L.A. School District Reforms
* We so rarely see really good news on the front page, so I thought I’d write and thank you for “Audit Faults L.A. School District for Slow Reform” (March 17). My observations of schools in which “reform” is proceeding very rapidly lead me to suggest the following maxim: Slow is good.
Slow means there is time for teachers and students to adjust to new ideas and to evaluate how well they are working. Slow allows time for schools to add innovations gradually while keeping existing programs in place until they are clearly seen as useless. Slow gives everyone time to see how “new” ideas work with the particular conditions and students at each unique school. Slow allows the car to be steered. Slow gives common sense a chance to kick in. Slow has the potential of winning the race.
MARTHA SCHWARTZ
San Pedro
* It is no coincidence that the front-page story of the critical McKinsey & Co. audit of the LEARN program appeared two days after the deadline for schools to apply for next year’s acceptance into the plan. This information was known on some school campuses a week before it appeared on your pages, and suspected since the inception of this “reform.”
Currently, the Los Angeles Unified School District, with the collaboration of members of the business community, has attempted to coerce schools into joining LEARN by refusing to allow local school sites with alternative reform plans to apply for Annenberg grants. This is the latest in a reprehensible series of arm-twisting techniques. After two years you may call (editorial, March 19) approximately 22% of the schools applying for membership “plenty of interest in LEARN,” but I call the remaining 78% plenty of skepticism.
ALEXA SMITH MAXWELL
Teacher and UTLA Chapter Chair
University High School
* As someone who has worked hard to bring education reform to Los Angeles, I too, would like to see faster progress in the effort to implement the ambitious LEARN agenda for school reform. But I am concerned that your article and editorial on the McKinsey audit of LEARN, while fairly addressing the challenges LEARN faces, did little to recognize the progress LEARN has made. While it is true that roadblocks to reform remain in the district, others in the administration have made heroic efforts to make the LEARN reforms a reality. The school sites and the system are engaged in a revolutionary process.
If you want to see if LEARN is working, spend a Saturday with senior district administrators who are working nights and weekends trying to figure out how to support the needs of schools, or an afternoon with teachers trying to create and sustain better educational practices at the school site. It will provide you with a different perspective.
Transforming the second largest school district in the nation into a model of educational excellence is a monumental task. The radical changes we seek in the school system will not happen overnight. Before we judge whether LEARN is a failure or success, let’s be sure that the teachers and administrators get the time, training and resources that they need to succeed.
PEGGY FUNKHOUSER, President
Los Angeles Educational Partnership
