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As a result of his passionate belief that Los Angeles will never succeed as a great global city if we don’t give every child a world-class education, Mayor Villaraigosa has dedicated much of his first term to reforming Los Angeles' public schools.
Fighting for reform from both inside and outside of the school district, the Mayor now oversees the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools which runs ten of the city's lowest-performing schools. Within one year, we see test scores are rising.
And the Mayor is leading an effort to demand that innovative school operators, including charter schools, are welcomed into the school district as partners in reform.
He has secured more than $4 million over three years to hire a team of educators to help Superintendent Ray Cortines lead the change movement from inside the school district. The Mayor also helped elect a new school board dedicated to reform.
Click to learn more about the Mayor's plans for the second term.
The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools began in 2008 with a mission to transform the City’s lowest-performing schools into high-performing, language-centered communities characterized by high quality, rigorous instruction delivered by responsive, personally supportive teachers and staff in a vibrant, clean, safe environment.
The Partnership is comprised of ten schools, 18,000 students, and 1,500 employees. It is the largest non-district school operator in Los Angeles.
The Partnership has significant authority, freedom, and flexibility from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to transform schools and improve the overall quality of education.
From its inception, the Partnership’s goal has been to dramatically accelerate student achievement in the schools it serves and catalyze the transformation of LAUSD into a school district where all students graduate prepared for college and future careers.
In its first year, the Partnership has seen a rise in test scores.
Gifted and Talented Students (GATE) have been identified in large numbers across the schools.
The number of English learners meeting the minimum CELDT benchmarks to be eligible for reclassification has risen significantly in half of the Partnership schools.
Proficiency rates amongst 10th graders have also risen. For example, during the 2007-2008 school year, 12.3% of 10th graders were proficient in English and only 12.2% were proficient in Math. This year, 17.4% are proficient in English and 22% are proficient in Math.
From Parent Centers to Parent-Teacher Meetings, the Partnership has dedicated time and resources to encourage parents to play an active role in their child’s education.
In every Partnership school, parents, community members, and school staff are working together to improve student achievement.
The Partnership has created school-based family action teams focused on engaging parents and connecting community organizations directly to the school.
These teams host regular collaborative meetings and parent workshops, have launched parent compacts, and are renovating parent centers
A safe school environment is a positive learning environment. Working with the City of Los Angeles, the Partnership has invested in making their schools cleaner, smaller and safer. Students wear uniforms, teachers receive training to strengthen the adult-student relationships, and security teams are retrained.
The School Linkages Initiative aims to establish and utilize City programs and resources for the benefit and uplift of neighborhoods surrounding the Partnership Schools.
The initiative breaks down the silos of City Departments and combines the services of Recreation and Parks, Cultural Affairs, Libraries, Aging and the new Human Services Department into a smorgasbord of information and programs for the benefit and enlightenment of principals, parents, teachers and community stakeholders.
The effort includes an enhanced relationship between the City of Los Angeles, the County of LA and the many service providers in Watts and downtown LA.
The first effort to develop a compendium is underway now and focused on Markham Middle School, Gompers Middle School and Santee High School. In the future, this program will be scaled up to LAUSD schools.