Partnership for Los Angeles Schools

TODAY Show surprises 99th Street teachers for going above and beyond

On August 13, 2021, the TODAY Show aired its visit to 99th Street Elementary School. The segment was part of the show’s back-to-school programming highlighting extraordinary teachers. The story focused on two 99th Street teachers – Kindra Anderson and Erika Castaneda – who consistently go above and beyond for their students. Members of the school community also shared their thoughts about each teacher. In addition to the segment, the NBC network worked with Amazon to provide $40,000 to 99th Street Elementary!

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Skechers gives to Edwin Markham Middle School

On September 2, 2021, Skechers surprised teachers at Edwin Markham Middle School with a visit from Sugar Ray Leonard, $10K for teacher supplies, gift certificates for footwear, and an all-expenses-paid to the Roundhouse Aquarium in Manhattan Beach for all 6th-grade classrooms! Skechers partnered with AdoptAClassroom and Sugar Ray Leonard to announce the surprise and provide remarks to teachers and students. (Photo credit: Skechers)

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Thirteen years in our network

Meet Daniel Aguilar and his family

Students who started kindergarten in our network when the Partnership began managing schools in 2008 just graduated from high school in 2021. Daniel Aguilar is one of those students. He capped off 13 years in our network by graduating from Roosevelt High School, after attending Sunrise Elementary and Hollenbeck Middle School. Now, he is attending UC Merced. Learn more about Daniel’s inspiring story.

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LA Times features Jordan High School Graduate

“She became a citizen one day and graduated near the top of her high school class the next”

This LA Times story highlights Pilar Diaz Bombino, who emigrated from Cuba in 2006 and was sworn in as a citizen of the United States on June 8, 2021. And on Wednesday, June 9, she graduated from Jordan High School with a 4.021! (Photo credit: Steve Lopez)

How School Districts Can Help Connect Students With High-Speed Internet Now

Read our third equity alert focused on the digital divide and our recommendations for how school districts can take action now to ensure all students have home broadband by fall 2021.

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Navigating the path to college completion for LA students

In May, as high school seniors make decisions about enrolling in college, we published a new policy brief entitled, “More than a Dream: Using ‘Best Fit’ College Advising to Help Students of Color Succeed.” This brief highlights key data that students and families should have access to when making their college decisions.

Read Our latest policy brief

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 19 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 (SENI) – created through a collaboration between the Advancement Project, Community Coalition, and InnerCity Struggle. The SENI takes a holistic measure of student need by including neighborhood conditions such as poverty, violence and access to resources. Fourteen of 19 Partnership schools are high- or highest-need. Specifically, our network includes Los Angeles’ fourth and ninth highest-need elementary schools; the second and fourth highest-need middle schools; and the seventh 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.