Biography

Alberto M. Carvalho has served as Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school system, since February 2022. He is the longest-serving superintendent in Los Angeles Unified in over two decades, having been unanimously selected by the Board of Education following a comprehensive community engagement process and nationwide search, and unanimously reappointed in September 2025.

Under his leadership, Los Angeles Unified has realized historic academic progress, with students achieving double-digit increases in performance across core subjects, surpassing pre-pandemic levels and setting new records in state assessments. Superintendent Carvalho also led the development and implementation of the 2022-2026 Ready for the World Strategic Plan, which has anchored a number of the District’s transformative initiatives, including the Education Transformation Office, the Cultural Arts Passport, and the Family Academy.

In addition, Superintendent Carvalho successfully secured voter approval of a $9 billion school bond – one of the largest in the nation – to modernize and safeguard schools for generations to come. His tenure at Los Angeles Unified has been marked by strengthened partnerships, including 10 education compacts with local municipalities, expanded sustainability efforts through greener campuses, and upgraded credit ratings that have generated millions in savings for classrooms and students.

Prior to his arrival in Los Angeles, Superintendent Carvalho led Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) for 14 years, garnering local, state, national, and international recognition. His honors include being named Florida’s 2014 Superintendent of the Year, the 2014 National Superintendent of the Year, the 2016 Magnet Schools of America Superintendent of the Year, the 2016 winner of the Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education, the 2018 National Urban Superintendent of the Year, and the 2019 National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) Superintendent of the Year.

Guided by his vision, M-DCPS became one of the nation’s highest-performing urban school systems, receiving systemwide accreditation from AdvancEd in 2014 and 2019. M-DCPS was named the 2014 College Board Advanced Placement Equity and Excellence District of the Year and the 2012 winner of the Broad Prize for Urban Education. Superintendent Carvalho was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education to serve two terms on the National Assessment Governing Board and has contributed as a committee member for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. He currently serves on the Advisory Committee for Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance. In addition, he sits on the national board of directors for Common Threads, the Posse Foundation, and Code.org, and is an active member of the Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council and the Aspen Institute’s Planet Media Task Force. Locally, he is a member of the Leadership Table for the Los Angeles County Executive Committee on Homelessness and serves on the Board of Directors of The Music Center of Los Angeles and UNITE-LA.

Superintendent Carvalho has been awarded many honorary degrees. He has been honored by the President of Portugal with the “Ordem de Mérito Civil” and by Mexico with the “Ohtli Award.” He was also knighted by King Felipe VI of Spain with the Cross of the Orden de Isabel la Católica.