LA Unified Reports Record High Graduation Rate Amid Learning Loss

Students and parents arrive masked for the first day of the school year at Grant Elementary School in Los Angeles on Aug. 16, 2021. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) reported a record-high graduation rate last year amid high rates of absenteeism and pandemic learning loss in students.

About 86.1 percent of LAUSD students graduated in the 2021–22 school year, while California’s graduation rate was about 87.4 percent, according to state data released last month.

LAUSD’s most recent numbers are a 0.7 percent increase from the previous school year’s numbers, a 4.5 percent increase from 2019–20, and a 7 percent increase from pre-pandemic numbers in the 2018­–19 school year.

LAUSD Board President Kelly Gonez commended the district for the achievement despite COVID-19 pandemic setbacks.

“Today we celebrate our students and this landmark achievement,” she said in a Dec. 15 statement. “With the dedication and support of our teachers, administrators and staff, our students were able to thrive and succeed despite the difficulties posed the last two years by the pandemic.”

LAUSD Superintendent Albert Carvalho said the climbing graduation rates were an “early sign of success” from the school district’s 2022–26 Strategic Plan, which was developed last spring.

“We are confident ... our vision of transforming Los Angeles Unified into the premiere urban District in the nation is being actualized,” he said in a Dec. 15 statement. “The Los Angeles Unified school community has demonstrated an indefatigable resiliency in the face of challenges from the pandemic, and this latest data point validates the progress we are making.”

Alberto Carvalho, then-Miami-Dade Schools superintendent, is seen during a school board meeting in Miami, on March 1, 2018. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Part of Carvalho’s Strategic Plan includes better student outreach and attendance, attracting more students into the district, expanding tutoring, and delivering “a holistic education that responds to academic, social-emotional and psychological needs,” according to the district.

The pandemic brought on several setbacks for the district, including enrollment declines, chronic absenteeism, and learning loss, according to district officials.

LAUSD students lost nearly half a year’s worth of math progress from 2019 to 2022, according to a recent study measuring pandemic learning loss by researchers at Stanford and Harvard universities.

Earlier this year, LAUSD board officials predicted that the district’s annual enrollment decline rate would double this year to 4 percent from 2 percent—falling below 400,000 students.

About 45 percent of LAUSD students were chronically absent last year—more than double compared to the previous year, according to district numbers obtained via a public records request in April. Students considered chronically absent are those who have missed at least 9 percent of school days in a year.

The high rates were likely due to the district’s strict COVID-19 protocols, including a mandate for unvaccinated students exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine between five to 10 days.

When Carvalho took over in February 2022, he eliminated many of the district’s stricter pandemic protocols and delayed a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for students until July 2023.