Overview

With twelve schools, 18,000 students and 1,500 employees, The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools is the largest non-district school operator in Los Angeles, and given its close relationship with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, it is the most visible. The Partnership's mission is to transform teaching and learning so all students have a foundation for academic excellence and personal success. The Partnership's goals are to turnaround some of the lowest performing schools in LAUSD and implement a scalable reform model that can be replicated district-wide. Working alongside LAUSD, the Partnership's impact will extend well beyond the current schools to make all students in LAUSD better prepared for college and rewarding careers.

The Partnership School Model

To turnaround low performing schools and accelerate academic achievement, the Partnership is implementing a comprehensive turnaround model that addresses key instructional, cultural and policy issues that have plagued LAUSD schools for years. Our key educational strategies are:

Leadership Development: Creating the conditions necessary for students to succeed requires a dramatic change in the way that administrators, teachers, and school governance groups define and practice leadership. The Partnership builds school leadership by focusing on three key areas: instructional leadership and operations, teacher leaders, and school governance and advisory groups.

Instructional Delivery: Quality classroom instruction is at the core of improved student achievement. Excellent teaching and learning is supported by a three-tiered emphasis on standards-based lesson design, instructional delivery, and creating and sustaining professional learning communities.

Student Intervention and Acceleration: Quality education requires that schools provide students with customized intervention programs that will accelerate the rate at which they excel academically. The Partnership supports schools in this work by coordinating professional development for (K-8) intervention teams, leading the creation of targeted student intervention models, and implementing credit recovery and California high school exit exam (CAHSEE) support systems.

Family and Community Engagement: To support learning in the classroom the Partnership uses a vital and often untapped strategy—engaging parents and surrounding communities in the campaign to boost student achievement. Family engagement initiatives focus on building leadership capacity for parent leaders on campus, increasing parent and family education programs that emphasize supporting academic excellence, and involving our communities in key academic goals at the school site.

School Operations Design & Delivery: To ensure that the entire school community is focused on classroom instruction, the Partnership helps schools improve key operational areas, build a foundation for performance management, facilitate the use of technology, secure flexibilities to enable more local control, create smaller and more personalized learning environments, and develop effective communication tools.

Accomplishments to Date

School Report Card: In collaboration with LAUSD, the Partnership developed a School Report Card that provides parents and school communities with actual data on the overall progress of individual schools. The first of its kind tool tracks school performance beyond test-scores and enables real transparency and accountability. Originally designed for Partnership and other iDesign schools, the School Report Card's potential impact was such that it was subsequently implemented to all District schools

MyData Dashboard: To support data-driven instruction, the Partnership worked with LAUSD to develop and implement MyData, a web-based program that provides teachers with real-time student data (e.g., testing performance, attendance). MyData was launched to a pilot group of teachers at 37 schools, including the ten Partnership schools. Due to its success, this initiative has been embraced by the District and will be rolled out to all District schools.

Roosevelt High School Converts to Traditional Calendar and Small Schools: To increase instructional days, improve teacher collaboration, promote efficient planning, and create a safer school community, the Partnership has converted Roosevelt High School to a single-track calendar and seven small schools. For the first time in 19 years, Roosevelt students will receive the full 180 days of instruction. Roosevelt is also transitioning into seven autonomous Small Schools in 2010 and re-designing its master schedule to ensure a deeper focus on a college prep curriculum and a clear alignment with A-G requirements.

Improved System-wide Professional Development: Twenty eight Partnership teachers were selected to participate in the Teach Tank program, where they developed model classrooms that serve as hubs for the initial development of effective instructional practices. To complement the professional development occurring during the school day, the Partnership implemented a series of four mini-conferences focused on improving teaching and learning in the classroom. Teaching experts from across the country presented and shared their instructional knowledge on a variety of topics.

Increased Parent Engagement: The Partnership helped establish school-based Family Action Teams at each of its schools, consisting of teachers, parents, community members, and administrators. These teams meet monthly to create goals, strategize, and plan ways to better connect families directly to the school. This year, each school set the following two goals: to have 50% parent participation in student achievement activities and to have 50% of parents sign a Parent Compact.

More Money to Schools: The Partnership is working to ensure that more money reaches the classroom. We are creating a fair per-pupil funding model with LAUSD that ensures that dollars follow students. This school year, Partnership schools have received $2 million in additional funds because of this new funding structure.

For more information on the Partnership for Los Angeles, click here. (PDF)