Enrollment and Performance
Los Angeles Unified School District. (2013). Fingertip facts 2013-2014. Los Angeles, CA: Author.
This overview shares key background information on LAUSD, including its vision, mission, and attendance boundaries. Several tables also summarize the district’s student enrollment, student demographic characteristics, teaching force, school types, and general financial information.
Los Angeles Unified School District. (n.d.). LAUSD Student Enrollment. Los Angeles, CA: Author. Available for members at this link.
This document presents LAUSD enrollment figures by race/ethnicity and for English Learners (EL), students redesignated to fluent-English-Proficient, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, foster youth, and students with disabilities. It also shows EL enrollment in LAUSD district-run schools and independent charters from 2003-04 through 2012-13. Over the last ten years, EL enrollment has declined by almost 50 percent in LAUSD and has more than doubled in independent charter schools.
Los Angeles Unified School District. (n.d.). Student achievement data by subgroup. Los Angeles, CA: Author. Available for members at this link.
These tables present LAUSD student performance on the California Standards Tests in English-language arts and mathematics from 2006 to 2013. Results are disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, and language proficiency status as well as for economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, and foster youth.
Reform History
Kerchner, C. T., Menefee-Libey, D., Mulfinger, L. S., & Clayton, S. E. (2008). Discovering a changing institution. In C.T. Kerchner, D. Menefee-Libey, L.S. Mulfinger, & S.E. Clayton, Learning from L.A.: Institutional change in American public education (pp. 1-11). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Available for purchase at http://www.amazon.com/Learning-L-A-Institutional-American-Education/dp/1934742023
This chapter summarizes LAUSD’s education reform history over the last 100 years. The authors begin with a discussion of the professionally dominated, apolitical school district of the Progressive Era in the early twentieth century. They then discuss how the desegregation lawsuits in the 1960s, demographic shifts starting in the 1950s, California’s Proposition 13 property tax reduction measure, and the legalization of teacher unionization in 1975 delegitimized and hollowed out the old institution. Next, the authors highlight the experiences of two specific reform efforts: the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN) and Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP). They contend that educational policies in LAUSD will need to recognize the district’s political realities and suggest five policy levers to be built around networks of schools.
Funding
Los Angeles Unified School District. (2014, March). LCFF data. Los Angeles, CA: Author. Available for members at this link.
This document shows current and projected average daily attendance, unduplicated pupil counts, and Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) funding levels for LAUSD and affiliated charter schools in the 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16 school years.
Los Angeles Unified School District. (2014, January). 2013-2014 LAUSD CORE waiver implementation budget. Los Angeles, CA: Author. Available for members at this link.
This draft budget shows how LAUSD plans to spend its $290 million projected 2013-14 Title I entitlement. The table includes estimated costs for implementation of the waiver from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act granted to districts participating as members of the California Office to Reform Education (CORE), July 2013 program improvement activities, transportation to support school choice, and district activities to support CORE waiver schools.
Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and School Support, LAUSD. (2013). Common Core implementation budget proposal. Los Angeles, CA: Author. Available for members at this link.
This budget shows how LAUSD plans to spend its one-time $113 million allocation from the State of California to implement the Common Core State Standards. About two-thirds of the total will be spent in the 2013-14 school year and about one-third of the total will be spent in the 2014-15 school year. In 2013-14, almost 40 million dollars will go directly to schools, on a per-pupil basis, to support implementation based on local needs and school context.
Vazquez, A. (2014). Local control funding formula: LAUSD’s opportunity to improve outcomes for foster youth. (Draft, prepared for the Advancement Project). Manuscript in preparation. Available for members at this link.
This two-page document outlines LCFF elements pertaining to foster youth and suggests next steps for LAUSD to promote the educational success of this vulnerable population. Through the LCFF, LAUSD will receive additional funding for each unduplicated pupil in foster care and therefore must develop goals and strategies to support foster youth within its Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). The author analyzes the distribution of LAUSD’s 8,278 foster youth and suggests that concentrations in five high schools and across three board districts represent opportunities for targeted investments. Lastly, the author lists five recommendations for LAUSD to promote better outcomes for foster youth, including partnering with state and local agencies and stakeholders to create complimentary and comprehensive service plans and goals.