The Los Angeles Unified School District showed strong gains in newly released state metrics and reached a record graduation rate, but overall academic performance fell well short of state learning goals. The latest release of state data indicated positive trends for the state’s largest school system, with improvement that outpaced the state as a whole. In absolute terms, however, the performance of L.A. Unified is middling, even as depicted by a state accountability system that rarely shows school systems in a harsh light. “LAUSD scores are on an upward trend, but the initial goal needs to be to attain results that meet or exceed LAUSD pre-pandemic levels,” said Michael W. Kirst, former state Board of Education president and a Stanford emeritus professor of education and business administration. “For example, there are some test-score results that meet this goal. I am less interested now in how they compare to the rest of the state on dashboard indicators. That will be more relevant in subsequent years.”