A webinar with national education leaders

Punctuated Equilibrium: A Conversation About How to Move Forward in Public Education

On May 26, 2020, national education leaders explored the idea of punctuated equilibrium in education and how this moment of rapid change prompts us to examine what we are learning in the wake of the spread of COVID-19. Panelists discussed what we’re learning, how we address issues of equity and access, and how we seize this opportunity for public education to emerge stronger than ever. View the recording here.

Partnership students highlighted on CNN

Standout Seniors from Santee Education Complex and Roosevelt High

CNN featured graduating seniors, Keith Wallick and Amanda Zetina, along with their most inspirational teachers during its “Class of 2020: In This Together” segment. Hear their inspirational stories!

Bridging LA’s Digital Divide

Increasing Access to WiFi and Technology for Low-Income Communities and Communities of Color

On April 22, 2020, we published a research brief, which highlights the lack of digital devices and internet access in low-income communities like Watts, South LA, and Boyle Heights. Media outlets including the Los Angeles Times and LAist published stories featuring our findings as well. Read about our findings and recommendations

Equity and Justice Alert

Helping clear the path for high school seniors

On April 3, 2020, along with 10 other community and civil rights organizations, we sent a letter to state leaders calling for the UC and CSU systems to go further in supporting high school seniors on their path to college and extend the deadlines for all. We invite you to join us and advocate for these extensions to give our students more time and support on their path to college. Read the letter and sign in support!

Partnership’s 18 schools close in response to LA Unified action

Update regarding the Partnership's response to COVID-19

The Los Angeles Unified School District announced it will close schools through the end of the school year to help school communities stay safe and prevent the spread of COVID-19. This decision includes closing our 18 Partnership network schools. During this window, the Partnership’s home office will be closed and our team is working remotely. We will continue to partner with LA Unified to ensure that our students, families, and school staff have as much support as possible. Find educational and family resources here.

Empowering Our Schools

Our mission is to transform schools and revolutionize school systems to empower all students with a high-quality education.

We are implementing a sustainable transformation model across 18 high-need district schools, while influencing large-scale, systemic changes in LA Unified, the state of California, and beyond.

Successfully increasing our schools’ high school graduation rate

Grad rate at Partnership schools is at 80%

On December 12, 2019, the California Department of Education released its 2019 California School Dashboard, which showed that graduation rates at Partnership high schools have more than doubled since 2008, from a baseline of 36% to 80%. We’re thrilled to see that every year more students are graduating, and with our emphasis on a culture of college completion, more are heading to college.

Partnership Students Demonstrate Growth in English and Math Proficiency

Impressive Network Growth in SBAC Test Results

The 2018-19 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (commonly known as Smarter Balanced or SBAC) results show that the percentage of students in the Partnership network meeting or exceeding math standards increased by three percentage points and the percentage of students meeting or exceeding English Language Arts (ELA) standards grew by four percentage points. The Partnership's results compare favorably to the state's one percentage point growth in math and one percentage point growth in ELA for 2018-19. See more results in our press release.

What Makes Us Unique The Partnership is one of the largest, in-district public school transformation organizations in the United States. We are an independent non-profit organization that promotes change through an innovative transformation model: working with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LA Unified) under a Memorandum of Understanding, the Partnership manages a network of district schools in Boyle Heights, South LA, and Watts. Our model relies on sustainable and scalable solutions that can be applied at schools beyond our 18 campuses to dramatically improve outcomes for all students.

Scalable and Sustainable Because the vast majority of our nation’s students still attend traditional public schools, we believe in finding solutions to empower students in the district context. And knowing the limitations of public education funding, we only provide supports that can be scaled to and sustainably funded at other high-need district schools. This allows us to influence broader change by working within and alongside LA Unified to find and share solutions.

Highest-Need Schools We work where the need is greatest. As ranked by the Student Equity Need Index - created through a collaboration between the Advancement Project, Community Coalition, and InnerCity Struggle - that takes a holistic measure of student need by including neighborhood conditions such as poverty, violence and access to resources. Fifteen of 18 Partnership schools are high- or highest-need. Specifically, our network includes Los Angeles’ second, fifth and seventh highest-need elementary schools; the fourth and fifth highest-need middle schools; and fourth highest-need high school.

Systems Change Our experience directly supporting schools uniquely positions us to identify limitations and opportunities within schools and systems. Our systems change work removes barriers to student success while scaling up solutions. A recent example of our work centers around equitable funding for high-need schools. In 2018, through advocacy with our partners, we were instrumental in helping secure approval from LA Unified’s Board of Education for a revised Student Equity Need Index, which now includes indicators that more accurately identify and fund the district’s highest need schools. We also advocated for allocation of approximately $260 million of funds to schools in 2019-20 based on their index ranking. We believe equity-based funding is a critical issue for school districts and we are continuing to advocate for more discretionary funds to be prioritized for our highest-need schools.

Power in Partners The historically underserved schools we manage need an array of supports that extend beyond our work, and we know we cannot achieve our mission on our own. Our success is built by creating strong partnerships and leveraging the expertise of partner organizations, community members, and dozens of funders. Our partners help serve the individual needs of our schools and students by providing social emotional supports, health and wellness care, academic interventions, after-school programming, and much more, ensuring success beyond what we alone can provide.