Non-profit investigative newsroom ProPublica has released an interactive tool that allows one to compare public schools (alas, charters seem not to be in the tool). You can find the tool at http://projects.propublica.org/schools/. So I decided to do a little comparison about the schools in the area, as everyone thinks my daughter’s school is so weak, given that (a) it is LAUSD, and (b) it is heavily minority in a poorer area of the valley. Guess what? They’re wrong.
Here are some numbers:
School | % Free Lunch | % Taking At Least 1 AP |
% Taking Advanced Math |
% White |
% Black |
% Hispanic |
% Asian |
Cleveland HS | 67% | 26% | 19% | 13% | 6% | 64% | 17% |
Van Nuys HS | 68% | 25% | 17% | 13% | 5% | 61% | 22% |
North Hollywood HS | 71% | 25% | 16% | 16% | 5% | 70% | 8% |
El Camino Real HS | 22% | 23% | 17% | 53% | 7% | 25% | 15% |
Chatsworth HS | 47% | 18% | 18% | 21% | 9% | 50% | 20% |
Reseda HS | 63% | 17% | 17% | 12% | 5% | 74% | 9% |
Taft HS | 43% | 16% | 16% | 41% | 17% | 32% | 9% |
Monroe HS | 69% | 15% | 9% | 5% | 3% | 83% | 8% |
Kennedy HS | 54% | 13% | 13% | 10% | 5% | 76% | 9% |
Canoga Park HS | 70% | 12% | 11% | 7% | 5% | 82% | 6% |
Panorama HS | 69% | 12% | 7% | 1% | 3% | 89% | 7% |
Arleta HS | 97% | 9% | 7% | 1% | 1% | 95% | 2% |
Alas, I can’t include Birmingham or Granada in the comparison, as they didn’t include charters.