EDUCATION WATCH : Principal Difference

Times columnist Peter H. King surely spoke for many worried parents this week when he lamented the seeming Hobson’s choice between overburdened public schools and overpriced private schools. We suspect the heated spousal discussion described by King has been played out in many a California household.

Many parents reject an elite notion that restricts the best schooling to the affluent, but they don’t want their own children’s education to be sacrificed in trying to prove some egalitarian ideal. Lest we all despair, however, two public school educators in Inglewood renewed our hope this week.

Two strong principals--Marjorie Thompson and Nancy Ichinaga--seem to have made the difference at their schools. Thompson’s William Kelso Elementary and Ichinaga’s Bennett-Kew Elementary have the earmarks that stereotypes tell us make for lower-achieving schools: They serve low-income minority areas.

Rather than use that fact as an excuse, Thompson and Ichinaga rose to the challenge. They target their scarce resources on basic reading skills for children in the earliest grades. Ichinaga acts as the crossing guard so one of her instructors is not taken away from teaching. Serious student achievement is the focus. And here’s the result: Not only are the schools scoring high, they are improving faster than the state average. They match and even exceed their wealthier counterparts.

Bravo to Thompson, Ichinaga and the unsung educators who give parents fine public education choices that we too seldom hear about.