South LA schools follow state-wide graduation trends



Crenshaw HS

Crenshaw High School

Nearly a dozen South L.A. high schools have followed a positive statewide trend of rising graduation rates while simultaneously lowering the percentage of dropouts, according to data from the California Department of Education.

Schools with the highest graduation rates for the 2013-14 school year include Thirty-Second Street USC Performing Arts with a 100 percent graduation rate; Foshay Learning Center and Middle College High, each with 99 percent; King/Drew Medical Magnet with 96 percent and the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies with 95 percent.

Of the South L.A. high schools, even those with the lowest percentage of graduates recorded graduation rates that were only 10 percent below the LAUSD district-wide graduation rate of 70.4 percent, with a majority of them on an upward trend. [Read more…]

LAUSD software inflicts scheduling chaos



In South L.A. and elsewhere, the L.A. Unified School District’s

buggy software has thwarted plans for students and teachers alike.

Misis | Matt Tinoco

Crenshaw High senior Simone Al-Alim and her father, Kahllid Al-Alim, are pressing the L.A. County Superior Court to investigate the district’s handling of its glitchy software.  | Matt Tinoco

Speaking to an audience of stakeholders in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s boardroom who seemed to already know what he was going to say, Superintendent Ramon Cortines announced that the district is, indeed, committed to resolving the slew of issues stemming from its new My Integrated Student Information System, MISIS for short. Doing so, however, will cost the district both time and money, Cortines said.

MISIS is LAUSD’s attempt to improve and standardize computer records across the district. The system is supposed to provide a centralized location for teachers, administrators and parents to access student information about all of their classes at any time. In addition, the system is supposed to assemble student schedules and class rosters, automatically, as well as to provide teachers with a place to take attendance. [Read more…]