Reform Plan Offers Cash to Schools

Public schools in Los Angeles could earn cash bonuses if students’ attendance and test scores improve and risk closure if pupils don’t perform well, under a plan proposed by the education reform group Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN).

The proposal, unveiled Wednesday as the second in a series of reports planned by the group, would require each of the 600 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District to devise an operating plan, spelling out educational philosophy and specific goals for student attendance, achievement and graduation.

Schools that exceed their objectives would be eligible for so-called “performance grants”--money that could be divided among the school staff or used to fund special programs or buy classroom supplies.

Campuses that fall short of their goals or exceed their budget allotment would have three years to improve, or risk takeover or closure by the district superintendent.

“The concept is strong performance will be rewarded and weak performance will trigger intervention,” said Mary Chambers, executive vice president of LEARN, a year-old coalition of business and community groups aiming to overhaul the city’s public school system.

The LEARN plan--the second in a series of seven proposals the group will submit to the school board for approval this summer--offers several suggestions officials contend will improve the district’s system of assessment and accountability.

It recommends beefing up instruction in several core subjects--including math, science, social studies and language arts--and adding lessons in values education that would enhance children’s self-esteem, encourage personal responsibility and self-motivation and foster better interpersonal relationships.

Beginning in ninth grade, high school students would be able to choose targeted courses of study, aiming at college, a career in the arts or a trade or vocation, such as carpentry, data processing or auto repair or drafting.

Under the plan, the district would set specific curriculum standards spelling out what children should learn at each grade level. Students would be tested every two years on that knowledge.

That follows a nationwide--though controversial--trend toward standardizing what schoolchildren learn. The Bush Administration has made the call for curriculum standards and a companion series of national exams to improve the country’s public schools.

The Los Angeles district has guidelines for instruction in elementary and secondary schools, but no way of assessing what students are learning. The state uses its own standardized tests to measure the performance of third-, sixth-, eighth- and 12th-graders each year, but those exams are not tied to the Los Angeles curriculum.

Several years ago, the state tried offering cash rewards to schools that improved their test scores, but that effort was abandoned after two years amid reports that some schools were trying to manipulate test data to qualify for the money.

“The concept of rewarding for achievement is a good idea, if it’s designed so it’s not easily manipulated,” said Susie Lange, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

Under the state’s current funding scheme, “the worse you do, the more money you get,” because campuses with low-achieving students qualify for special grants for remedial programs, Lange said.