Parents in Los Angeles this week will receive a one-page report card that will provide a less varnished and more accessible picture of how well their child's school is doing.
For high schools, the report card will provide more accurate dropout figures and display, for example, how many students are proficient in English and math -- and whether that number is going up or down. Much of the information is available elsewhere, but some nuggets can be found only on the report card, such as what percentage of 10th-graders are on track to attend college.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, January 15, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 54 words Type of Material: Correction
Report cards: An article in Monday's California section on new report cards that include data on students and schools in Los Angeles mentioned the two primary donors who helped fund the project, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, but omitted the California Community Foundation, which also contributed.
Such statistics are available because the Los Angeles Unified School District has been collecting information on individual students for about a decade. But until now, the nation's second-largest school system didn't volunteer much data beyond what the state required.
"Many parents are going to be alarmed because this is real information," said Mike McGalliard, who heads MLA Partners Schools, a nonprofit leading reform efforts at Manual Arts High School south of downtown.
McGalliard applauds the effort, despite a sobering picture for Manual Arts: 3% of students are proficient in math; 13% in English. Moreover, only 13% of sophomores are on track to qualify for admission to a University of California or Cal State campus. And only 37% of Manual Arts students from the class of 2008 graduated on time.
This abysmal on-time graduation rate, which the district is now providing to parents, is a starker statistic than the school's most recent official graduation rate of 76%, as calculated by the state.
New York City, which assigns a letter grade to every school, is among a handful of school districts to issue such report cards.
"Not a lot of districts have done it, and not a lot have done it at this level of breadth," said Marshall Tuck, a top education advisor to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
In the past, the district leaned heavily toward selecting data that demonstrated success or progress while downplaying or submerging difficult truths, Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said.
"Some administrators use data selectively," said Cortines, who will unveil the report cards at a news conference today. "I want both the bad and good, and I don't want it sugarcoated."
Tuck and Cortines were instrumental in pushing forward the new report card. After Villaraigosa failed in an attempt to gain control of L.A. Unified, his team settled for authority over 10 low-performing schools. Cortines headed that effort as a deputy mayor, and Tuck worked for him.
