Over 100 community members gathered at the South Gate Auditorium in early May, enjoying performances by the Woodcraft Rangers Mariachi and Folklorico dance group alongside city leaders, tutoring providers, and non-profit organizations. Innovate Parent Leaders organizing in Southeast L.A. (SELA) brought everyone together to learn how LAUSD can address tutoring deserts.
For the last 4 years, SELA families have been fighting to improve the schools in their community, where only 12 out of 89 LAUSD schools were meeting statewide standards in English and math before the pandemic. The disheveled transition to distance learning brought on new problems LAUSD schools would need to address:
“As a mother, I have had very difficult times emotionally and financially, loss of loved ones, loss of work, illness and on top of that seeing my daughter being affected academically during the pandemic by learning loss.” – Aida Vega, Innovate Parent Leader, Southeast Los Angeles
With each day that passed without a plan from LAUSD to address learning loss, families grew more concerned about their children falling further behind in school and not being prepared for the next grade. Parent leaders knew that meeting the needs of their students would require strong partnership and commitment from schools, communities, and families.
Parent Leader Katy Meza stood proudly on the South Gate Auditorium stage and exclaimed, “Tutoring is not a privilege it’s a necessity. In Southeast L.A., we are in an educational crisis and we can’t afford to fall any lower. It’s time to stand up and support our students, it’s time to strengthen our children’s wings – they deserve to fly high, fulfill their goals and achieve their dreams. Mayors, community members and members of LAUSD it’s time to tackle [the issue], not worry. The time is here and now.” Some civic leaders in Southeast L.A. were ready to do just that.
City leaders in Southeast L.A., Al Rios (Mayor of South Gate) and Eddie Martinez (Vice Mayor of Huntington Park) joined Parent Leaders on stage and stepped up to meet the needs of students. Both cities collectively promised over $200k to help Innovate Parent Leaders launch the Southeast L.A. Regional Tutoring Initiative. As a result, the initiative’s first pilots launched this Summer, and over 60 SELA students are receiving high quality tutoring from Southeast Community Foundation, a local tutoring provider. The pilots are on track to serve 200 SELA students by the end of 2022.
When asked what this tutoring Initiative means for SELA cities, Mayor of South Gate Al Rios shared, “I think it’s the beginning of hopefully more funding. That the school district would match this and other communities would participate…because they are also in a similar situation.”
After years of being left in the dark by LAUSD about addressing academic recovery, Innovate Parent Leaders are proud to have worked with their city leaders to invest in our kids – the future of Los Angeles. An analysis by the 74 estimates LAUSD schools experienced 22 weeks of learning loss in math and 18 weeks in reading and has yet to offer targeted resources to address learning loss. Now, families are making headlines for urging the district to follow in SELA’s footsteps to address learning loss and use academic recovery funds to make their vision for centrally-run high quality tutoring programs throughout the district a reality.
Innovate Public Schools is a nonprofit community organization that builds the capacity of parents and educators working together to create excellent and equitable public schools.