Annenberg Challenge

Patrick Reilly (Column Right, April 7) makes a negative judgment of the progress of the Annenberg Challenge and its impact in urban settings. As the evaluators of Challenge Los Angeles, we find it incomprehensible that these opinions should be given much weight. The data are simply not in. In every Annenberg site sets of evaluators (from major universities) have been establishing baseline information on specific goals, mechanisms, classroom practices and student performance that will allow valid judgments to be made about progress attained thorough the efforts of participants.

Reilly decries the futility of giving dollars to the administrations of urban school districts. In fact, a defining characteristic of every Annenberg Challenge site is that the funds are administered by an independent board and that lateral organizations--communities, networks of schools, providers of instructional and professional development services--are the major players in innovation rather than school district administrators.

Any unbiased evaluation would look at progress attained by the sites in doing what they said they would do, the ways in which they change strategies to become more effective, the extent to which their practices change and how well children learn. These are the bases upon which education should be evaluated. Deciding something doesn’t work too early is as much an error as claiming success when none exists.

EVA L. BAKER, UCLA

PENNY WOHLSTETTER, USC

Los Angeles

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* As a public school teacher I am so tired of the public school-private school debate. Reilly’s commentary states that private schools provide more rigorous programs with better results and less revenue spent per student. This is a misleading statement that takes away from the good that takes place at public schools every day.

Private schools for the most part are made up of a select group of students from more affluent backgrounds. Public schools were designed with the idea of educating everyone, from students with learning disabilities to gifted students. Public schools represent all aspects of our society, not a segregated, elite society.

MIKE MUHOVICH

Brea