Education, Youth, and Families
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Partnership for LA Schools
A partnership to fundamentally transform schools and communities in Los Angeles
The Partnership for LA Schools is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Foundations are being poured for a historic partnership between LAUSD and the City that will transform LA schools and fundamentally reconfigure what education means for students, teachers and parents in Los Angeles.
These schools will serve as models of reforms whose best practices will be shared with IDEA and replicated throughout the District. The Partnership schools will blaze a trail for all schools across the District.
The Mayor and LAUSD have agreed to an initial five-year collaboration with an extension of the agreement depending on the Partnership meeting goals for student achievement -- graduation and drop-out rates, test scores -- student discipline, parent satisfaction and financial management.
Working alongside LAUSD's Innovation Division for Educational Achievement (IDEA), the Partnership will go well beyond just the two families of schools and work to implement programs with records of proven results throughout the district.
Mirroring the pillars of the Mayor's "Schoolhouse Framework" -- a 34 page policy document outlining the policies and programs needed to build successful schools in Los Angeles -- the overall foundation for the Partnership schools will center on core values of empowering teachers and principals; engaging parents and the community; and providing students with clean, safe and small schools.
Under the Partnership, each school will draw up comprehensive plans outlining the vision and goals for improving student achievement and the specific benchmarks for measuring that achievement. These plans will be made public and parents will receive an annual "report card" measuring the school's progress. For more information on The Partnership, please visit www.PartnershipLA.org.
The Partnership was strengthened in September, 2007 when Mayor Villaraigosa accepted a $50 million commitment on behalf of the Partnership from Richard and Melanie Lundquist – the largest individual donation ever made to Los Angeles schools.
And in February, 2008, the Mayor announced his all-star leadership team to drive the Partnership effort, headed by new Superintendent of Instruction Angela Bass – an educator and change agent with almost 30 years experience and leader of one of the most successful school reform efforts in America.