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So our fifth and final goal for the next four years is perhaps our most important. We cannot accept the pace of progress in our schools.
In the next four years, with Superintendent Cortines, Monica Garcia and the Los Angeles School Board on my side, I will lead an effort to shut down failing schools and reconstitute these schools as charters, as Partnership campuses or as district schools committed to metrics-driven, measureable progress.
We can no longer afford to accept the same old tired excuses for failure.
Mayor Villaraigosa
Second Inaugural Address
July 1, 2009
In the next four years, Mayor Villaraigosa will:
• Lead Effort to Reconstitute Failing Schools
We will lead an effort with the leadership of the LAUSD to implement policy to reconstitute failing
schools in the district and end the practice of tolerating poor school performance in LAUSD.
Reconstituted schools would be re-opened and operated by organizations with proven, innovative education
systems. Charters, iDesign, and others would be possible contenders to operate the newly reconstituted
schools.
• Ensure Quality School Operators Compete to Run all New Schools
In 2010, 2011 and 2012, LAUSD plans to open 34 new schools that will serve over 35,000 students. Working
with the LAUSD leadership, we will ensure that these new schools are run by the best school operators.
As a part of this process, we will work with LAUSD to create a competitive process in the fall of 2009
that will allow charter operators, Partnership schools, local districts, universities, groups of teachers
and others to compete to operate the new school. The operator's record of performance will determine who will operate the new schools opening in 2010 and beyond.
• Improve Student Achievement in Los Angeles’ Public Schools
We will continue our efforts to improve the quality of education we provide to our students;
We will increase the number of students reading at grade level, passing classes and graduating from high
school;
We will work with partners in LAUSD, the charter community, universities, among teacher collaborators and
with other education reform organizations to provide all parents in Los Angeles with a quality public school
option for their children; and,
We will explore all options to improve learning and graduation rates in public schools.
• Accelerate Performance at the Partnership Schools
The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools will continue to offer a large, scalable model of student
learning, displaying that student learning can accelerate in our schools when we focus on high
expectations for students, principal leadership, quality instruction, parent and community engagement and
accountability;
Academic Performance Index (API) scores, student performance on California Standardized tests in Math and
English, and four-year graduation rates will increase at a minimum rate of five percent annually and will out-pace
performance improvements at comparable schools.