A teacher leads fourth graders in a lesson at William Jefferson Clinton Elementary in Compton on Feb. 6, 2025.
Credit: AP Photo/Eric Thayer
Ask anyone what they know about Compton, California.
Many would bring up tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams, who learned to play on Compton’s public courts, or the election of Douglas Dollarhide, who, in 1969, became the first Black man to serve as a mayor of a metropolitan area in California.
The city shown in these two stories was about hardship, rampant crime, and certainly not about academic achievement.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Compton Unified School district struggled financially also. In 1993, it had incurred $20 million in debt and was taken over by California’s Department of Education. About two decades later, in 2012, the district was once again on the brink of entering receivership for financial hardship.
Today,…
