Wielding chainsaws, they helped the 97-year-old former Colorado governor clear out fallen timber this year to make a path for some four wheelers. 

鈥淭hey just enjoyed the working relationship back then, and they enjoy the friendship now,鈥� Romer said in a recent interview. 

But when they finish the day鈥檚 projects, it鈥檚 not unusual for the group to relax over wine and cheese and trade war stories about Romer鈥檚 tenure. Under his leadership, the district saw several years of steady gains in reading on both and . Fighting bureaucracy and a powerful teachers union, he required elementary schools to use Open Court, a phonics-based program that embraced what is known today as the science of reading. The district trained teachers to use it and hired reading specialists to make sure they stuck to the curriculum. 

鈥淔or six years, we concentrated on that. It was the most important thing we did,鈥� Romer said. But the teacher鈥檚 union chafed against the program鈥檚 rigid design and eventually demanded over the curriculum. 鈥淭hey didn’t want us to be screwing around in classrooms. They wanted the door shut. We forced those doors open.鈥�

Nearly 20 years later, those stories have a new relevance as reading scores are once again on the rise. The current superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, has taken a similar, top-down approach to literacy with a program from curriculum provider Amplify. District leaders say they鈥檝e learned from the past about the dangers of a lockstep approach to teaching reading, but some wonder whether teachers are getting the support they need. 

Tackling a new curriculum is 鈥渘ot an easy shift, and the ongoing support is needed,鈥� said Francisco Villegas, chief academic officer at the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a nonprofit that manages 20 high-need schools in the district. 鈥淭here are fewer dollars, and that likely will have implications for what the district is able to provide.鈥� 

The Partnership schools adopted the Amplify program in 2018-19 and began to see in English language arts on the state test. Since 2022, seven of the Partnership鈥檚 11 elementary schools have seen double-digit increases in the percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards. At a in September, Carvalho called the Partnership a 鈥渢errific incubator鈥� that influenced the district鈥檚 curriculum choices. 

But systemwide, leaders are to balance the budget and layoffs are expected. Compared to the Open Court years, training on the reading curriculum districtwide is more 鈥渉it or miss,鈥� said Maria Nichols, president of the district鈥檚 principals union. LAUSD offers opportunities, both online and in-person, for professional development. School leaders, however, often don鈥檛 know which courses teachers have taken or whether they鈥檙e using what they鈥檝e learned, she said. 鈥淲e are PD rich and implementation poor.鈥�

鈥極n the same page鈥�

Romer鈥檚 team implemented Open Court at a time when was pouring millions into training to teach reading. A $133 million from the U.S. Department of Education provided even more. Nearly all of the district鈥檚 12,000 elementary school teachers participated in and many completed follow-up sessions throughout the year.

鈥淚t was phenomenal,鈥� Nichols said. 鈥淲e were treated as professionals. There was a lot of money back then.鈥�

Former board members, among Romer鈥檚 annual visitors, said Open Court was a way to ensure all students, in an urban district where kids often change schools, would receive strong instruction. Marlene Canter, who served on the board from 2002 through 2008, said that regardless of teachers鈥� level of experience or the college they attended, 鈥渆verybody would be on the same page.鈥�

For some teachers, that played out literally. Many found Open Court . There was a specific set of cards with letter sounds to post on the wall and a recommended U-shaped classroom layout that, according to a teacher guide, left 鈥渁 large open space on the floor for whole-group and individual activities鈥� and provided 鈥渁n easy 鈥榳alk-around鈥� for the teacher.鈥� Critics viewed the , deployed to ensure teachers followed the curriculum, as 鈥淥pen Court police鈥� ready to catch them veering off script. 

鈥淭hey took my fun and creativity away,鈥� former teacher Stuart Goldurs complained in a . 鈥淚 became an instructional robot.鈥� 

Ronni Ephraim, who served as Romer鈥檚 chief instructional officer, said the change upset some teachers. The district asked them to replace storybooks that had been favorites in their classrooms for years with Open Court phonics-based 鈥渞eaders,鈥� workbooks and classroom libraries. Despite the objections, the district saw struggling schools improve and outpace the state. 

鈥淚 don’t think top-down is bad,鈥� Ephraim, now a consultant, said about curriculum choices. 鈥淚 think the board and the superintendent have to believe in it, and then they have to make sure that everybody is prepared to teach it as designed.鈥�

鈥楤ig disconnect鈥�

Critics said the program was ineffective with English learners. Over time, performance flatlined, and the district replaced Open Court with a program. 

Rob Rucker is among the LAUSD teachers who worked for the district during the Open Court years and is now adjusting to Core Knowledge Language Arts. A third grade teacher at 135th Elementary School in Gardena, one of several small cities within the district鈥檚 boundaries, he said some novice teachers valued Open Court鈥檚 structure. They didn鈥檛 yet have enough experience to write lesson plans of their own.

鈥淚 actually liked Open Court,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was very straightforward and easy for teachers to understand.鈥�

The Amplify program still covers the basic skills students need to decode words and recognize parts of speech. It鈥檚 also what reading experts describe as a knowledge-building curriculum. The units introduce students to early civilizations, like the Vikings in Scandinavia, and science content, such as the solar system and animal habitats.

That鈥檚 where Open Court fell short, said Nichols, with the principals鈥� union.

鈥淲hen we tested kids, they could read beautifully,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut they couldn’t understand what they were reading.鈥�

For a student population like LAUSD鈥檚, with 86% living in poverty and one in five still learning English, strengthening kids鈥� knowledge of the world is 鈥済oing to be the real game changer,鈥� said Barbara Davidson, president of StandardsWork, a think tank, and executive director of the Knowledge Matters Campaign. Since 2015, the campaign has been a leading voice for integrating history, science and the arts into reading curriculum. 

Rucker said his students were already familiar with stories like 鈥淎lice in Wonderland鈥� and 鈥淎laddin,鈥� so it wasn鈥檛 hard to keep them interested in a lesson on classic fairy tales. Getting them to relate to lessons on ancient Rome has been more challenging.

According to a district spokesperson, 鈥渢he goal is to ensure that every school has access to the literacy expertise and coaching capacity it needs.鈥� But other than a two-day training from Amplify, Rucker said he hasn鈥檛 had any additional support on how to implement the program, he said. He thinks his school would benefit from an English language arts coordinator teachers could lean on when they need someone with more experience, but because of enrollment loss, many schools have lost administrative positions. 

Some teachers feel Amplify is out of reach for struggling students, leading them to patch in other materials to make the material more relevant. 

During a recent lesson on early American irrigation systems, Kareli Rodriguez, who teaches at Stoner Ave. Elementary School on the west side of town, used pictures and videos to help her fifth graders grasp the idea. Excitement over the Dodgers鈥� successful World Series run helped her pique kids鈥� interest in a passage on Yankees鈥� relief pitcher Mariano Rivera.

But it鈥檚 鈥渘ot realistic,鈥� she said, for teachers to get through a lesson in the recommended 90-minute time slot with so many students working below grade level. A district coach modeled a lesson for the teachers last school year, Rodriguez said, but she couldn鈥檛 finish it in time either.

鈥淚 think that’s a big disconnect that the district needs to understand,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely rigorous, but most of the students are always playing catch up.鈥�

Still, like most other schools in the district, Stoner Avenue saw improvements in reading. Fifty-two percent of fifth graders met or exceeded expectations, compared to 41% last year. 

Literacy advocates hope those gains will convince leaders 鈥� as Romer did with Open Court 鈥� to stick with Amplify. 鈥淥ur push is going to be to say, 鈥榊ou got to stay the course,鈥� 鈥� said Yolie Flores, president and CEO of Families in Schools, a nonprofit that for research-backed teaching materials. Her group breaks down the science of reading for parents so they鈥檒l know how to talk to teachers about the curriculum and help their kids at home.

District leaders gathered in October to celebrate the district鈥檚 recent improvement. Outside the auditorium at Maywood Elementary School, as students rushed back to class after lunch, Deputy Superintendent Karla Estrada took a moment to talk about lessons learned since the Open Court years, like taking feedback from teachers.

The district, she said, wants them to follow the Amplify curriculum 鈥渨ith integrity鈥� while recognizing they often have to make decisions in the moment, depending on their students. 

鈥淭hey let me know where something is not quite what they want,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut no curriculum is going to do everything for you.鈥�

Its most recent contains the blunt admission that, 鈥淟.A. Unified currently has a structural deficit whereby in-year expenditures exceed in-year revenues. As revenues continue to decrease due to enrollment decline and loss of one-time COVID funds, expenditures have not been reduced proportionately.鈥�

How did a district with $18.8 billion in revenue this year get to the point where it is projecting a $1.6 billion deficit by 2027-28?

The problems start on the revenue side. Namely, the district keeps losing students. According to it reported to the federal government, Los Angeles Unified served 495,255 students in 2018-19, the last full school year pre-pandemic. By 2023-24, that number had fallen to 419,929. That鈥檚 a decline of 75,326 students, or 15.2%.

That 15% decline is key to understanding the next few data points because the district did not reduce the number of staffers at anywhere close to the rate at which its student population declined. During the same period that it lost 75,000 students, it cut its teaching ranks by just 251. That represents a decline of 1.1% on the teacher side, compared with the 15.2% loss in student enrollment. It had a similarly small decline in non-teaching staff.

Effectively, Los Angeles reduced its student/teacher ratio over this time period from 22.5 to 19.3 students per teacher. As 社区黑料 reported earlier this year, about three-quarters of districts across the country have reduced their student/teacher ratios in similar ways over the last few years, but Los Angeles had one of the bigger drops.

As it served fewer students, the district also failed to adjust the number of schools it operates. In 2019, it had 785 district-run and charter schools. Five years later, despite the 15% decline in the number of students it served, it operated the exact same number of schools 鈥� 785.

In practice, by not responding to the enrollment declines, the district now operates a lot of partially vacant schools. Between 2019 and 2024, 224 Los Angeles schools lost 25% or more of their students. It is far from the only district with very small schools, but it does have a particularly large number of them. In 2024, 52 Los Angeles district schools served under 100 students and another 68 had less than 200 students.

The Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University has compiled across the country, and that data suggest that many small schools become very expensive to operate. For example, Marina del Rey Middle School in Los Angeles served 716 students in 2013-14. Ten years later, it taught only 369, at of $38,780. Similarly, Crescent Heights Elementary went from educating 384 students in 2013-14 to just 192 a decade later and now spends $37,967 per pupil.

So, how is the district proposing to get its back into balance? For now, it’s starting with accounting tactics like limiting the amount of money schools can carry over from one year to the next, closing unfilled school staff vacancies and cutting central office operations. It also hints that it will 鈥渃onsolidate鈥� campuses and programs but doesn鈥檛 say exactly what that will mean. Elsewhere in the document, the district says it expects to save $130 million this year by cutting 1,291 teacher positions 鈥� a 7% reduction. 

These cuts are necessary in part because the district projects it will lose another 35,000 students, a further 9% drop, by 2027-28. The one-time federal relief funds allowed Los Angeles to temporarily ignore the imbalance between revenues and spending it had accrued thanks to a bloated payroll and an unwillingness to deal with the messy business of closing or consolidating schools.

But it now has to resolve that deficit, and district leaders will face some tough decisions in the years ahead as they attempt to bring their budget back into balance while continuing to build on their recent academic gains.

This school year, the Los Angeles school district has lost more than 13,000 immigrant students, mostly Hispanic, school officials said, with students fleeing in the months since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stepped up activity in Los Angeles in March.

The nation鈥檚 second-largest district now enrolls about 62,000 English learners, according to new figures obtained by 社区黑料, down from more than 75,000 immigrant students in the 2024-25 academic year.   

鈥淪ome children are just choosing not to go back to school, especially those who are immigrants,鈥� said Evelyn Aleman, founder of , a parents鈥� group which advocates for L.A.鈥檚 Spanish-speaking and low-income families. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 because they know that immigrant children have been arrested or detained by ICE.鈥�

In the 2018-19 academic year, the district enrolled more than 157,000 English learners.  The downward trend of these students represents a stunning turnaround for a district that in 2003 was nearly half immigrant kids. It comes amid a districtwide decline in enrollment.  

L.A. is not the only city seeing declines in immigrant enrollment since ICE cracked down. Denver, Miami and San Diego have also . 

Since January, school officials, municipal leaders and state lawmakers have sought to present a brave face against the immigration crackdowns promised by President Donald Trump. Even before the ICE raids began, they issued guidance and rolled out tools and policies, and proposed legislation to limit federal immigration enforcement.

But the fear of ICE became real for many families, Aleman said, after federal agents in April showed up at two LAUSD schools seeking 鈥榓ccess鈥� to young students. 

The federal agents鈥� school visits 鈥� with as many as four appearing at one time looking for information on children in grades one through six 鈥� were considered the first reported cases of Homeland Security authorities attempting to enter a U.S. school. 

School staffers turned the agents away in both cases, but outside of school grounds at least two LAUSD students have been arrested and held by ICE, Aleman said.  

鈥淚t isn’t because they don’t want to be in school,鈥� said Aleman. 鈥淎 big concern for families is that they’re going to be separated [by ICE]. Rather than see that, many are choosing to self-deport, or children who are high schoolers are choosing not to return.鈥�

Instead, Aleman said, kids are staying home where they feel safe, or in some cases going to work outside their homes.  

According to LAUSD figures, the drop in immigrant students this year means LAUSD now enrolls about half as many of those kids as it did before the pandemic. 

Besides the ICE raids, factors including rising housing prices, falling birth rates and a tight local economy have also contributed to the exodus of immigrant students, said LAUSD Board Member , who represents , which includes neighborhoods such as South L.A., Watts and San Pedro.  

鈥淧eople are having less children, and traditionally, in Latino families, there are more children. So that鈥檚 one area,鈥� said Ortiz-Franklin. 鈥淎nd, obviously, the in Los Angeles is ridiculous.鈥�

Recent fears around immigration enforcement and the future of public assistance, such as SNAP benefits, are also likely driving down immigrant populations, Ortiz-Franklin said. 

shows the immigrant students in 2003 accounted for about 45% of enrollment, with more than 325,000 English learners enrolled there. Since then, the number of immigrant students has fallen sharply.

But the ICE raids that began in L.A. this year have given immigrant families more reason to be concerned about sending their kids to school 鈥� or leave the city entirely. 

To bolster immigrant students鈥� sense of safety, LAUSD officials have established 鈥榩erimeters of safety鈥� around campuses and instructed school staffers to refuse ICE agents entry, unless warrants are displayed.

The district has created its safe zones around schools by warning families to stay away when volunteer sentries spot ICE agents nearby. A free legal defense fund has been created for families facing enforcement.

Other measures include free busing to class, legal clinics for families, and remote lessons for when all else fails.

In a statement, a district spokesperson said LAUSD鈥檚 overall enrollment 鈥渃ontinues to reflect a long-term downward trend observed across large urban districts in California and nationwide.鈥� 

鈥淢ultiple factors contribute to these shifts, including declining birth rates, changes in housing affordability, and family migration patterns,鈥� the spokesperson said. 鈥淚n addition, increased federal immigration enforcement efforts have had a chilling effect in many communities.鈥�

LAUSD officials and researchers said it鈥檚 difficult  to pinpoint where immigrant families are going when they leave. During the pandemic, L.A. superintendent Alberto Carvalho said some of these families had left the state for Texas and Florida for economic reasons.

Dean of the USC Rossier School of Education Pedro Noguera said LAUSD will face challenges in attracting more immigrant families, even with the measures to protect students from ICE raids.

鈥淭hey’re taking a lot of extra steps to try to reassure the population, but it’s limited as to what they can do,鈥� Noguera said.  鈥淚t’s a combination of several trends, all heavy at once, that is producing this significant decline,鈥� adding LAUSD may soon have to make tough choices due to its shrinking class sizes.

Smaller class sizes have already prompted district leaders to consider measures such as closing schools or converting unused campus buildings for housing. 

Overall enrollment in LAUSD鈥檚 massive, 1,500-school system has cratered since its peak in 2002, when 746,831 students attended classes. This school year the district  enrolled 392,654 students, a drop of roughly 4% from last year鈥檚 count of 409,108, school officials said.

Enrollment this term has also failed to hit targets set during the budget process earlier in the year, indicating the losses are steeper than officials expected.

Julien Lafortune, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said such declines are impacting districts around the state, of immigrant students.

鈥淭he growth of Los Angeles and other districts was driven by a lot of immigrants coming in, and then, on average, having more kids than the average native-born person,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ow, we’re seeing kind of the inverse of that. Kind of a bust after the boom.鈥�

Seeing all that data was interesting. But they were just numbers in a spreadsheet until we decided to out the results. And that geographic analysis revealed some surprising findings. 

For example, we found that, based on our metrics, two of the three highest-performing schools in California happened to be less than 5 miles apart from each other in Los Angeles. 

The Charter School came out No. 1 in the state of California. With 91% of its students in poverty, our calculations projected it would have a third grade reading rate of 27%. Instead, 92% of its students scored proficient or above. Despite serving a high-poverty student population, the school’s literacy scores were practically off the charts.  

PUC Milagro is a charter school, and charters tended to do well in our rankings. Nationally, they made up 7% of all schools in our sample but 11% of those that we identified as exceptional. 

But some district schools are also beating the odds. Just miles away from PUC Milagro is our No. 3-rated school in California, Hoover Street Elementary. It is a traditional public school run by the Los Angeles Unified School District. With 92% of its students qualifying for free- or reduced-price lunch, our calculations suggest that only 23% of its third graders would likely be proficient in reading. Instead, its actual score was 78%. 

For this project, we used data from 2024, and Hoover Street didn鈥檛 do quite as well in . (Milagro .)

Still, as Linda Jacobson reported last month, the district as a whole has been making impressive gains in reading and math over the last few years. In 2025, it reported its highest-ever performance on California鈥檚 state test. Moreover, those gains were broadly shared across the district鈥檚 most challenging, high-poverty schools. 

Our data showed that the district as a whole slightly overperformed expectations, based purely on the economic challenges of its students. We also found that, while Los Angeles is a large, high-poverty school district, it had a disproportionately large share of what we identified as the state’s 鈥渂right spot鈥� schools. L.A. accounted for 8% of all California schools in our sample but 16% of those that are the most exceptional. 

All told, we found 45 L.A. district schools that were beating the odds and helping low-income students read proficiently. Some of these were selective magnet schools, but many were not. 

INTERACTIVE

Map of Los Angeles Area Bright Spots

Some of the schools on the map may not meet most people鈥檚 definition of a good school, let alone a great one. For example, at Stanford Avenue Elementary, 47% of its third graders scored proficient in reading in 2024. That may not sound like very many, but 97% of its students are low-income, and yet it still managed to outperform the rest of the state by 4 percentage points. (It did even a bit better in .)

Schools like Stanford Avenue Elementary don鈥檛 have the highest scores in California. On the surface, they don鈥檛 look like they鈥檙e doing anything special. But that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important for analyses like ours to consider a school鈥檚 demographics. High-poverty elementary schools that are doing a good job of helping their students learn to read deserve to be celebrated for their results.

But look at the odds you face if you鈥檙e not white or Asian. In L.A, only 3% of Hispanic elementary students and 4% of Black students attend a school where 7 of 10 kids are reading at grade level. This shocking data comes from the California Department of Education.

My organization, Available to All, is a nonprofit watchdog that defends equal access to public schools. Our analysis of state data shines a light on the 456 zoned elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the K-5 or K-6 schools that are the default assignment for hundreds of thousands of L.A. children. Over 190,000 children attended these schools in 2023-24, the last year for which data is available. Of these 456 schools, only 39 have 70% of their students reading at grade level. At 105 of these schools, fewer than 30% of kids are reading proficiently.

What is absolutely crucial to understand is that discrepancies of this size can exist only if a government entity enforces them. Imagine for a moment two post offices. At one, 70% of letters and packages get delivered as promised. It鈥檚 not great, but we鈥檒l call it pretty good. At the other post office, 3 out of 4 packages get lost or damaged, and only 25% arrive on time and in their original condition.

As soon as this data became public, people would stop going to the bad post office. Hundreds of people would drive to the pretty good post office, even if it was much farther away. Long lines would form outside the door. The bad post office would have to improve or face an empty lobby.

So the question is this: How does LAUSD enforce these discrepancies? How does it prevent tens of thousands of families from lining up outside the doors of those few elementary schools where most of the kids can read? The answer is attendance zones. The district draws a meandering line around each elementary school, determining who is and who isn鈥檛 allowed to attend.

The problem is, of course, that these coveted schools are located in some of the priciest parts of town. The lines typically encircle expensive single-family homes that are on large lots. What鈥檚 more, the home prices in these zones are distorted because the house comes with exclusive access to a desirable public school. 鈥淚 know it sounds expensive,鈥� the real estate agent will say, 鈥渂ut if you buy a home in this zone, you won鈥檛 have to pay for private school.鈥�

These are quasi-private schools for wealthy Angelenos, but they鈥檙e operated on the public鈥檚 dime. Our research has shown that Los Angeles is one of many cities where coveted elementary schools have attendance zones that from the 1930s. Once again, families in less wealthy areas are boxed out, especially African-American and Hispanic kids, as well as working- and middle-class people of all races.

What鈥檚 incredible is that such exclusivity is possible in a system that has so many half-empty schools. f of L.A.鈥檚 elementary schools 鈥� 225 of 456 鈥� have seen enrollment drop by more than 50% in the last 15 years. You would expect that, with so much overcapacity, families would have their pick of public schools.

Even the highest-performing schools are below their full capacity. In the 39 elementary schools with over 70% of kids reading at grade level, enrollment is down by over 7,000. That鈥檚 7,000 seats that could be available to students who are currently assigned to failing schools, often within a mile or two.

California鈥檚 1994 requires the district to make open seats available to students who live outside school attendance zones. But LAUSD has treated this policy as voluntary, as recently as 2018 that it is their choice whether to report open seats. Thus, these 39 schools reported only 58 open seats for this school year 鈥� less than 2% of what we鈥檇 expect to see based on their historical enrollment.

Of the 39 high-performing elementary schools, 15 of them are 鈥渁ffiliated conversion charters,鈥� meaning they are operated by LAUSD but don鈥檛 have to participate in Open Enrollment. However, they are required by the state鈥檚 charter school law to hold a lottery for any open seats.   My organization called each of these schools, and 14 indicated that they could not accept any applicants from outside the zone, since they were 鈥渇ull.鈥� But, again, these schools are well below their historical peak enrollment and should have at least 2,589 seats available.

The hard truth is this: Principals in these high-performing, zoned schools do not seem to want to make their open seats available to children outside the zone. Doing so might threaten the exclusive nature of the school, and that exclusivity is exactly what families are paying for when they take out their oversized mortgages.

But it doesn鈥檛 have to be this way. In the 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has abolished attendance zone assignments. Test scores are up, as are graduation rates and college enrollment. In California, the state legislature ended geographic assignment for community colleges in the 1980s. In the years after this reform, enrollment rebounded after years of decline. Today, the community college system is a crown jewel of the state, championed by Republicans and Democrats alike.

America was built on the idea that even a kid from the wrong side of the tracks can go on to become a business owner, a doctor, a politician, a professor or a general in the military. History has proven that to be true. But here in the 21^st century, middle-class and low-income kids are blocked from fulfilling their potential, locked out of the best public schools 鈥� even ones that their families’ tax dollars pay for. It鈥檚 not fair, it鈥檚 not just,and it鈥檚 time to make a change.

At 6:50 a.m, the parent on carpool duty would set out westward toward the San Fernando Valley, often cutting the workday short to reverse the commute eight hours later. One dad even rented space at a coworking location to minimize the drive.

The destination: Portola Middle School in Tarzana, one of the Los Angeles Unified School District鈥檚 few magnet schools with a program specifically for highly gifted students. 

鈥淲e were going with traffic both ways,鈥� said Tira Franco, a mom of three who feels lucky that her now-seventh grader landed a spot in the school. But while the boys in her eight-seat minivan spent the trips quizzing each other in math, she quickly grew exhausted. 鈥淚n L.A., just five miles could take you like an hour.鈥�

Enduring gridlock on 鈥渢he 405鈥� and other major thoroughfares is part of life in the nation鈥檚 second-largest city, and it鈥檚 a price that many families are willing to pay to get their children in a preferred school. This year, the kids ride a bus as part of the district鈥檚 efforts to services. Students who attend magnets and other schools of choice in the sprawling, 700-square-mile district are among those who get priority for a ride. That means the boys get up even earlier to meet the bus. 

District leaders in recent years have tried to take some of the pain out of the process by offering choice fairs, a centralized application website and more busing options. But many still find the experience stressful, time-intensive and stacked against low-income families.

鈥淭he kids who get a better quality education in the district are the children of parents who are resourceful, who are able to navigate this very complicated formula,鈥� said Elmer Roldan, executive director of Communities in Schools Los Angeles, a dropout prevention program that serves students in 15 schools across the metro area. Children whose parents can manage that system are going to get 鈥渢he best teachers, best equipment and best experience. Unfortunately, that is not always close.鈥�

Over a third of LAUSD students participate in district choice, officials said. During this year鈥檚 , which closes Nov. 14, parents can pick from a wide range of options that include not just magnets, but dual-language programs and district charter schools. Families can also request permits to attend a school outside their zone. But that process is time-consuming, and lower-income families often lack the luxury of weeks to research school performance and plot potential routes.

found that Latino students, English learners and kids from low-income families were underrepresented in magnet programs, which were designed to create more integrated schools. White and Asian students were also overrepresented in affiliated charters 鈥� some of the highest-achieving schools in the district.聽

鈥淭here are parent groups in West L.A. that organize information sessions [on choice], but West L.A. is a relatively advantaged area,鈥� said Christopher Campos, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago who has in LAUSD. The single application portal, where parents can request transportation, has made the process 鈥渁 bit easier. 鈥 still think it’s a pretty daunting task.鈥� 

鈥榁alley parents鈥�

For some parents, the process began on a clear Thursday evening in October as they searched for a parking space near a middle school in the San Fernando Valley. Inside the gates, families strolled from booth to booth on the lawn to learn about the district鈥檚 array of magnet schools. 

There鈥檚 Northridge Middle with a special lab for exploring careers in medicine, Robert Frost Middle with a gifted music conservatory and Mulholland Middle, where students in the junior police academy can study crime scene investigation, or law and government. Inside the auditorium, the Louis Armstrong Middle jazz band performed their version of the Edgar Winter Group鈥檚 鈥淔rankenstein,鈥� an instrumental rock hit from the early 1970s.

鈥淰alley parents want to stay in the valley,鈥� LAUSD Board President Scott Schmerelson said as he greeted principals and magnet school coordinators, who were busy handing out fliers, buttons and other promotional items. He paused at the display table for Nobel Charter Middle in Northridge, which features a magnet program combining STEM with the arts. 

鈥淗ere鈥檚 Nobel. Always overenrolled. Very popular.鈥�

One parent grabbed his attention to suggest organizers set up booths by regions in the valley 鈥� east, west and north. 鈥淭he valley is huge,鈥� she said.

She makes a good point, Schmerelson said.

shows that providing transportation increases the likelihood that families will take advantage of school choice, a district spokeswoman said. Officials use social media, websites and other communication channels to inform families that bus service is available. The district is 鈥渃lustering stops where demand is highest,鈥� the spokeswoman said, but leaders also 鈥渃ontinually review ridership data and feedback to explore ways we can improve access.鈥澛�

Choice options have increased in recent years as the district seeks to leaving for independent charters or private schools. There are over 330 magnet programs, compared to 217 a decade ago. Enrollment decline, which is hurting the district in many ways, has had the effect of opening up more space in many sought-after schools. Students who end up on a waiting list for their first choice are now coming off the list sooner, said Song Lee, LAUSD鈥檚 coordinator of student integration services.

But word of events like the fair don鈥檛 always reach the parents they were designed for.

鈥淚f I would have known about the fair, that would have been helpful,鈥� said Dulce Valencia, a mom of three whose twin daughters are currently part of the Spanish-English dual-language program at San Fernando Elementary School. She has to decide on a middle school for her girls and is considering charters.

Multiple options can confuse parents, Campos found when he held some information sessions regarding another district program called 鈥渮ones of choice.鈥� Instead of attending their neighborhood middle or high school, students living within one of 17 zones can choose from a menu of specialized schools with themes like global studies, performing arts or social justice.

鈥淎 lot of families thought they were showing up to a session about magnet programs,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey actually were not interested in any of the zones of choice schools, but they were just getting overwhelmed with information.鈥� 

鈥楬ave your phone ready鈥�

Once parents secure their child a seat, they still have to figure out how to get there.

鈥淚 tell parents, 鈥楬ave your phone ready so you can map out where the school is and you can see if it’s feasible for you,鈥� 鈥� said Grace Lee, who has two young boys in the district. She also works in the office at Gault Street Elementary, her neighborhood school, and fields questions from parents about choice. 

For Lee, calculating the best routes to school in L.A. calls to mind , the uproarious 鈥淪aturday Night Live鈥� sketch where characters in exaggerated 鈥淰alley girl鈥� accents rattle off shortcuts to circumvent the ubiquitous L.A. traffic.

鈥淚f you live in L.A. you get it,鈥� Lee said. 

When her oldest son got into Oliver Wendell Holmes Middle, north of her Lake Balboa neighborhood, she applied for transportation. But the bus stop was almost as far west as the school was north. She decided it was just easier for her husband to drive him on his way to the office.

Working at a Title I school in the majority Latino district, Lee worries that many families don鈥檛 even complete the choice application. 

鈥淭he people who are in the know, their kids are already fine,鈥� she said. 鈥淭heir test scores are generally fine.鈥�

Twenty years ago, Lois Andr茅-Bechely, a professor emerita at California State University, Los Angeles, wrote in that parents with flexible schedules stood a better chance of taking advantage of public school choice in L.A. She identified transportation as one of the obstacles. 

鈥淧arents who have cars and can arrange time to drive their children to and from school will have more choice options than parents who do not have such advantages,鈥� she wrote. 

The city鈥檚 offers free bus and train passes, but some students on public buses and L.A.鈥檚 routes don鈥檛 always reach the areas they live in. A recent showed that it can take four times longer to reach a destination by train than by car.

Now retired, Andr茅-Bechely no longer conducts research. But as a grandmother, she still hears about parent鈥檚 experiences at soccer games and birthday parties. 

鈥淧arents still have to be strategic when applying to school choice programs,鈥� she said in an email. 鈥淪ome school choice issues I identified have not gone away.鈥�

For several years, philanthropies like the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation that guided parents, especially low-income families, through the school choice maze. Their efforts emphasized independent charters, but groups like Speak UP and Parent Revolution, which later folded into other nonprofits, helped LAUSD families as well.

鈥淟os Angeles used to have a robust ecosystem of nonprofits empowering parents and challenging the status quo,鈥� said Ben Austin, a former state education board member who founded Parent Revolution. During the pandemic, he pulled his children out of LAUSD and enrolled them in a charter school. When Eli Broad passed away in 2021, other funders didn鈥檛 fill the vacuum, he said. 鈥淓li was such a magnetic leader that when he died, much of the local and national education donor engagement in L.A. died along with him.鈥�

Many families researching options still rely on Facebook and other informal networks, but experience with the process doesn鈥檛 necessarily make it easier. With a fifth grader preparing for middle school, Franco, the school choice commuting veteran, is once again weighing school options.

鈥淚鈥檓 trying to get her into a great program for next year, and I still have a million questions,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hy do I have a million questions if I’ve already been through this before?鈥�

Yet in many ways Canfield Avenue Elementary School and Shenandoah Elementary School in the Beverlywood and Reynier Village neighborhoods of Los Angeles are worlds apart. 

Canfield鈥檚 student body is 46% white, while Shenandoah is 95% Black and Hispanic. Canfield has a pass rate of 77% on state reading exams, but just 31% of Shenandoah students met reading standards this year. 

The difference between these two schools isn鈥檛 about curriculum or funding, but rather the highly uneven attendance zones from which Canfield and Shenandoah draw their students.  

School attendance zones are meant to provide L.A. families with strong options for their children鈥檚 education. But a growing number of critics say the outdated school zones of LAUSD reinforce educational inequality by locking needy students out of a good education. 

Canfield鈥檚 residential school attendance zone is 83% white, while Shenandoah鈥檚 is 55% Hispanic, 14% Black, and 6% Asian, according to research conducted by The Urban Institute, a nonprofit think-tank. 

鈥淪uch massive inequities between neighboring schools, both within the same local public school system, are difficult to justify,鈥� wrote Urban Institute researchers Tomas Monarrez and Carina Chien, who studied the two schools for their 2021 鈥淒ividing Lines.鈥�

The differences in the nearby schools鈥� catchment areas is reflected in their enrollment, with 49% of Canfield kids experiencing poverty, compared to 93% at Shenandoah. 

Monarrez and Chien found inequalities in school enrollment zones in districts across the country in their Urban Institute report, but singled out the racial segregation and uneven outcomes of LAUSD, the nation鈥檚 second-largest school district, for special attention. 

The entrenched and segregationist school zones that populate Los Angeles Unified are the deliberate outcomes of a racist past, according to local parent turned researcher-and-author Tim DeRoche.

DeRoche, whose book, 鈥�,鈥� explores school zones and segregation in Los Angeles and other districts across the country, said attendance zones ought to be abolished or completely overhauled, but admits it鈥檚 unlikely that鈥檒l happen anytime soon in L.A. 

鈥淭he district doesn鈥檛 want to touch them,鈥� said DeRoche of LAUSD鈥檚 school zones, 鈥渂ecause families overpaid for homes within those lines.鈥�  

LA Unified officials say school attendance boundaries are shaped by a range of factors, including geography, enrollment trends, and school capacity. A district spokesperson saud boundaries are reviewed and adjusted as needed to support students and communities. 

According to conducted by Realtor.com, California has some of the largest public school real estate premiums in the U.S., with some of the most expensive school zones.

Home buyers may think the unequal nature of LA鈥檚 school zones is a consequence of a tight real estate market, DeRoche said, but at least eight LA elementary schools have school zones that closely mirror the racist, redlining maps of the 1930s, according to documents he recently unearthed. 

Redlining maps were developed by the federal government for use in mortgages and color-coded neighborhoods by their perceived investment risk. Areas with large numbers of Black residents were graded as “hazardous” and marked in red, leading to decades of disinvestment and segregation.  

For at least eight LAUSD schools, today鈥檚 student attendance boundaries match those of the discredited redlining maps nearly exactly. If a map of the school zone is placed atop a redlining map, the boundaries are the same. Attendance zones for many other schools match those of redlining maps partially. 

DeRoche made this startling discovery about LAUSD鈥檚 school zones while conducting an investigation of the district for his 2025 paper 鈥�,鈥� which showed how lower- and middle-income families experience difficulty accessing top LAUSD elementary schools.

The use of school zones that mirror redlining maps occurs in public school districts across the country, but, in Los Angeles, it鈥檚 more prevalent than the national average, according to the research conducted by Monarrez and Chien for the Urban Institute.

Redlining isn鈥檛 the only vestige of America鈥檚 segregationist past that shows up in school zones. Across the country, modern school district boundaries of ,鈥� where threats against Black people . 

Many of the school zones within LAUSD were drawn decades ago, and it鈥檚 unclear if those identified by DeRoche were drawn with the redlining maps in mind or not, he said. 

But it鈥檚 unlikely many parents of students enrolled in sought-after LAUSD elementary schools such as Ivanhoe Elementary, Mt. Washington Elementary and Mar Vista Elementary are aware that their school zones reflect those racist maps, DeRoche said. 

Nick Melvoin, a second-term LAUSD school board member whose district includes Mar Vista, said he wasn鈥檛 aware Mar Vista鈥檚 attendance zone mirrors that of an old, local redlining map, until DeRoche told him.  

The plain-spoken former attorney said he wasn鈥檛 surprised, though, given the history of exclusionary education policy in L.A. County, where Los Angeles Unified is but the largest of more than 70 local school districts.

鈥淭hat is something that we don’t acknowledge,鈥� said Melvoin. 

Throughout the county and over time, a number of districts that are surrounded by and adjacent to LAUSD have carved themselves out of the larger, more diverse district of LAUSD, 鈥渟o that they have a little bit more exclusivity,鈥� Melvoin explained.

That list, he said, includes Beverly Hills Unified, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified and Culver City Unified. 

In a perfect world, Melvoin said, maybe the attendance zone around Mar Vista in his own board district would be changed, but a better solution is to offer options that give families the choice to exit their local school zones and enroll in better options.

鈥淚’d like a world where there are no enrollment boundaries, to really make sure that we’re equitable,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut where folks are still choosing their local schools, because we just have such a surplus of high quality options.鈥� 

Some of the non-zone school options for LAUSD families include magnet schools, charter schools and schools in the district鈥檚 Open Enrollment platform, where families may enroll in schools outside their zones, as long as there are seats. 

An LAUSD spokesperson said 40% of students enrolled in schools outside their zoned area in the 2024-25 school year, reflecting the pervasiveness and efficacy of the district鈥檚 school choice programs. That鈥檚 up from 28% a decade ago, the spokesperson said.

Critics, including DeRoche, say the district鈥檚 programs still don鈥檛 do enough to provide good options for families.

DeRoche鈥檚 2025 report found enrollment is down 46% among 456 LAUSD elementary schools from their peak, while over half of these schools have seen enrollment decline by over 50% over the last two decades. 

The decline has left a lot of open space in 39 high-performing schools, but that doesn鈥檛 mean LA students are filling them, according to DeRoche鈥檚 analysis. In fact, he and his team found nearly 7,000 empty seats in the sought-after schools. 

LAUSD officials disputed the analysis, saying its use of peak enrollment to measure school capacity is inaccurate, because those schools were overcrowded then.  

Melvoin said the district is working hard to make it easier for families to access schools outside their local zones, by providing its Open Enrollment platform to make it easier for families to enroll, and also by providing transportation for families that request it. 

鈥淣ow, throughout LA Unified in every grade level, families have other choices,鈥� he said. Dual language and magnet programs, charters and schools of advanced studies are a few of the options available, he said. 

Beyond LA, a movement to promote school choice and eliminate dependence on zoned schools is gaining steam, said Derrell Bradford, president of the national education 50颁础狈.听

Bradford and his nonprofit are part of an alliance of more than 50 nonpartisan education groups committed to ending discriminatory public school district boundary lines, called the. 

The coalition argues that school boundaries are based on a student鈥檚 ZIP code and, de facto, a family鈥檚 wealth based on their home value. Formed last year, it has set a goal of ending the practice in all 50 states by 2030.

States, including Idaho, Nevada and Kansas, are already working to promote open enrollment with state laws that modify existing school zoning policies, said Bradford.

鈥淓verything about how people think about where you go to school, and how you get into school is kind of up for public discussion right now, in a way that I think is helpful,鈥� said Bradford. 鈥淚ts time has come.鈥�

A painter prepped the side of a classroom building at the school for a new mural 鈥� smiling dragons in caps and gowns, and the district slogan: 鈥淩eady for the World.鈥� On a patch of pavement sat a mini outdoor library featuring a small seating area, an umbrella for shade and a cart full of books.

She hopes the features prompt visitors to ask, 鈥淲ho鈥檚 the principal here?鈥� But the progress at 135th, part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, goes much deeper. Chronic absenteeism is down to 13%, from 17% in 2024. Over the past two years, the percentage of students meeting state standards in English language arts has climbed from 25% to 37%. In math, it grew from 26% to 34%.

The changes, along with the formation of a STEM lab and the addition of afterschool Boys and Girls Clubs, were enough to convince Daveyeon Shallowhorn, the school鈥檚 plant manager, to pull his two kids out of a nearby Catholic school and enroll them in 135th.

鈥淚 just see different things being offered that I don’t usually see,鈥� he said.  

Districtwide, leaders are celebrating the highest-ever performance on California鈥檚 state test. But the strong gains in math, reading and science, at every grade level, weren鈥檛 limited to wealthier, or high-performing magnets. They were evenly distributed across some of the district鈥檚 most challenging, high-poverty schools, like 135th.

Some say Superintendent Alberto Carvalho鈥檚 centralized approach to steering the nation鈥檚 second-largest district is lifting performance at schools that languished near the bottom for years. The seven-member school board, which hired him in 2021, reaffirmed their confidence in his leadership last month, to renew his contract for another four years. But others say there are likely multiple explanations for the boost. The question is whether the positive trends will continue in a city where the powerful has a history of resisting top-down programs.

鈥淚f Carvalho is seeing gains, that means our students are gaining,鈥� said Jose Luis Navarro, a former principal in the district who now coaches school leaders. For now, United Teachers Los Angeles is unhappy that a recently adopted budget didn鈥檛 include raises. Nevertheless, Navarro urged the union to embrace Carvalho鈥檚 agenda. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e already tried fighting every superintendent for the last 40 years. Just try working with one and see what happens.鈥�

The improvements came in spite of wildfires that wiped out part of the city, a crackdown on undocumented students and a federal government trying to on blue California. 

鈥淥ur kids, our students persevered,鈥� Carvalho, who declined to be interviewed, said at his back-to-school address in late July. 鈥淭hey, in fact, soared.鈥�

But while students from all racial groups improved, significant gaps remain. At least two-thirds of white and 74% of Asian third-graders met or exceeded expectations in reading, compared to 37% of Latino students and 31% of Black students. 

鈥淲e will redouble our efforts. We will redouble our commitment,鈥� he pledged at an Oct. 10 press conference at Maywood Elementary. 

鈥楽maller numbers鈥�

Experts say the recent achievement growth among the district鈥檚 neediest students is likely a cumulative effect of several initiatives, including a more uniform approach to instruction, extra help for kids who are the furthest behind and a concentrated focus on the most troubled schools. 

But Carvalho has 鈥済enerally good instincts about what works,鈥� said Morgan Polikoff, an education professor at the University of Southern California. The district adopted a research-based literacy curriculum, has over 10,000 teachers in the science of reading and has spread some of those to math instruction. 鈥淚t seems the district is investing in quality curriculum and supporting teachers to use it.鈥�

As scores go up, however, enrollment continues to dwindle. Over the past five years. LAUSD has lost .

But that factor could be working in the district鈥檚 favor. That鈥檚 because for now, LAUSD, unlike , has , leaving some schools with more staff per student.

鈥淵ou already have built-in small group instruction with smaller numbers,鈥� said Nery Paiz, principal of Glen Alta Elementary School, east of downtown. With an enrollment of about 100, his average class size is about 19 students, he said. 

shows that such 鈥減ronounced鈥� declines can sometimes lead to increases in test scores. found that enrollment loss doesn鈥檛 immediately translate into funding cuts, freeing up more resources for schools in the short term. LAUSD鈥檚 $18.8 billion budget, adopted in June, increases spending for majority-Black schools, arts programs and support for LGBTQ students.

鈥楴o secret sauce鈥�

Some in the district say the uptick in scores would have happened without Carvalho, whom they dismiss as a slick media personality.

鈥淲e’re far enough away from the lockdowns that teachers have been able to recover, and students have been able to recover,鈥� said Nicolle Fefferman, a veteran high school social studies teacher in the district. 鈥淭here is no secret sauce to teaching.鈥�

She helps lead an advocacy group, Parents Supporting Teachers, whose members are far less enamored with Carvalho than when he arrived in early 2022. The district鈥檚 failed experiment with a $6 million AI chatbot has drawn accusations of misspending. Officials discontinued use of the tool when the company went under. Others argue he to close schools during the fires, relying on guidelines that failed to account for multiple fires burning across the region and filling the air with . 

Some parents say students have in school and are unhappy with Carvalho鈥檚 move to roll out an online program called . To Fefferman, the digital lessons and assessments represent 鈥渙vertesting,鈥� which the teachers union has traditionally opposed. UTLA didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment, but Maria Nichols, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, the principals union, said i-Ready has created 鈥渇riction鈥� between school leaders and teachers who object to the program.

The increase in scores is worth celebrating, she said, but said it came 鈥渙n the backs of the [principals] who are working 60 hour weeks.鈥� Her union joined with UTLA and SEIU Local 99, which represents non-teaching employees, outside schools Sept. 16. All three are currently in negotiations with the district over salaries and working conditions. 

Board President Scott Schmerelson, who has the union鈥檚 support, said such concerns are to be expected. It鈥檚 a 鈥済eneral rule鈥� to complain about the superintendent 鈥渘o matter what he says, no matter what he does,鈥� he said. But he called the 鈥済rumbling鈥� minimal. 

He鈥檚 particularly enthusiastic about the district鈥檚 Black Student Achievement Plan, a $175 million initiative that provides schools serving Black students additional counselors, cultural activities and field trips. Former Superintendent Austin Beutner proposed the program in early 2021 to reduce achievement gaps. Under Carvalho, it continues to expand, in spite of challenges from who say it discriminates against students of other races. 

Since last year, students in Black Student Achievement Plan schools have seen slightly more growth in reading and math than the district as a whole. 

The additional resources have 鈥渉elped [Black students] a lot, not only academically but emotionally,鈥� Schmerelson said. 鈥淚 think they feel important. I think they feel respected.鈥�

鈥楴othing short of remarkable鈥�

With high expectations, the board voted unanimously to hire Carvalho in late 2021. At the time, Pedro Noguera, dean of education at the University of Southern California, likened the award-winning superintendent鈥檚 arrival to鈥淟eBron coming to the Lakers.鈥� The board trusted that Carvalho鈥檚 success leading the Miami-Dade schools for 14 years would follow him to the West Coast. 

But efforts to overcome COVID learning loss and rise above pre-pandemic performance began a year earlier, with schools still locked down. Most students wouldn鈥檛 set foot in classrooms for another year. 

Beutner used COVID relief funds to launch Primary Promise, a highly popular effort to target extra instruction to struggling readers, including English learners, students in foster care and others most likely to fall further behind because of school closures. 

In 2021, a Boston-based consulting group that designed the model 鈥渘othing short of remarkable.鈥� On average, students began the year reading five words correctly per minute. Some couldn鈥檛 read at all. After 10 weeks, they were close to reaching the goal of 21 words per minute.

Julie Navarro, who is married to Jose, worked on the program as a reading specialist at Panorama City Elementary in the San Fernando Valley, where she said teachers were eager to share materials and ideas with each other. 

鈥淚t was seriously the most positive collaboration I’ve ever been a part of,鈥� she said. Primary Promise teachers attended monthly training that she described as 鈥渨ell-planned, thorough and research-based.鈥� 

Then Carvalho , arguing that with relief funds drying up, it was unsustainable to keep paying instructional aides to staff the program. The renamed Literacy and Numeracy Intervention expanded services into higher grades, drawing criticism from who said the emphasis on the early grades was what made it effective. Beutner and Ray Cortines, also a former superintendent in the district, called the move .

鈥淚 had never seen teachers who were willing to die on the hill of an LAUSD program,鈥� Fefferman said. 鈥淎s a high school teacher, I was like 鈥榊es, please make sure they can read by third grade.鈥� 鈥� 

In Julie Navarro鈥檚 view, educators who lead the intervention work are sometimes 鈥減ulled in multiple directions鈥� and the program has 鈥渓ess integrity鈥� than the original. But Panorama, she said, is an example of staying true to the model of giving students small group instruction and consistently tracking their progress.

The school has seen double digit increases in reading and math since 2022 and was on this year鈥檚 list of . With many families facing financial hardship and newcomers navigating language and cultural barriers, Julie described the population as 鈥渢he most-challenged families I鈥檝e ever seen all at one school. In spite of their situation, they were growing.鈥�

鈥楰ids know their data鈥�

Close attention to student data was a hallmark of the Primary Promise program. Carvalho expects the same level of monitoring districtwide with i-Ready. The platform, Schmerelson said, helps teachers know whether to 鈥渟low down鈥� the pace of learning for students who are struggling or move kids ahead.  

On a bulletin board in a second grade classroom at 135th Elementary, students鈥� initials are clustered into four color-coded groups 鈥� from blue for exceeding standards in i-Ready down to red for being two grade levels behind. Some argue that 鈥渄ata walls鈥� if they鈥檙e not among the high-achievers. But Tanya Ortiz-Franklin, the school board member whose district includes the school, believes the practice motivates students to work hard. 

鈥淜ids know their data and teachers know their data,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey are using it to move instruction. That鈥檚 exactly what we’ve been trying to do for years.鈥� 

Her region encompasses 175 schools that stretch from the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro 鈥� the busiest container terminal in the U.S. 鈥� to the historic Black neighborhoods south of downtown. They include Maya Angelou Community High School, one of Carvalho鈥檚 121 鈥減riority schools,鈥� where he takes a more hands-on approach to tracking data and staffing schools with extra counselors and academic coaches. 

鈥淚 spend 90% of my time dealing with 10% of the schools,鈥� Carvalho said at a conference at  Harvard University in September. 鈥淭hey are accountable directly to me.鈥� 

The schools have some of the poorest achievement and attendance rates in the district, and in Maya Angelou鈥檚 case, a high rate of community violence. In 2019, the listed the high school among those with at least 50 homicides within a one-mile radius over a five-year period. In 2023, a stray bullet during a football game at the school.

鈥淏eing an inner-city school, it’s very easy to focus on the negative aspects that happen here. That’s the low hanging fruit,鈥� said Principal Jose Meza. That鈥檚 why he encourages staff and students to 鈥渇lood鈥� social media platforms with positive news, like a poetry night for newcomers, and the 13 students admitted to Berkeley and the University of California Los Angeles this year.

鈥淓mbracing our roots and honoring our heritage,鈥� the school posted on Instagram for Hispanic Heritage Month, with a reel of students dancing, sampling food and displaying artwork.

But in trying to make students feel welcome and safe inside the fence that surrounds the school, Meza has also tightened up the academic program. He reassigned counselors to students by grade level, rather than grouping them alphabetically. The change allows ninth graders to get extra support as they adjust to the demands of high school.

He gives students a double dose of Algebra I each day if they need it, and moved credit recovery courses to the regular school day instead of afterschool or on Saturdays when they鈥檙e less likely to come. His students have posted gains in state scores the past two years, but two-thirds of 11th graders still don鈥檛 meet expectations in language arts and over 80% are failing math.

鈥淗alf of our students are coming in below grade level,鈥� he said 鈥淭hat doesn’t mean we’re going to treat them as such. We’re going to have expectations that are aligned to the standards.鈥�

Carvalho aims to create more consistency in teaching across the district, but he鈥檚 choosing math and reading programs based on the experience of schools that tested programs and found them to be effective with high-need students, said Rick Miller, CEO of CORE Districts, a network of nine large systems in the state, including LAUSD.

Illustrative Math, now being phased in districtwide, is one example. Teachers at Jordan High School, in a densely populated neighborhood of housing projects and small homes, were among the first to use the program. 

On a Monday morning earlier this month, 10th graders in Luis Lopez鈥檚 geometry class opened their workbooks to a new lesson on congruent shapes. They chatted with classmates about the set of rectangles on the page before Lopez stepped in to remind them of vocabulary words like 鈥渧ertices鈥� and 鈥渃orresponding.鈥� The curriculum is structured so that students grapple with new concepts and work together on problems before teachers deliver a full lesson. 

鈥淲hen we were going to school, especially in math, it was 鈥業 will model. I’m the teacher and now 鈥� you’ll just do 100 problems,鈥� 鈥� said Principal Alex Kim. This curriculum, he said, flips that process while also ensuring the tasks focus on grade-level material.

The program has gained popularity in other districts. The New York City Public Schools saw a decline in scores after implementing the curriculum in hundreds of schools. But two , one in Missouri and one in Maryland, found that students using Illustrative Math outperformed those who didn鈥檛. At Jordan, a quarter of 11th graders met expectations in math, compared to less than 4% two years ago.

鈥楬istoric generational implications鈥�

To some former LAUSD parents, the improvements are too little, too late.

They are cynical about any post-pandemic rebound, saying that the district contributed to learning loss by staying closed almost until the end of the 2020鈥�21 school year. 

鈥淚 don’t think LAUSD should get credit for putting out a fire that it was responsible for lighting,鈥� said Ben Austin, a longtime Democratic political adviser and former member of the state school board. 鈥淢y daughters didn’t go to school for 18 months, along with all the other kids in LAUSD. That obviously had historic generational implications.鈥�

California鈥檚 sluggish reopening affected students statewide, but what angered some LAUSD parents the most was the teachers union鈥檚 influence over remote instructional time during school closures. In March 2021, 社区黑料 reported that the union negotiated a reduced, six-hour school day despite district officials saying they didn鈥檛 want to 鈥渟hortchange the students.鈥� The revelation came during a lawsuit, against the district and the union.

The agreement promises 45 hours per year of high-dosage tutoring to 100,000 students who are the furthest behind as well as summer school for up to 250,000 students in the district who were affected by the extended closures.

During the 2020-21 school year, Judith Larson said her daughter鈥檚 remote classes often 鈥渆nded well before they were supposed to鈥� or that teachers used the sessions to collect homework assignments rather than provide live instruction. Her daughter lost so much ground in math that last year, as a junior in high school, she scored at a sixth grade level. In English, she was two years behind and losing hope that she would be able to attend the University of California Los Angeles, her dream school. Now a senior, she鈥檚 made progress, but still struggles in math. 

鈥淪he is working hard to bridge the gap,鈥� her mother said. 鈥淚 am hoping that the high-dose tutoring 鈥� will help her get there.鈥�

As with schools nationwide, the pandemic worsened longstanding achievement gaps in LAUSD. There鈥檚 still a 30 percentage point difference between poor students and those from wealthier families in reading and math. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 a long way to go,鈥� and 鈥渨ith each year, progress gets harder,鈥� Miller said. But as a former state education official, he never expected LAUSD to outperform the state. 鈥淭hey were too big.鈥�

This year, LAUSD鈥檚 growth exceeded the state鈥檚 and California鈥檚 other large school districts. During the press event at Maywood Elementary, state Superintendent Tony Thurmond was on hand to mark the achievement. He organized a webinar so other districts in the state could 鈥渉ear some of the stories about what has created that success.鈥�

Speaker after speaker stepped to the podium to share in what one board member called a 鈥渨atershed moment鈥� for LAUSD. Drawing a few chuckles, Carvalho paused to note that Thurmond had to slip out early and 鈥済ive some love to other lower-performing districts.鈥�