The Big City School District That Has Education Reformers Talking

The L.A. Unified school district is improving faster than other large, urban school systems. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says that L.A. is among the districts that set an example for the entire country on what can be accomplished when schools embrace reform. Duncan credits the district’s progress to its transformation of the recruiting and training process for teachers and principals. The district has put demanding teaching standards in place, and in part links teacher evaluations to test scores. Duncan says that the “ambitious, courageous, and sometimes controversial reforms” are working for the district’s students — the ultimate goal and highest mark of success for any education reform.