Mayor Villaraigosa announces grant to prevent chronic truancy
Workforce Investment Grant
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today announced the city will receive at least $10 million in federal funds to help keep chronically absent students in school.
The federal Workforce Investment Grant will be given to the Los Angeles Unified School District to hire full-time staff that will work with students year-round to improve attendance.
The grant could be as high as $13 million. The amount might go up after Congress finalizes its budget, but $10 million is guaranteed.
The announcement was timed with Student Recovery Day, an annual event where district and city leaders visit the homes of students who rarely attend school and try and persuade them to come back.
“Every student, no matter their previous attendance record, deserves a second chance to get back to school and on the right track,” Villaraigosa said.
The mayor said he nearly dropped out of high school but got back on track with help from his mother and a dedicated teacher. “We know all too well the social and economic costs for every dropout are high,” Villaraigosa said.
“They are more likely to face a lifetime of poverty, unemployment and possibly even crime.”
The mayor said the money will also be used to create partnerships between LAUSD and community colleges he hopes will drive students back to school, a community college or a workforce training program.
United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing close to 40,000 district teachers and staff, said the district has made student attendance worse by laying off 80 attendance counselors.
“It is incredibly shortsighted that LAUSD has laid off over 80 trained experienced professionals who are doing one of the most crucial support jobs in the district,” UTLA President Warren Fletcher said. “A problem as pervasive and insidious as the dropout rate cannot be solved with a one-day photo op.
This vital work needs to be done all school year long, not just on one special day.”
The union wants the district to use a $55 million year-end surplus to rehire some of the hundreds of recently laid off teachers and other staff.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The Los Angeles Unified School District needs critical reform in teacher evaluation, tenure and teaching assignment policies, according to a national study of the district released today.
The National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonpartisan, privately funded research organization based in Washington, D.C., studied five key policy areas—staffing, evaluations, tenure, compensation and work schedule.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Although the mayor of Los Angeles has no formal role in education, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will focus on education during his annual State of the City speech today at Jefferson High School.
Villaraigosa is expected to unveil new plans to "engage in more aggressive (education) reforms to give students and parents more and better choices,'' an aide said.
Villaraigosa is also expected to discuss the city's budget crisis, his transportation initiatives and public safety.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—About 2,500 sixth grade students at four under-performing middle schools in Los Angeles will receive free computers loaded with educational software, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced.
The schools are part of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a collaboration between the Los Angeles Unified School District and the city to improve the lowest performing schools.
The superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) believes that student test scores should be part of teachers’ evaluations.
Ramon C. Cortines, who is retiring next year, told administrators recently that the district will develop a new evaluation system, and he wants at least 30 percent of a teacher’s evaluation based on the scores. Currently, pupils’ California Standardized Test (CST) scores do not figure in the instructors’ evaluations.
The recent revelations of alleged long-term sexual abuse and inappropriate conduct by Los Angeles Unified School District personnel involving students has shocked the city, state and nation.
But even more devastating, it has shocked parents and made many ask the question: “How can I keep my child safe at school?”
Veteran licensed clinical psychologist Steve Ambrose recommends that parents have a conversation with their child about how it went at school.
