Improving Education

With reference to Alibrandi’s column, I find that I support much of what he has to say. He speaks of empowering parents, teachers, and principals “to develop programs that suit their communities’ needs.” Yet he does not address the issue of a school board too intransigent to open up to fresh, new, and much needed concepts and programs; instead, the board of our Los Angeles Unified School District cripples us with often unreasonable and myopic rules and regulations.

As an English teacher with the LAUSD I have listened for years to the concerns of both parents and students over how to improve student performance. Over these same years I have tried to inaugurate a study skills program that would be designed to aid not just remediation students but all of our students, even the high achievers.

Students want it; parents want it; teachers want it. Yet, the school board, which has for years given lip service to accommodating the needs of our children, flatly refuses to approve such a program, even as an elective! Board members speak of the ideal--that all teachers should be teaching study skills along with required course content. Well, what ought to be and what is are frequently not the same.

Many teachers may not have the time or (sadly) are not equipped to teach these concepts. Should that fact, however, prevent our students from benefitting from a program that would undoubtedly increase their performance dramatically?

To me there is no question about what is imperative here. The board, most of whom are not professional educators, must be made responsive to us, the people who elected them and who want to trust them to do what is best for all students.

ROSEMARY JENKINS

Granada Hills