More than 150 students and community leaders gathered in February to hear Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy and LMU School of Education Dean Shane P. Martin discuss the future of education in Los Angeles in a conversation moderated by Fernando Guerra, professor and director of the LMU Center for the Study of Los Angeles. The event was part of the center’s ongoing Forecast L.A. series that brings thought leaders to LMU on issues critical to the future of the region.
Asked what the three main things that are different today for Los Angeles schools than they were 20 years ago, Martin listed the growing presence and role of technology in education, the city’s shifting demographics as one most diverse areas in the country, and the whole movement toward choice in the types of schools available to students.
In response to a Center for the Study of Los Angeles survey where respondents said that education was the most important issue facing Los Angeles, Deasy had good news to share. He said, “LAUSD was just named the most improved public school system in the country in the just released National Assessment of Education Progress. We had never been in that place before.” He credited LAUSD’s outstanding teachers, saying, “What gets missed is we have astonishing teachers. I visit schools every day. I teach on occasion. And mostly my jaw is on the ground at the quality of teaching in really difficult circumstances.”
Deasy also praised LMU’s graduate programs in education, saying, “We disproportionately hire LMU grads, and that we can say on the record, because the data would support it, in particular…the work you all do around administrative support preparation. It rocks. It’s really good.”