Speaking for Ourselves: One Community’s Fight for Educational Equity

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To meet the challenges of the 21st Century economy, all students must leave high school with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in college. Unfortunately, too many high schools don’t offer students the basic building blocks they need: a challenging, college-preparatory curriculum. This problem has been particularly acute in the nation’s second-largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, where only 16 percent of Latino ninth graders graduated from high school having mastered the state’s college-prep curriculum. Thanks to relentless and pioneering work by parents, community advocates and students themselves, the college-prep curriculum will be a graduation requirement for all students in the Los Angeles school system by 2016. Our speakers, who were deeply involved in the effort to transform the Los Angeles policy, will share lessons on creating a climate for change, talk about their continuing work to sustain this groundbreaking reform and offer lessons on how to advocate for meaningful change in secondary schools.

Speakers:
Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Executive Director, The Community Coalition,, Los Angeles, CA
Russlynn Ali, Director, Education Trust-West, Oakland, CA