Are the test scores good at all Green Dot schools?
MP: We currently only serve high school students. While not all our schools are performing at the same level, they are all performing much better than the local high schools that our students would have attended. What the scores don’t show is that we also have a much better retention. As you may know, a big issue at LAUSD is the tremendously and tragically high drop-out rate. The students that drop out are not counted in the scores. We retain the majority of our students. But our schools that have been around for four or more years are doing better than the ones opened only one or two years ago. We expect our newer schools to also provide great student outcomes in the next two to three years, once they’ve been around for at least four years. At the core of 826LA’s programming is a belief in the proven pedagogy of project-based learning. According to this teaching and learning practice, students learn best when they are in charge of their learning and when they see the results of their
