Schools Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho Announces Plans to Lead Los Angeles Unified School District

Schools Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho announced today that he will leave Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) to become the next superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Carvalho, who has been with the District for three decades, began his education career as a science teacher at Miami Jackson Senior High School. He rose through the ranks to become a school administrator, Chief Communications Officer, and Associate Superintendent of Intergovernmental Affairs, Grants Administration, Marketing and Community Services before becoming Superintendent in 2008.

“With happiness in my heart for the community I will now be calling home and a degree of heartbreak for the community I am leaving, I want to say thank you to everyone who has believed in Team 305. Miami will always have a special place in my heart,” said Carvalho.  

“My run in Miami-Dade has been one that I could never have imagined. It has been the privilege of my life to serve as Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. For the last three decades, I have selflessly dedicated my professional career to the children of Miami’s diverse community, and I am hoping to bring that same passion, compassion and commitment to the students and families in L.A. Unified.”

Carvalho is a nationally recognized expert on education transformation, finance, and leadership development. Under his leadership, he guided the District through a financial recession, raised the graduation rate from 58 percent to 93.1 percent, eliminated D- and F-rated schools and navigated the school system through a pandemic to elevate M-DCPS to the highest possible level in this country.

During his tenure, M-DCPS has become one of the nation’s highest-performing urban school systems. The District has been named as the 2014 College Board Advanced Placement Equity and Excellence District of the Year, as well as the 2012 winner of the Broad Prize for Urban Education. As a staunch believer in school choice, he has expanded choice options in Miami-Dade to more than 1,000 offerings that include bilingual programs, fine and performing arts, biotechnology, engineering, robotics, aviation, forensic sciences, and many others. An instructional leader at heart, Carvalho is also the proud founder and principal of the award-winning iPreparatory Academy which has become a model of robust 21^st-century learning in the age of innovation and technology. 

Carvalho is one of the most accomplished school leaders in the nation, having received numerous national and international honors since becoming Superintendent in 2008, including Florida's 2014 Superintendent of the Year; the 2014 National Superintendent of the Year; the 2016 winner of the Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education; the 2018 National Urban Superintendent of the Year; the 2019 National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) Superintendent of the Year Award; and recognition by Scholastic Administrator as one of "The Fantastic Five" educators making a difference in America. He has been honored by Portugal with the "Ordem de Merito Civil"by Mexico with the "Ohtli Award" and is soon to be awarded the Official Cross of the Orden de Isabel la Catolica (Order of Isabella the Catholic) on behalf of King Felipe VI of Spain.  

He is recognized by his peers as a national voice for equity in education. He serves on the National Assessment Governing Board, to which he was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education. Carvalho is a member of the National Board of Directors for Common Threads as well as the Posse Foundation. He also serves as a committee member for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and as an Advisory Committee Member to the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance. 

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