Six Quick Reforms for LAUSD

Nothing is talked about more and affected less than the LAUSD. As a teacher in the district for 15 years, I can assure you that despite the endless hand-wringing over low student achievement, nothing is ever done. At the risk of adding to the cacophony, here are six reforms that can be implemented within a year. Each would serve to return decorum and rigor to our classrooms and would positively affect teacher turnover and student achievement.

1. Implement a districtwide uniform for students and a dress code for staff.

2. Make campus personnel responsible for keeping campuses clean of garbage and graffiti, for providing clean restrooms for students and staff and for providing campus environments where civility is the norm and classrooms where education occurs. Ensure this by prying district administrators out of their downtown offices for scheduled and surprise campus inspections. Grades for the school should be posted outside, much as restaurants now display grades for cleanliness.

3. Give teachers the power to remove students to what would be called “discipline schools.” In secondary schools, if four of six teachers agree that a student is not benefiting from his/her placement due to discipline or academic problems, the student would be moved to an alternative school where that student’s problems can be addressed. Neither parents nor administrators could block removal. However, excessive use of this power would be a teacher-performance issue.

4. In secondary schools, give students the right to evaluate their teachers. This would be done in the same way it is done on college campuses. These evaluations would become part of the teacher’s permanent record. Repeatedly poor evaluations would be cause for peer and administrator intervention.

5. Give teachers the right to evaluate their administrators. Those administrators not receiving a vote of confidence would be removed from their position or “demoted” back to the classroom.

6. Evaluate all differentials, including the $5,000 bilingual differential and the mentor program. Instead, distribute this money as merit pay to those teachers who can demonstrate college-level ability in their teaching field.

Unrealistic? Not if children and education come first. Involve the governor and Legislature by passing special legislation to make these reforms possible. Give us the tools to clean this district wholesale. At the moment, we are like gardeners in a windstorm being asked to clean a lawn by picking up leaf after individual leaf. At the very least, give us a rake.