented properly. 

    Board members Tanya Ortiz Franklin and Nick Melvoin also voted against the resolution — which will require LAUSD to establish a Supporting Meaningful Teaching and Learning Initiative that community schools can apply to be part of. 

    Schools that are part of the initiative would have to select a community school “lead tacher” who is grant funded and would receive additional professional development from both Community School Coaches and UCLA Center for Community Schooling, among others. 

    The 10 schools in the cohort, according to the resolution, will also have to adapt their instructional programs to “integrate culturally relevant curriculum, community- and project-based learning, and civic engagement.”

    “This is just one step,” Gonez said during Tuesday’s meeting. “But I really look forward to the way this resolution will be implemented — to see what innovative ideas that I know our teachers have and see how we may be able to pilot a more joyful education, a transformative education, which really brings the community schools model to full fruition.” 





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  • Boosting achievement, mental health are priorities for LAUSD student board member Anely Cortez Lopez

    Boosting achievement, mental health are priorities for LAUSD student board member Anely Cortez Lopez


    LAUSD student board member Anely Cortez Lopez says she’s grateful for the privilege of offering a voice to students.

    Credit: LAUSD

    Vowing to uplift student voices, Anely Cortez Lopez was sworn in as the Los Angeles Unified School District school board student board member on Aug. 13 — the second day of the 2024-25 school year. 

    While student board members, who are elected by their peers, cannot formally vote on resolutions that come before the LAUSD school board, they can issue advisory votes, voice opinions and introduce resolutions. 

    “Since I was very little, I knew that student advocacy was a large priority — not only for my community, but just in my heart — knowing that I have the opportunity to advocate for the most needed issues and most important issues,” Lopez said. 

    Although only 17-years-old, Lopez has already served on the Superintendent’s Advisory Council, a group that provides student input to the superintendent on various district efforts, and has volunteered at local retirement homes, where she was also able to witness disparities in health care. 

    Lopez, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, said that from a young age, her mother would take her to town hall and neighborhood meetings where she would often help translate for her mother. That was where she quickly developed a passion for civic engagement — which has morphed into college plans for studying political science, with an emphasis on public health. 

    Soon after she was sworn in, Lopez spoke to EdSource about the issues LAUSD students feel are most pressing. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

    What motivated you to run for the position of student board member? 

    Being from a Title 1 school has allowed me to see a lot of the struggles of my community, and not only within my own community at school, but also within my family. And I have seen what happens to students when they succumb to the … .conditions within the neighborhood, and I believe that is one of the reasons why this position means so much to me. I’ve seen the situations that are occurring within our districts firsthand and can see what changes need to be implemented. And, I’m just so grateful for this opportunity and so grateful for this place of privilege to offer a voice to students.

    Are there things at your own school that you wanted to see improved?

    A large majority of students are low-income; and a large majority of those students are minorities, first generation, English learners. And that is primarily where the achievement gap exists within our schools. I feel as though seeing that and being in those shoes — especially as a first-generation student myself — I’ve seen the need for our community, for mentors and programs in place to amplify the needs and voices of our students. 

    You’ve been elected to represent Los Angeles Unified’s huge and diverse student body. What do you see as the challenges students are most concerned about as the new school year gets going? 

    Students’ voices are desired to be heard and not overshadowed. They’re the ones who are sitting in the seats eight hours a day and have such a unique perspective on the issues that, to them, need the most attention. And … when they feel their input is not taken into account, that is when issues begin to become present in the student body. So definitely, the amplifying of student voices and also an increase in mental health and wellness. 

    From the pandemic, we’ve seen an increase of issues in our student body, pertaining specifically to mental health and wellness and seeing how, at a systematic level, we can learn to combat that. And going into that also is preventive measures surrounding drug use within our youth and ensuring that our school environment is a sanctuary for opportunity to flourish, and ensure only the best for our students here in LAUSD — and also focusing on the fact that a lot of these students may come from households that might not provide mentorship. So, also providing mentorship for some of our most marginalized groups in LAUSD, such as first- generation, low-income and English learners to, once again, help close that achievement gap.

    What are the issues you are most passionate about? 

    I definitely am very passionate about amplifying the student voice. Because although there might be issues that specifically pertain to me, I found that being in this position of power means not being led by my own ideas, but being led by the needs of my peers. Since I represent such a large group of students, it’s so important for me to take into account the various issues that are being presented to me from the student population, and ensuring that those are the perspectives that are being shared and not just my own. 

    What do you hope to accomplish during your time in the position? 

    One of the biggest goals for this year is to … amplify student voices. But especially since my term falls within our election year, ensuring that students understand the value of their civic engagement — whether it be in volunteering for their community, pre-registering to vote, ensuring that everyone in their families who is capable of voting and is 18 and older is voting in this election, and knowing that their voices are not overshadowed, that they have a place here in this country, that they are able to share their needs and problems and that they will receive solutions to them. 





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  • How to keep young Black and Latino teachers from leaving LAUSD

    How to keep young Black and Latino teachers from leaving LAUSD


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    Younger Black and Latino teachers are some of the most passionate educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District — and they are also at the highest risk of leaving the profession, according to a new report. 

    The survey, which involved interviews conducted in early 2024, found that roughly one-third of Gen Z Black and Latino teachers expect to leave their careers in education. Seventy-one percent of those teachers said they expected to do so within two years, either to find a higher paying job or seek a position with a better work-life balance.

    “I thought I would be a teacher forever,” said a Latina high school teacher quoted in the survey report. “I feel very confused and sad that I have to consider leaving something that I’m very passionate about and very good at, and I work so hard at.” 

    LAUSD has made several efforts to boost both pipelines into teaching professions for current students of color and to help teachers already in the district stay where they are, according to Jacob Guthrie, the district’s director of recruitment, selection and retention. 

    “Having a representative workforce means better outcomes for students,” he said in an interview with EdSource. “And the district is committed to providing pathways and support for our Gen Z educators of color so that they can feel supported and they remain with us as district employees.” 

    The survey and report were conducted and written primarily by GPSN, a local nonprofit that seeks to help improve public education in Los Angeles, with a focus on students of color and students living in poverty.

    The work involved a series of focus group discussions conducted in November 2023, and individual surveys with 400 district educators in early 2024. The teachers surveyed were split into two, 200-person groups: Gen Z Black and Latino teachers and a general educator population, which included teachers of all backgrounds. Their responses to a series of questions were analyzed side by side. 

    According to the study, providing affordable health care options and improving work-life balance would make the biggest difference in LAUSD keeping its younger Black and Latino teachers. 

    And advocates say doing so is critical as concerns grow about retention and diversity among the future teacher workforce in Los Angeles Unified. 

    “If we don’t get really serious about the things that they’re raising … in this report, then we have a gap that we are widening, and we might lose some of some really high-quality teachers in the pipeline,” said Jalisa Evans, the founder and CEO of the Black Educator Advocates Network. 

    Why are younger Black and Latino teachers less likely to stay in LAUSD?

    A quarter of the report’s Black and Latino respondents who are Gen Z, defined as under the age of 30, said they would leave education in pursuit of a higher-paying job. Meanwhile, 27% said they wanted more work-life balance. 

    Burnout was also of concern for nearly a third of Gen Z Black and Latino teachers, the report found — and Evans said “for folks to be newer into the field and already experiencing burnout is a huge sign that there’s not sustainability.” 

    “Burnout specifically has been normalized. And so, for more veteran teachers, it is normal for them to take work home. … It is normal to think that you’re actually supposed to lesson plan at home,” Evans said. “And so, I think newer educators, specifically Gen Z, Black and Latino teachers, they’re experiencing this burnout, and it wasn’t their interpretation of what they were getting into.” 

    In addition to a desire for work-life balance, high costs of housing and living play a key role in younger Black and Latino educators’ desire to leave the district, particularly if they live in an area that is rapidly gentrifying and further from the communities they teach in. 

    Gina Gray, an English teacher, said the topic of affordability comes up frequently among her fellow teachers — with some who are younger having to live with several families under the same roof to sustain themselves financially. 

    “With this much education, with this much skill and knowledge, if you go into another field, you will make more money, but we’ve accepted this wage penalty for educators,” Gray said.  

    “And so to be new and starting out and wanting affordable housing and realizing that the career I’ve chosen has made that where it seems impossible? Do I stay in the career, or do I kind of validate things for myself?”

    Does gender have an impact?

    While the report did not specifically focus on gender, Ana Teresa Dahan, GPSN’s managing director who helped author the report, noted that gender is tied to retention. 

    She emphasized that a lot of younger women leave teaching because they no longer feel the job is conducive to having a family; and, because education is still largely female dominated, Dahan said that exodus has a larger impact on the younger workforce as a whole. 

    “We heard in our focus groups, teachers (saying): “I can’t drop off my kid at school before 7:45, but I have to be at my school by 7:30,’ ” Dahan said. “There’s logistical challenges to being a teacher and then also raising children that I think are being voiced more than previous generations.” 

    Many have also stressed the need for more male teachers of color in the district. 

    What positive feedback did Los Angeles Unified receive? 

    Many have applauded LAUSD for its “grow your own” model of hiring former district students. 

    Specifically, one-fifth of the teachers surveyed in the GPSN report had formerly attended LAUSD and said they wanted to give back. 

    “They go off, they go to college … and they see education as a way to transform their community,” Dahan said. “And that’s why they’re becoming teachers, because they want kids in their communities to have the opportunities they did. That, we thought, was really compelling.” 

    Forty-four percent of Gen Z Black and Latino educators said they wanted to share their love of learning, while 40% wanted to pursue teaching because they were passionate about a subject area. 

    According to the report, more than 85% of district educators also said they feel their individual identity is reflected in their fellow staff and student populations. Most also noted the district had been supportive and helped them grow professionally. 

    What are the current supports for younger Black and Latino educators?

    Guthrie said LAUSD provides a number of opportunities to support retention and career development, including creating pathways for high school graduates to get a teaching credential and programs that support teachers in getting administrative services credentials at no cost. 

    This year, the district has also unveiled a program to help increase pathways into careers in education for students at Black Student Achievement Plan campuses. 

    And for teachers already in the district, Guthrie said LAUSD has been providing special training to administrators on supporting educators of color — and so have career ladder specialists, who can mentor teachers wanting to move up. 

    He also mentioned that the district formed affinity groups for both Black male and female teachers, which will meet six times this year. 

    Why is addressing retention important now? 

    Parents, students and teachers have all stressed the importance of having a body of teachers that reflect their student populations. 

    Maira Nieto has four children attending LAUSD schools — spanning from fourth through 10th grades. She said having Latino teachers who can be culturally understanding is critical, for both students and for parents who want to be more involved with their children’s education. 

    “They are young children; they have to feel at home, like they are welcomed,” Nieto said in Spanish. “If a teacher doesn’t provide them with that, the child, I think, loses interest at an academic level.” 

    Many have also emphasized that younger teachers of color are critical, as they represent the future of Los Angeles’ educator workforce. 

    “That’s a little frightening,” Gray said, “to think that some students will go through the whole system and possibly not have … a teacher they can identify with.”

    What other kinds of workplace support would help? 

    Providing affordable health care options and improving work-life balance would make the biggest difference in keeping Gen Z Black and Latino educators in LAUSD, according to the report. Other respondents called for receiving incentive bonuses earlier and having improved family leave.  

    Many teachers in the survey also said they wanted more professional development focused on social-emotional learning strategies, and more than half reported dealing with behavioral issues in the classroom — a burden sometimes disproportionately placed on teachers of color, Evans said. 

    “Are they being overly used in a way that is just based off of their identity? Are they having to carry the burden of being the school’s disciplinarian?” Evans said. 

    “And if so, LAUSD should definitely look at their school leadership to think about how they can support all staff members to be able to build relationships with their students and to be competent in this idea of classroom management.” 

    While LAUSD does provide Black educator networks for both men and women, Gray said affinity spaces provided by the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, have really made all the difference. 

    Meanwhile, Guthrie said he is “not aware” of similar networks for Latino teachers. 

    “The districts, the school sites, they need to be intentional about retaining teachers of color … making sure that sometimes how our students feel othered, that we don’t feel othered on these same campuses,” Gray said. 

    “Be intentional with it. Be focused on it. Understand that we need support in order to sustain the career, and we want to stay.” 





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  • LAUSD celebrates academic recovery, but a rough road lies ahead without Covid relief money 

    LAUSD celebrates academic recovery, but a rough road lies ahead without Covid relief money 


    LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho applauds the district’s improvement in state test scores.

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri

    This story has been updated to include more community voices.

    The Los Angeles Unified School District celebrated its students’ academic achievement in the 2024 California Smarter Balanced test scores during a press conference Friday. The district’s scores reflect a near realization of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s 2022 promise to overcome pandemic learning losses within two school years. 

    Across each grade level, most demographics and LAUSD’s Priority Schools, the district showed growth in both English Language Arts (ELA) and math. 

    Between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years, scores in English Language Arts increased from roughly 41% of students meeting or exceeding standards to just over 43%. 

    Math scores also rose. In the 2022-23 academic year, 30.5% of LAUSD students met or exceeded state standards. This past year, that number grew to 32.83%. 

    “I made a prediction about two years ago that within two years, we would begin to see recovery at a level impacting some subgroups that would hit or exceed pre-pandemic levels,” Carvalho said.

    “I am heartened by the fact that the students who historically performed at the lowest levels are actually the ones that have already exceeded pre-pandemic achievement levels.”

    Carvalho added that LAUSD’s Black and Latino students outperformed their counterparts throughout the state. Meanwhile, both students with disabilities and English learners performed better than they did before the pandemic. 

    While district officials say they are prepared to maintain students’ level of performance, they are dealing with the end of the one-time Covid relief money that expired last month and pressing federal and state legislators for more support moving forward. 

    “I believe that to the bottom of my gut and my heart, that we have to provide the conditions where every child can learn. And that means smaller class sizes. It means more mental health support. It means a nurse at every school. It means [psychiatric social workers] at every school. It means things that right now we can no longer afford because the Covid money is gone,” said LAUSD’s school board president Jackie Goldberg during the event. 

    “This is remarkable, but if we’re to keep it forward, the state has got to find a way….to do something.”

    How did the district’s highest needs students perform?

    Students with disabilities showed a roughly 1% increase in scores compared to the previous year. Still, just over 13% of LAUSD students with disabilities met or exceeded California ELA standards, with nearly 11% meeting or exceeding math standards. 

    Homeless students’ performance remained roughly the same as the previous year — with marginal increases, less than 1% in both subject areas. Foster youth, meanwhile, experienced a slight decline in ELA scores — with just over 20% meeting or exceeding standards — and a slight increase to 13.08% in math. 

    Migrant students performed better on the 2023-24 tests, and English learners saw a significant jump in improvement. 

    Between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years, the number of English learners who met or exceeded state ELA standards doubled from 4.44% to 8.88%. Meanwhile, the percentage of English learners who met or exceeded math standards rose from 6.80% to 10.65%. 

    “Los Angeles is not like the rest of the state of California. The challenges in our community are far greater. The level of poverty is higher. The percentage of students who are English language learners is significantly higher. The percentage of students with disabilities is higher. The percentage of students who are newly arrived international newcomers is significantly higher. The percentage of students experiencing homelessness is unparalleled,” Carvalho said Friday. 

    “That is why anytime that the unnatural, the almost impossible becomes the inevitable, we ought to come together and celebrate.” 

    Not everyone agrees. Evelyn Aleman, the organizer of the Facebook group Our Voice/Nuestra Voz, maintained that the district’s scores are still not adequate and that more investments need to be made to support student achievement. 

    “We cannot be satisfied with substandard scores,” she said, “…especially for vulnerable, high-need, student populations. There are no gains when most of our children aren’t meeting state standards in basic subjects.” 

    How much variation was there between non-charter and charter schools? 

    In both English Language Arts and mathematics, LAUSD’s charter schools outperformed non-charters. 

    Roughly 49% of students in district charters met or exceeded standards in English Language Arts and just above 35% met or exceeded standards in math compared to non-charters where just over 40% met or exceeded English Language Arts standards, and just over 30% met or exceeded standards in math. 

    How did students perform in science? 

    While LAUSD’s scores in science rose, they are still lagging behind other subject areas. 

    In the 2023-24 academic year, nearly 24% of LAUSD students met or exceeded state standards in science in comparison to 22.17% the previous year. 

    What strategies helped at the local level?

    While district officials emphasized that a lot of work is required to sustain and improve this year’s numbers, they also said their growth reflects the hard work of LAUSD’s teachers and employees at every level. 

    “We’ve [improved our scores] by intention,” said Elesia Watkins, the principal of 54th Street Elementary, “intentionally ignoring the stigma that Black and Brown children cannot achieve greatness.” 

    Principals from other LAUSD schools with increased scores chimed in, emphasizing the importance of tracking data and making sure students are also aware of where they stand and what they need to work on. 

    Others stressed the importance of students participating in both lab enrichment classes along with elective courses every day — and even after school hours, if possible.

    Student board member Anely Cortez Lopez also applauded the hard work and resilience of the student body. 

    “I believe it will be wrong with me not to highlight the immense resilience and dedication our students have shown,” she said. “We have seen an unprecedented event occur, many falls….not only academically, but emotionally, physically and spiritually for many of our students. ”

    “But [we] were dedicated to bounce back better.” 





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  • LAUSD unanimously affirms support for immigrant and LGBTQ+ students leading up to Trump’s inauguration 

    LAUSD unanimously affirms support for immigrant and LGBTQ+ students leading up to Trump’s inauguration 


    Credit: Julie Leopo/EdSource

    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    As anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ policies and rhetoric spread across the nation in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election for presendent, the Los Angeles Unified School District board affirmed its commitment to members of these communities by unanimously passing four resolutions on Tuesday.

    “The district will continue to do everything in its power to protect and defend the kids in our care,” one of the resolutions reads. “Doing so is the responsibility of all LAUSD employees.” 

    Here’s an overview of LAUSD’s efforts from Tuesday’s regular board meeting and what to expect in the two months leading up to Trump’s inauguration. 

    LAUSD as a sanctuary district 

    After Trump vowed to declare a national emergency and bring in the U.S. military to facilitate mass deportations, the district passed a resolution reaffirming that it will remain a sanctuary and safe zone for families. 

    “We survived the pandemic because we stood together,” said Mónica García, who authored the original sanctuary resolution in the 2016-17 academic year and previously served as the president of LAUSD’s board. “… It is so important that, as we may see policies that we do not support … that we stand together in response to the times.”

    Tuesday’s action comes about eight years after the original sanctuary resolution passed; it also requires district Superintendent Alberto Carvalho to present a plan to the board within 60 days, in time for implementation by Jan. 20, when Trump returns to the White House. 

    The resolution says Carvalho’s plan should involve training LAUSD educators, administrators and staff on responding to federal agencies and anybody else who seeks information or attempts to enter a campus. 

    Meanwhile, the resolution insists that LAUSD will “aggressively oppose” any laws forcing school districts to work with federal agencies and personnel involved with immigration enforcement. 

    “The good news is that we have seen it before, and we are in a position to act,” García said at Tuesday’s meeting. “The challenge … [is] there are families who are separated and who are traumatized because of the fear of what is to come. And we will continue to ask them to come to school and give us their very best.” 

    She added, “Whether it is two years or it is four years, it is every day that we exercise love and the power of this institution on behalf of children and families.”  

    A safe place for LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities 

    The second resolution would require LAUSD to add gender identity and expression to the list of groups covered by its “To Enforce the Respectful Treatment of All Persons” policy and require the district to update district policy bulletins as needed.  

    It also calls on the district to support legislation backing immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities — and to provide educational and mental health resources. 

    A response to Project 2025 

    A third resolution passed Tuesday promises that LAUSD will remain “inclusive, safe, and welcoming” for all communities in the face of any “immediate, incalculable, and irreparable harm” to public schools caused by Project 2025, a set of detailed policy proposals authored long before the election by hundreds of high-profile conservatives in the hope that Trump would push them if elected.

    It states that LAUSD will defend all students’ right to a public education and protect them from potential harm. 

    Carvalho will have to report back to the board within 60 days — and present an overview of the potential impacts of Project 2025 as well as a district response, the resolution states.  

    “This resolution is a bold and necessary shield against the looming threats to public education — a public good that we must protect fiercely and defend,” board member Rocío Rivas said Tuesday. 

    A new political education course 

    The fourth resolution emphasizes the importance of turning LAUSD students into critical thinkers capable of discerning facts from falsehoods and ready to participate in the American political system.

    “We’re not talking about [being] a Democrat or a Republican,” said board President Jackie Goldberg, who authored all four resolutions, during her last full board meeting Tuesday. “It’s about understanding the actual way the government works — as opposed to what the Constitution says. And there’s a big difference.”

    The resolution asks Carvalho to look into creating a high-level political education course and report back to the board in 160 days. 

    His considerations, according to the resolution, would include whether the course would serve as a requirement, areas that the curriculum would cover, the types of professional development that would be needed and the ideal grade levels to teach it. 

    The resolution also asks Carvalho to consider any other curricular changes in the grade levels leading up to the course to make sure students are prepared. 

    Anely Cortez Lopez, student board member, said at Tuesday’s meeting, “The understanding of the political landscape of the United States is vital in our schools as we continue as the change-makers of tomorrow.”





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