Date: December, 2007
Author(s): United Way of Greater Los Angeles
Summary:
TheA-G story documents howthousands of concerned students, parents and community membersmobilized a grassrootsmovement to make A-G classes available to every LAUnified School student.A-G classes are a series of classes that are essential forpreparation for college that include mathematics,language arts and science. These classes have historically been unavailable to many poor and minority communities. The report not only documents the conditions of such communities in relation toeducational opportunities, but also,documents strategies that helped make change possible so that policy makers and concerned citizens in the futurecan learn from this successin making social change.
Key Findings:
- According to the report, 77% of students at Roosevelt and Garfield school wanted to go to college but were unaware of the admission requirements or did not have A-G classesavailable to them.
- While the national high school graduation rate is 75% for Whites, it is about 50% for their African-American and Latino counterparts.
- One year of high school drop outs costs the state of California 14 billion dollars in unemployment and other costs.
- 85% of jobs are classified as skills jobs,requiring strong reading and comprehension skills as well asmastery of basic math concepts.