Background for Change Los Angeles has some excellent schools and a number of indicators show that District students are performing better. Student and staff attendance is up. More students are taking Advanced Placement courses. These achievements need to be celebrated. At the same time, the District's achievements are overshadowed by some serious problems.
Student achievement is still unacceptably low.
One-fourth of the District's teachers lack adequate qualifications. The District has been taken to task for its handling of real estate acquisition, environmental safety, budgeting, and other functions. Coverage of the District in the press is almost always negative and on occasion outright hostile. We need to recognize that these problems are symptoms of a more general problem involving the management of the District. In a 1997 review of the management practices of the District commissioned by the Los Angeles Board of Education, Arthur Anderson Consulting delivered a stinging and harsh indictment of the District.