According to the Los Angeles Times, LAUSD is considering implementing a new ranking system, giving schools a rating from 1 to 5. I quit. The main thesis of this site has been that you cannot boil school performance down to one number. Yes, some schools are good at supporting English Language Learners. Yes, others are […]
What was your school’s AP Pass Rate?
Every year, I take some time to look at Advanced Placement Test pass rates (Prior years posts are here and here). Advanced Placement (AP) tests are highly sought-after courses that some colleges honor for college credit. Most colleges only honor credit for a score of 4 or 5 on the test. The California Department of […]
Why I Strike
Earlier this week, I read a letter written by a UTLA area chair that described this week’s strike in apocalyptic terms: “this is our Armageddon. This strike has slowly developed into the ultimate battle between good and evil…” He argues that if the district were to win this fight, it would be a win for […]
What is your school’s UC admittance rate and how does it stack up?
In the past, I have calculated UC admittance rates for schools in Los Angeles. I take the UC admit raw numbers, and compare it with the 12th grade enrollment numbers from that year, and publish a percent. I did it for 2015 and 2016. I’ve been meaning to do an update for the most recent […]
What happens when a charter school opens based on faulty data? A look back at PUC iPrep
This morning, PUC iPrep closed its doors. It had been on the brink of collapse for weeks, and watching this happen in slow motion has been extraordinarily heartbreaking to follow this story on the Eagle Rock Facebook group. Why did they close? On their websites, they state “Enrollment is the largest source of funding for […]
Feelings are Hard. Questions are Harder.
Last time, I looked at how parents, students and teachers answered the same question. Another interesting comparison is to look at how elementary schools, middle school and high school students answer the same question. There are only a few questions that are asked to all three groups. I was really interested with the questions about […]
How Students, Parents and Staff Respond Differently to the School Experience Survey
Every year, LAUSD gives a school experience survey to parents, students and staff, and publishes the results on a very nice searchable database. The 2017-18 survey results are now available. This survey has SOOOOO much information, from behavior to technology to parent engagement. But my favorite thing to do is look at whether parents, teachers and […]
These are the top 25 high schools in Los Angeles by AP Pass Rate
Some schools truly stand out when it comes to AP pass rates. The median pass rate (counting only 4s and 5s – not 3s) for LA schools is about 14%. But there are some schools that are far surpassing that. The schools below have a pass rate above 25%. On this list you have some […]
AP Pass Percents for Every High School in California
The way that the state of California releases AP test data is very strange. First of all, they release it over a year late. So on July 3, 2018, the CDE released the AP data for the tests taken in May of 2017. They also don’t really advertise that the data is being released, its just […]
I’m a LAUSD Teacher of the Year!
I am excited to announce that I was selected as one of LAUSD’s Teachers of the Year! I am very honored by the award, but even more humbling is how I was nominated. Earlier in my career, when I taught at a charter school, I would often go entire school years with exactly the same […]