It's hard to believe but it's that time of the year again - the beginning of a new school year. Welcome back! I am excited to see the students and families arriving to the first day if school eager to see their friends and new classes. This year the first day of school included three new High Schools in my District, Board District 7. These three new schools will run on traditional calendars and serve to represent the promise of ending year-round schooling for good. Every student deserves the best education and year round school is not good for our students. At the beginning of the school year for 2012, Los Angeles Unified School District will end the year round calendar.
The last three years have been very difficult with the State cutting our budget by almost 2 Billion dollars. However, despite this setback, our LAUSD community and family have stepped up to the plate to continue our academic achievements. We have seen significant gains in our students passing the CAHSEE which represent an increase in math and science proficiency. Traditionally our mathematic scores lagged behind English language arts, but for the first time our mathematics scores are the same as English language arts. Our CAHSEE percentage growth was double the States growth. We have also seen significant growth in our API. LAUSD had the highest points growth in the State for urban districts. This is also our fourth consecutive year of double digit growth.
