Marlene Canter
LAUSD
Board Member, District 4
Biography
Marlene Canter was
overwhelmingly elected to the Los Angeles City Board of Education in June 2001
and again in March of 2005. She served as President of the Board from 2005 to
2007. The Los Angeles Business Journal named her Woman Executive of the Year in
May 2006 for her leadership of the Board.
Ms. Canter represents
students and their families in neighborhoods stretching from the Valley to the
Pacific Ocean, including the communities of Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills,
Hollywood, West Hollywood, Miracle Mile, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood,
Westwood, Venice, Westchester, Mar Vista, Marina Del Rey and Playa Del Rey.
As Board President, Ms.
Canter has worked diligently with her colleagues toward fulfilling the BoardÕs
vision of becoming one of the top urban school districts in the country. The
BoardÕs top priorities include: ensuring student safety, eliminating the
achievement gap, completing the massive school construction program, and
engaging parents, teachers, principals and the community in the work of school
reform.
During her tenure on the
Board, Ms. Canter has made childrenÕs health and well-being one of her top
priorities. She authored the resolutions to ban the sale of soft drinks and
junk food in LAUSD schools – which passed in 2002 and 2003, respectively –
making LAUSD the first large urban district in the nation to approve such bans.
Drawing on her 30-year career
as co-CEO of a successful teacher training company, Ms. Canter also created the
BoardÕs Human Resources Committee.
The committee, which she chaired for 4 years, has overseen impressive
improvement in the recruitment of highly qualified teachers. In 2003/04, 92 percent of the
DistrictÕs new hires met the StateÕs definition of highly qualified compared to
64 percent of new hires in 2002/03.
Ms. Canter began her career
in education as a special education teacher at Alta Loma Elementary
School. She went on to co-found
and serve as the co-CEO of Canter & Associates, now Laureate Education,
Inc. The company became one of the
worldÕs leading teacher-training organizations and trained more than 1 million
K-12 teachers worldwide. It developed
an extensive catalogue of professional development programs, distance learning graduate
courseware and resource materials for teachers, administrators, and
parents.
Ms. Canter sits on State
Superintendent Jack OÕConnellÕs P-16 Council and on the Board of Directors for
her alma mater, Pacific Oaks College. She is also an advisor to the ChildrenÕs
Partnership, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan child advocacy organization. Ms.
Canter also has served on the Boards of Directors for the Elizabeth Glaser
Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Kehillath Israel Synagogue of Pacific
Palisades.