School leaders told the Birmingham Community Charter High District board that attendance has begun to recover after disruptions earlier in the year and that the district’s California Dashboard indicators show gains in several areas.

“This is the first month where our attendance was higher this year than it was last year at the same time,” the instructional update reported, noting month-to-month improvement attributed in part to a new attendance policy and follow-up by the attendance team.

On the California Dashboard 5-by-5 reports, the district reported a 9.1 percentage-point gain in college and career readiness to 70.5 percent and an 11.7 scale-score gain in math; graduation rate was reported at 96.1 percent (an increase of 0.8 percentage points). The presenter cautioned that some subgroups — English learners and students with disabilities — show variation year to year because of small cohort sizes and said the district is monitoring subgroup performance closely.

College-counseling staff announced a partnership with UCLA’s Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP). The district said UCLA EAOP will provide student-support services, virtual sessions and a counseling cohort with an expected cohort size of about 150 students in grades 9–10 to begin immediately; the district said the program supports students’ college readiness generally, not only admission to UCLA.

Instructional initiatives: Leaders described instructional rounds after two cohorts traveled to Boston to observe practices. The district said rounds will be teacher-led (not evaluative) so teachers can collect classroom evidence and use findings to target professional development.

Why it matters: Improved attendance and higher dashboard indicators can affect funding and charter oversight ratings; the UCLA EAOP partnership provides additional support for a cohort of students to prepare for postsecondary options.

Board reaction and next steps: Staff will continue to monitor attendance and subgroup performance and will report further data in coming months; no formal board action was recorded on the partnership during the meeting.