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Long Beach Education
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The Long Beach Unified School District has earned a reputation as one of America’s finest school systems, winning many awards as a national model of excellence. The school district was named the 2003-04 national winner of the $500,000 Broad Prize for Urban Education, recognizing America's best urban school system for increasing student achievement. Established in 1885 with fewer than a dozen students meeting in a borrowed tent, LBUSD now educates more than 92,000 students in 95 public schools in the cities of Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill, and Avalon on Catalina Island. The third largest school district in California, it serves the most diverse large city in the United States, according to Census 2000, with 46 different languages spoken by local students. The district employs more than 8,000 people, making it the largest employer in Long Beach. The school district has won widespread recognition for establishing high standards of dress, behavior and achievement. Its successes have been featured on “Good Morning America,” NBC’s “Today Show,” CBS’s “This Morning,” “CNN Headline News” and other national news media. LBUSD was the first public school system in the U.S. to require uniforms in kindergarten through eighth grade; the first to require any third grader reading below grade level to attend mandatory summer school; and the first to end social promotion. The district led the nation’s first conversion of a public middle school from co-educational classes to separate classes for boys and girls. Known as the Jefferson Leadership Academies, the school’s focus on academics has reduced distractions and produced higher student achievement. LBUSD’s reforms have paid off in other ways too, with record attendance and the lowest absenteeism in two decades, the lowest rate of student suspensions in a decade, fewer students failing classes, more students taking college preparatory courses, and safer schools. Schools here continue to meet or exceed state targets for academic growth, with many posting significant gains in student achievement. Long before the strategy became common among U.S. schools, Long Beach developed clear expectations for what children should know and be able to do as a result of their schooling at each grade level. The district in the early 1990s looked to teachers, business leaders, university experts and parents to develop new, rigorous academic standards. Since then, attainment of those high standards has attracted the increased interest and involvement of civic leaders, community partners, parents and teachers. Even with such excellent support, the district by the late 1990s struggled with one of its toughest challenges. Enrollment grew rapidly. Hundreds of students transferred to Long Beach schools from private and parochial schools. New schools and classrooms were needed urgently. Fortunately, strong community support assured the overwhelming passage of $295 million in local school bonds in 1999. These bond funds are helping assure that students and teachers will have the facilities, equipment and technology they need for years to come. New schools and classrooms are being built on time and on budget. Key to the district’s success is its work with business people, volunteers, colleges and universities. During the 1990s, the Long Beach Unified School District, California State University Long Beach and Long Beach City College in collaboration with local, regional and national partners created seamless, pre-kindergarten to postgraduate-school education. This partnership aligns academic standards, teaching methods and student assessment from preschool through master’s degree. LBUSD has also established educational partnerships with more than 900 local businesses, which recognize the district’s role in developing a well-educated, highly skilled work force. More than 5,000 Volunteers in Public Schools (VIPS) assist teachers and students in classrooms. The district is the first large urban school system in the U.S. to enter competition for the coveted Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Each year the award is presented to the four best-run companies in the nation. The district has received many other honors. In recent years, Long Beach schools have been visited and praised by the nation’s president, attorney general, two secretaries of education and Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, for whom one of Long Beach’s newest schools is named. Local schools have won numerous California Distinguished and National Blue Ribbon awards, and many schools have waiting lists for exemplary magnet programs. These are the hallmarks of one of America’s finest school systems. A total commitment to continuous improvement is what makes the Long Beach Unified School District a national leader in preparing young men and women for success.
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Long Beach History
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Just 50 years after Columbus discovered America, Cabrillo and his crew of explorers anchored off the present site of Long Beach. Vast clouds of smoke were rolling high in the sky from burning grass and brush ashore where the native Indians were conducting one of their periodic rabbit drives. Cabrillo named the area “Bahia de los Fumos” -- the Bay of Smokes. The first modern identity for Long Beach began with the sprawling rancho awarded Manuel Nieto in 1784. Time and descendants divided the old Spanish Land Grant until the bulk of what is now Long Beach was contained in two ranchos, Los Cerritos and Los Alamitos. In 1880, William Erwin Willmore, an Englishman and Long Beach’s first real estate developer, subdivided a portion of Los Cerritos. With the advent of two parties of settlers in 1882, the township of Willmore City was launched. By 1884, with only a dozen houses in the settlement, Willmore City had failed, and the founder departed for Arizona. However, people still straggled in, and in 1888 with 59 buildings and a new school, the newly named City of Long Beach was first incorporated. Nine years later, dissatisfaction with prohibition and high taxes led to an abortive and short-lived disincorporation. Before the year 1897 was out, the citizens voted to reincorporate, and Long Beach has continued to grow ever since. From a population of 1,500 and an area of three square miles in 1897, the City has grown to an estimated population of 440,000 citizens living in a 50-square-mile area.
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Long Beach Lifestyle
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Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine maintains the largest municipally operated marina in the world, managing over 3,800 boat slips, three different marine dock areas, seven boat basins, parking for over 2,700 vehicles and 2,600 feet of guest boat docking. The Alamitos Bay Marina, located in the heart of Naples and Belmont Shore, provides 1,800 slips that can accommodate vessels ranging from 18 to 124 feet. Begun with the dredging of marshland in 1949, the marina opened in the mid-1950s and has proven convenient to both Orange County and Los Angeles County boaters. It furnishes young and novice sailors with protected waters while affording experienced sailors rapid access to open water, prevailing winds and Catalina Island only 22 miles away. The area offers some of the best sailing winds in the world and hosts the Congressional Cup, the Trans Pac Race to Hawaii and North Sails Week. Accessible by three major freeways and ringed by million dollar homes, the public Alamitos Bay Marina sits amidst some of the most beautiful surroundings in Southern California. Within Alamitos Bay, several facilities offer water sports opportunities appropriate to all interests and levels of expertise. The Leeway Sailing and Aquatics Center founded in 1929, provides one of the best municipal instructional sailing programs in the country, offering lessons in canoeing, sailing, kayaking, board sailing and wind surfing. The U.S. Sailing Center operated by Pacific Coast Sailing Foundation began with $50,000 from the the 1984 Olympics surplus. Opened in 1999, it runs programs for children with difficult backgrounds and adaptive programs for youths with disabilities, and develops the skills of sailors who want to compete up to Olympic and professional levels. Water-skiers, rowers and those interested in boat racing find the LBPRM-maintained Marine Stadium in Alamitos bay a wonderful facility. Built for the 1932 Olympic rowing competition and site of the 1968 Olympic rowing trials, its amenities include a sand beach, restrooms, picnic areas, boat launch ramps and ample parking, and LBPRM makes the facility available for corporate or private rentals. For the less athletically inclined seeking aquatic adventures, commercial vendors licensed by LBPRM offer romantic rides through the Naples canals in authentic Venetian gondolas. Passengers can sip wine and relax while gondoliers serenade them. A second facility maintained by the Department is the Downtown Shoreline Marina, which opened in the early 1980s near the Long Beach redevelopment area. Its 1,800 slips are located within walking distance of the metropolitan heart of the city. The newest water district managed by LBPRM, Rainbow Harbor features a wide range of entertainment opportunities accessible from Queensway Bay. In an area anchored by the Aquarium of the Pacific, vendors offer harbor cruises, water taxis, charter vessels and tours of tall ships intermingled with commercial fishing vessels. On the dock, Shoreline Village provides good restaurants, unique shops and nighttime festivities.
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Long Beach Recreation
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Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine serves the City with recreational programs for preschoolers through the 60 + crowd. The Department maintains parks smaller than one-acre and as large as the 808-acre El Dorado Regional Park, manages sports facilities and produces festivals throughout the year. LBPRM offers quarterly classes in art, fitness, language, computer skills, dance, sailing, music and special interests including beginning wood carving, and advanced canine agility games. LBPRM is dedicated to meeting the community's needs. It puts programs where children can get to them, running after-school and weekend activities on school playgrounds. After studying statistics about youths getting into trouble, LBPRM established teen centers at all parks near high schools to give teenagers a positive outlet for their energies. The Mobile Recreation program, begun in 1996, sets up temporary facilities in parking lots and neighborhood streets. For adults, the department runs sports leagues in volleyball, basketball and baseball. The City owns five golf courses that see over 600,000 rounds played each year, making it the busiest public golf course system in the nation. Each of the four 18-hole courses offers a restaurant, pro shop, driving range, and instruction. Programs include the Long Beach Junior Golf, a year-round program that teaches golf to enthusiasts ages 7 to 17, and the Long Beach Golf Festival that culminates with the Long Beach Open Golf Tournament at El Dorado Park Golf Course.
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Long Beach Transportation
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Long Beach Transit takes you just about anywhere you want to go in Long Beach, Lakewood and Signal Hill. We have 38 bus routes to provide you with fast, reliable service in air-conditioned comfort. Each route is computer-scheduled with pick-up points nearly every two blocks. And most Long Beach Transit routes run seven days a week. All of Long Beach Transit's routes are wheelchair accessible and surfboards 6 feet and under are welcome. Connections with the Metro light rail service to Los Angeles, El Segundo and Norwalk are easy and convenient. And to all of our neighboring cities: Carson, Compton, Paramount, Bellflower, Artesia, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk, and Seal Beach. On The Passport, you'll enjoy many of the best sites Long Beach has to offer. Visit the famous Queen Mary and relive the glorious days of "Titanic" era ocean liners. Or travel along our sun-dappled coast to Belmont Shore, Alamitos Bay Landing, the college campus at CSULB and on to Los Altos Market Center.
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Long Beach Weather
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