As the second largest school district in the country, LAUSD serves almost 730,000 students, 76 percent of whom are socio-economically disadvantaged (i.e., free and reduced lunch) and 73 percent of whom are Hispanic. The district is severely underperforming, especially in middle and high school grade levels, and is in Year 2 Program Improvement status (i.e., has not met Adequate Yearly Progress for 4 years). There are almost 160,000 middle school students and 195,000 high school students. 43 percent of these students attend schools with a California Academic Performance Index rank in the bottom decile statewide.
Children in south and southeast L.A. have an even more dramatic educational disadvantage. There are over 41,000 middle school students (26 percent of district total) in 18 schools within this geographic area – 77 percent attend middle schools with more than 2,000 students, and 93% attend schools in the bottom 10 percent statewide. Over 99 percent of these 41,000 students are minority (mostly Hispanic), and 86 percent qualify for free and reduced lunch program.
Bright Star Schools, through its flagship school Stella Middle Charter Academy, has demonstrated that it can achieve significantly higher academic results with the same target population, while simultaneously creating a culture that builds character and accountability. In its first three years, Stella Academy has become the 3rd highest performing middle school in all of LAUSD with a 2007 API Base score of 834, giving it a statewide rank of 9 and similar schools rank of 10. Student English Language Arts proficiency levels are 300 percent of the comparable student population, and Math is over 400 percent. These students are now much more likely to succeed in high school and beyond.
Bright Star’s growth plan will target south and southeast Los Angeles – a geography (60 square miles) serving 26 percent of LAUSD’s middle school students. Bright Star will open 10 new middle schools by 2016. At full enrollment in 2020, Bright Star will serve 5000 students in grades 5-8, or approximately 10-15 percent of students in this region.
To download the Bright Star Schools Strategic Growth Plan, click here.
