L.A.’s Best Hope for Improving Schools : LEARN program has helped improve CLAS scores of students in Woodland Hills

Congratulations are due to Woodland Hills Elementary School pupils for scoring high on the California Learning Assessment System test, and to the Los Angeles school district program that helped them do it.

The program is LEARN, the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now, which gives wide local autonomy to schools. Woodland Hills was among the first to join.

The 583-pupil school has long scored above district and national averages. But this year its fourth-graders’ CLAS scores were a lofty third among L.A. elementary schools, behind only a school for gifted students and one near Beverly Hills.

Educators and parents say LEARN played an important role. “Teachers are more focused, so students are too,” says Linda Mann, whose daughter has attended Woodland Hills since before LEARN.

What made the difference? Teachers, brought together on LEARN-granted planning days, have improved the coordination among classes and grade levels, especially in math. Also, LEARN provides access to university experts in teaching, school management and computers. Principal Bonnie Bishop-Moren says that she has found this aid immensely helpful.

Parents’ involvement has increased. Busy, serious-looking youngsters are taught by teachers, aides and volunteer parents. In the library are two new computers that are part of a three-year technology plan written by parents and teachers. It will be financed with parents’ fund-raising efforts.

The word is spreading. Parents from other neighborhoods are signing up their children, and enrollment is expected to grow to 640 next fall. Significantly, about 25 children have transferred to Woodland Hills from private schools.

Once again there is solid evidence that LEARN is the best hope for the Los Angeles school system.