Los Angeles schools superintendent Michelle King is expected to announce the school district’s best ever graduation rate when she delivers her first State of the District this morning.
King, who heads the nation’s second-largest school district, is scheduled to deliver the speech in the auditorium of James A. Garfield High School in East L.A. beginning at 9 a.m. Members of the Board of Education will be there, along with some 1,500 principals and administrator.
Although officials refused to release the graduation figure in advance of her speech, they confirmed it would surpass last year’s 72.2 percent, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The graduation rate King announces is expected to draw particular attention because more difficult academic requirements took effect this year. One result was that in December about half of seniors were in danger of failing to earn a diploma.
King, a former deputy superintendent who took over on Jan. 11, also is expected to allude to her three-year strategic plan, which is still in development. A confidential draft obtained by The Times commits to increasing student enrollment by expanding programs that are popular with parents, and better publicizing district successes.
The goal would be to raise the graduation rate by 1 percentage point a year, from 74 percent in 2017 to 75 percent in 2018 to 76 percent in 2019.
The draft projects the percentage of students who meet or surpass academic targets on state tests to rise in English from 35 percent to 36 percent to 37 percent over the three years, The Times reported. In math, the rise is from 27 percent to 28 percent to 29 percent.
