Alejandro Macias
Public school leader serving urban schools since 2000
I'm Alejandro Macias. I currently lead the Los Angeles Academy of Arts and Enterprise, a public charter school serving grades 6 through 12 in Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles. I've worked in Los Angeles public education for 26 years, as a teacher assistant, teacher, counselor, assistant principal and principal.
The record
Los Angeles Academy of Arts and Enterprise
Principal, July 2025 to present. An independent charter school for grades 6 through 12 that is its own local educational agency, with no district office behind it. 95.7% of students are low-income, English learners, or in foster care. I'm responsible for instruction, student services, hiring, budget and grants, compliance, operations, facilities, enrollment, partnerships, communications, and reporting to the board, and I work with the board, legal counsel, the authorizer, and the community on strategic planning, the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), audits, grants, charter renewal, contracts, risk, and facilities.
- Preliminary 2025–26 state test results (CAASPP), students meeting or exceeding standard, each from the year before: science 4.3% to 23.5%, English language arts 18.2% to 26.7%, mathematics 1.9% to 9.6%.
- English learners: 98.7% completed the state English proficiency test (ELPAC), 24 students advanced at least one level, and 10 reached the top level. 100% of seniors completed college applications.
- Helped reduce the projected deficit by about 15% from 2025–26 to 2026–27.
- Built one improvement system, the Strategic Instructional Leadership Framework for Student Success, that ties professional learning, department data reviews, supports for English learners and students with disabilities, attendance, and college readiness to the same goals and the same short improvement cycles.
- Leading the school's effort to make LAUSD's 1215 Miramar campus its long-term home.
Manual Arts High School, Los Angeles Unified
Principal, 2022 to 2024. The first Mexican American principal since the school opened in 1910. The public record over those two years:
- Chronic absenteeism fell from 52.6% in 2022–23 to 41.2% in 2023–24. The four-year cohort graduation rate rose from 76.0% to 88.6% over the same period. Source: LAUSD School Accountability Report Card, also cited on the school's Wikipedia page.
- FAFSA and CADAA completion rose from 44.6% in 2022 to 65.6% in 2023 to 82.6% in 2024, with completed applications rising from 127 to 170 to 190. Source: California Student Aid Commission, Race to Submit dashboard.
- English learner reclassification rose from 6.2% in 2021–22 to 18.0% in 2022–23, and was 14.8% in 2023–24. Source: LAUSD School Explorer.
- On the 2024 LAUSD School Experience Survey, teacher satisfaction was 89% against a five-year average of 66%. Teachers reporting that students were college ready: 84% against 72%. Parents reporting opportunities for shared decision-making: 85% against 78%. Parents reporting high-quality schooling: 88% against 81.8%.
- The school exited Additional Targeted Support and Improvement status in the 2023–24 California Department of Education ESSA assistance data. School-level data: Ed-Data.
Boyle Heights Continuation High School
Principal, 2020 to 2022.
- Graduation rose from 58% to 80% through community-based planning, targeted credit recovery, and coherent student supports.
- English learner reclassification rose and A-G diploma completion strengthened.
- Led a successful Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) mid-cycle review.
- Built the systems of support that helped four young women become the first students in the school's history admitted to four-year universities. The Occidental told the first one's story.
- Launched a six-week Parent Engagement Certificate Program with an 83% completion rate, and partnered with district and area board leadership to secure campus investments.
Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School, Boyle Heights
Instructional specialist, then inaugural assistant principal, 2011 to 2020.
- Co-led sustained improvement that raised graduation to a high of 95% and four-year college eligibility above 70%. Oversaw English and history; English proficiency rose above district and state averages.
- Designed a single, data-driven student-support system that merged the Coordination of Services Team (COST), the Student Success Team (SST), and the Language Appraisal Team (LAT) into one coordinated team, and helped inform LAUSD's Student Support and Progress Team (SSPT) model.
- Managed a teacher mentorship program with zero new-teacher attrition over five years.
- Oversaw family and community engagement. The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools named Mendez its High School of the Year in that category eight years in a row.
- Principal Mauro Bautista talks about the Mendez culture work on the All of the Above podcast (2018).
Hollenbeck Middle School
Teacher and counselor, 2001 to 2011.
- Led attendance, counseling, assessment, family engagement, and student-support systems. Case-managed about 900 middle-grade students; 94% of eighth graders met culmination requirements. Fox 11 covered the attendance work in 2010.
- Co-created the HEART campaign, which rebuilt the school culture around celebrating the whole child: healthy choices, grades of A, B, or C, 96% attendance, the 25-book reading campaign, and leadership every day. It was a game changer for its era.
Scholarship
I'm completing a doctorate in education at the USC Rossier School of Education. My dissertation proposes two constructs, Ancestral Momentum and Arrested Momentum, to explain chronic absenteeism and academic disengagement as something schools produce rather than something students lack.
Ancestral Momentum (AM). The strength, knowledge, and dreams a child inherits from family and community, which schools can build on to make learning meaningful and help them succeed.
Arrested Momentum (ArrM). When schools ignore or devalue what a child brings from home and community, making it harder for them to feel they belong, engage in learning, and reach their potential.
I'm presenting the conceptual framework at the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) convention in Pittsburgh on November 18, 2026: Momentum They Already Carry: Ancestral Momentum, Arrested Momentum, and Institutional Conditions in Urban Schools.
Credentials and service
- Three California Tier II credentials: Administrative Services; Pupil Personnel Services, School Counseling; Pupil Personnel Services, Child Welfare and Attendance.
- Ed.D. candidate, USC Rossier School of Education.
- Three degrees from California State University, Los Angeles (2001, 2003, 2006).
- CSU Alumni Council Representative and CSU Alumni Network Board Member, 2025 to present.
- Inaugural Chair, Chicanx Latinx University Alumni Network, 2021 to 2024.
In the media
- Los Angeles Times, October 2026. Howard Blume on the vacant $34-million Miramar campus beside district headquarters, and our effort to make it a permanent home for our students.
- The Occidental, April 2022. The first Boyle Heights High School student to complete the A-G requirements, and how the school got her there.
- All of the Above podcast, July 2018. Principal Mauro Bautista on the school culture work at Mendez.
- Fox 11, November 2010. The attendance work at Hollenbeck Middle School as a Pupil Services and Attendance counselor.