Los Angeles Unified School District experienced a 3% increase in its graduation rate for the 2023-24 school year, representing an all-time high of 87%, officials announced Friday.
During a news conference on Friday at Jefferson High School, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho highlighted the district’s achievements, pointing to improvements not only in the graduation rate but also across seven key statewide indicators: English language arts, mathematics, performance of English language learners, graduation rates, suspensions, chronic absenteeism and college/career readiness.
“At last, we can say that, once again, Los Angeles Unified has outperformed other urban districts across the state,” Carvalho said.
According to the California School Dashboard, a color-coded snapshot of academic success and lack of, more students graduated from LAUSD compared to the 2022-23 school year, which stood at 83.6%.
The superintendent cited their investment in summer school, where over more than 100,000 students attended, enabling students to make up credits.
Students who are living at or below poverty levels, English language learners, experiencing homelessness or foster care had improved graduation rates, according to Carvalho.
The dashboard uses colors — the highest level of performance being blue, followed by green, the middle being yellow, then orange and the lowest performance being red.
LAUSD improved four of the seven indicators, and had none in orange or red. Graduation rate and college/career readiness were in the green.
The district had one indicator in the blue for suspensions, which Carvalho added: “References the (LAUSD) board’s long standing belief that suspending kids out of school is not the appropriate measure.”
Additionally, the dashboard showed LAUSD moved the needle in the academic categories, and the district reduced chronic absenteeism.
During the 2022-23 school year, 31% of district students were chronically absent, missing at least 10% of their instructional days, according to the numbers. That figure dropped to 23.3% in the 2023-24 school year.
In the wake of the coronavirus, schools utilized remote-learning and slowly transitioned into a hybrid model, and eventually returning to in-person learning.
In 2022, LAUSD had a 39.8% of chronic absenteeism. Students were also underperforming academically.
That same year, dashboard data showed LAUSD students at 30.8 points and 71.5 points below standard in English language and mathematics, respectively.
LAUSD Board of Education member Kelly Gonez, who represents the 6th District, encompassing East San Fernando Valley, said the data speaks to the “exceptional progress” made by the district for its students at all grade levels.
Nick Melvoin, the board member representing the 4th District, covering West Los Angeles and West San Fernando Valley, highlighted their recent actions in protecting their immigrant and LGBTQ+ students and staff.
“I want our community to know that we’re standing with you in these times,” he added.
Karla Estrada, deputy superintendent of instruction, concluded that while the district is proud of their work more needs to be done.
“Our static proficiency is still low, but our rate of improvement is phenomenal compared to everyone else,” Estrada said.