Accountability

Re “Pockets of Progress but Question Marks, Too,” July 23: Please know that my decision to temporarily withdraw my school accountability plan from school board consideration does in no way suggest that we are abandoning our efforts to hold schools accountable for student achievement. If approved, our new accountability plan will not only use standardized test scores to evaluate a school’s performance, it will do so in a much tougher way than did our groundbreaking 100 schools plan.

The reason for withholding our plan for a brief period is only to allow time for district staff to align portions of our plan with the one being developed by the state. Such an alignment will avoid confusion and lend credibility to the entire endeavor. It is definitely worth the short wait.

SUPT. RUBEN ZACARIAS

LAUSD