L.A. School District Curtails Plan to End Social Promotions

Los Angeles school officials have significantly scaled back ambitious plans to end social promotion next school year in the face of daunting financial and logistical hurdles.

And in a controversial proposal, Supt. Ruben Zacarias is seeking to spend $40 million to take 430 of the district’s best teachers out of the classroom and turn them into administrators. They would be in charge of implementing the revised program at each elementary school in the district.

The superintendent announced in January that the Los Angeles Unified School District would identify at least 150,000 struggling students in danger of flunking next year as a result of the new policy and order them to attend summer school, Saturday sessions and after-school tutoring at an estimated cost of $140 million this school year.

To accommodate those students at already crowded year-round campuses, the district envisioned renting space in private schools, even storefronts, and persuading teachers to volunteer for summer school assignments.

Now, officials say that participation in summer school will be voluntary and the ban on social promotion may be phased in a few grades at a time instead of all at once. A district task force is recommending that only students in grades three and eight face the tougher standards for promotion next year; in the original plan, students in grades two, four and five also would have been affected.

The state has ordered school districts to end social promotion--the practice of advancing students even when they perform below grade level--in the 2000-01 school year for students expecting to go -into grades three through 12. L.A. Unified is attempting to start implementation a year earlier.

In an interview, Zacarias said efforts to organize intervention programs off campus were complicated by a state law that mandates that any facility used for public school activities must meet strict seismic requirements, and a realization that the district could not legally require parents and students to participate.

“I can’t take a parent to court if they don’t send their children to summer school,” Zacarias said. “But I believe, I hope, most parents will say, ‘It’s about time,’ and send them.”

But the biggest obstacle, according to Zacarias and others, is the lack of money to fund intervention efforts across the vast district.

“We set up the framework in January, but the devil is in the details,” the superintendent said.

School officials recently learned that the state would provide only enough funds to cover the costs of serving 10% of the 150,000 students in need of special assistance--about $13 million.

Zacarias says that the budget he expects to present to the Board of Education next month calls for $110 million to implement the new promotion program. Possible funding sources include federal anti-poverty funds.

In the absence of adequate state funding, Zacarias said the district may have to ask schools to make dramatic adjustments in their budgets.

Given the high costs and shortage of funds, some educators were disappointed that he would propose creation of an expensive new layer of bureaucrats.

The new “instructional specialists” would earn entry-level administrative pay ranging from $64,741 to $80,740 per year. The average teaching salary in Los Angeles is $46,601.

“I think it’s a waste of money,” said board member David Tokofsky. “A better idea would be to convert existing [nonteaching] positions to take on those extra duties.”

Becky Robinson, a vice president for United Teachers-Los Angeles and co-chairwoman of the district’s standards-based promotion task force, agreed there’s no need to create a new tier of high-paid administrators. But she contended that the size and complexity of the task demands full-time coordinators.

“Why are we looking at the most expensive alternative? There’s no reason these positions must be administrators,” she said. “We should be looking at things like teacher coordinators whose numbers would be based on the number of students who fail to meet academic standards.”

But Steve Mark, assistant superintendent of special education who is working closely with the superintendent, strongly supports the plan.

“Any time you talk about hiring more people to work outside of the classroom there will be concerns,” said Mark, who hopes to have the new specialists in place in January. “But to raise student achievement you need an array of supports, from in-classroom programs to teacher training and coordination services, which these new people will provide.”

Eli Brent, president of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, who stands to see his ranks grow under the plan, this week called on all district middle managers to “support the superintendent.”

“AALA urges the Board of Education to support Zacarias by adopting his recommendation for instructional specialists for all elementary school sites,” he said in a prepared statement. “He can do no less--schools are in a crisis mode--administrators are reaching out for help!”

Meanwhile, district officials still expect in May to identify those students who are at risk of flunking and request--not order--them to participate in remedial classes. According to a draft of the district’s policy, students would be judged according to Stanford 9 test scores, teachers’ assessments of classwork and reading ability.

“Even though we can’t force parents to send their children to intervention classes,” Robinson said, “they need to understand that if they don’t, and their children don’t improve their academic achievement, they won’t be promoted.”

Last spring, about two-thirds of the district’s elementary school children scored below grade level in reading on the Stanford 9. But the policy provides some flexibility.

For example, a student who does not test at grade level on the Stanford 9 could still be moved up if the teacher feels that other measures, such as classwork, warrant promotion.

In recent weeks, Zacarias has sent letters home with students advising parents that the district would be offering summer sessions beginning July 1. He has also conveyed the same message on Spanish-language news programs and talk shows.

“This is a tremendous undertaking, there are bugs that still have to be worked out,” he said. “But there is no turning back now. If the state doesn’t give us enough money, we’ll cut. I expect some flak over it. It all depends on whose ox is gored.”