LAUSD’s Image Doesn’t Reflect Gains

Having just left the Los Angeles Board of Education after eight years, I am proud of much that we have achieved, but frustrated that we have failed to communicate effectively with the larger public.

I am optimistic about what is being done in our schools, but pessimistic about the ability to garner public credibility and support. As public schools, we must do more than go about our work each day. We must also take steps to make sure the larger community knows what we are doing and understands why we are doing it. Voters know little about what is happening in our schools behind the media sensationalism and secondhand anecdote. This must change.

The Board of Education and the new superintendent, Dr. Ruben Zacarias, must do much more to focus on communication with the larger community and meaningful discussion about the priorities of the school system.

When I was elected in 1989, the Los Angeles Unified School District was a highly centralized organization. In the name of fairness and equity, a one-size-fits-all approach characterized most important policies, making it difficult if not impossible for local schools to be innovative. Key decisions were made downtown, and local schools felt they had little ability to influence these decisions. Even the first wave of school-based-management proposals for local schools provoked page-by-page review and scrutiny at the school board level.

Since then the district has been decentralized to 27 clusters of local schools and 49 high school complexes, with one administrator assigned to oversee each of the 27 clusters. The cluster administrators are better able to respond to local school needs and better able to communicate local needs to the central offices. San Fernando Valley schools, which once had to suffer under the district’s “common calendar,” which brought students back early for more late summer heat, now can select their own school calendars based on local needs and preferences.

Still, clusters have not been granted the full authority they need to be effective. Many people pushing complaints or seeking special requests are allowed to leapfrog past the cluster administrator to seek a more sympathetic ear downtown. The new superintendent and the school board must make it a priority to clearly define the roles and authority of the cluster leaders.

In March 1993, the Board of Education adopted the LEARN reform plan as the overall vision for school improvement in the LAUSD. The vote was 7-0. Since then, 326 schools have volunteered to participate in extensive training in exchange for greater autonomy over personnel and budget. Few districts across the nation have embarked on as ambitious and comprehensive a reform agenda. Still much more needs to be done for the board and superintendent to assume ownership and responsibility for these reforms. There remains a feeling that LEARN was done to the district, rather than with the district. The future of LEARN must be at the top of the agenda for the board and new superintendent.

Many people still do not know that LEARN and this new cluster structure exist. In a poll commissioned by the district and conducted in 1996, a majority of respondents did not believe the statement that local schools have been given more authority over budgetary and hiring decisions. Proponents of breaking up the district never acknowledge these facts in their arguments, nor do they explain why it would be better to have three or four new, large school districts rather than the 27 more localized clusters already in place.

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It seems to me there is a consensus that our public schools are bad and getting worse. Radio talk show hosts and local politicians use the schools as the whipping boy of choice. It is difficult for the public to remember that the dropout rate in LAUSD is going down, that the rate at which immigrant students switch to an English-only program is going up, that the rate at which our graduating seniors go on to California colleges is above the state average, and that the rate at which our high school students take and pass college-level Advanced Placement tests is above the national average.

Although the media use terms such as “beleaguered,” the district’s dire financial situation has been turned around dramatically, such that our recently passed school bond measure will enjoy among the highest credit ratings available to local governments. Our award-winning Academic Decathlon champions and Science Bowl winners receive short-term publicity, but quickly fade from the media consciousness. The great success in reducing class size to 20-to-1 in first and second grade has received positive attention, but few have been able to grasp the scale of this achievement in 98% of 420 elementary schools. In fact, LAUSD receives much more favorable publicity in national publications than it does locally.

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It is hard for the public to appreciate the extent to which the district has embarked on a constant course of self-evaluation and improvements. Although the media have jumped on some of the findings of recent management reviews, they often fail to report that the superintendent ordered these reviews himself. This is in contrast to the outside audits and investigations reported about other public agencies.

I would like to see the board and superintendent establish a few major instructional goals for the years ahead and then stay focused to make sure they are achieved. Time is the most important resource the board can manage directly. Substantial time must be set aside at every board meeting to discuss the work being done to improve achievement.

As I leave the Board of Education, I do not leave the district. My two children attend an LAUSD elementary school and we plan to keep them in the district through high school graduation. I see the wonderful learning experiences they have every day. This is what motivates me to continue to work on behalf of the district and to stand up to those who would tear down this wonderful institution.