DISTRICT SHOULD BE AT NATION'S TOP.Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. Superintendent Roy Romer Roy R. Romer (born October 31, 1928 in Garden City, Kansas, United States) was the 39th governor of Colorado and served as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District from 2001 to 2006. touted rising test scores Tuesday and a flurry of school construction as evidence the district is on the right track. In an annual state of the district speech, timed to coincide with the return of many of the LAUSD's teachers and students to school this month, Romer's address was part pep rally, part reality check of how much further the district must go to catch up to other districts in the state and around the country. ``Our goal is to be in the top 10 percent of (urban school districts in) the nation'' he told nearly 2,000 administrators and teacher union officials at the Los Angeles Convention Center The Los Angeles Convention Center (abbreviated LACC) is a convention center in downtown Los Angeles. The LACC hosts annual events such as the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, and was best known to video games fans as host to E3 until its cessation in 2006. . Romer did not say when the district could achieve that goal, but school board President Jose Huizar said in an earlier address that the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) wants to achieve it by 2010. Romer said the task wouldn't be easy in a district that has nearly twice the poverty rate of other school districts and continues to lag behind national and state academic performance averages. With the rush to build more than 160 new schools over the coming years, Romer also anticipated tough decisions that will involve relocating businesses and people to make room for construction. He said if the district is to improve student achievement, it must not only construct more classrooms but improve teaching assessment through diagnostic testing Diagnostic testing Testing performed to determine if someone is affected with a particular disease. Mentioned in: Von Willebrand Disease . Teachers say a focus on testing in recent years has taken away from valuable classroom instruction, but Romer said the district would be careful to balance the two. Despite Romer's often rocky relationship with the teachers union, many in the crowd praised the former governor of Colorado for tackling some of the district's toughest issues and being the first superintendent in decades to invite the teachers union to the annual meeting for administrators. ``He has started to bridge the leadership gap,'' said Michael Smith Michael or Mike Smith may refer to: Journalists
Rachel Uranga, (818) 713-3741 rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com |
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