Many Students Face Failure as Social Promotion Ends

Up to 60% of Los Angeles Unified School District elementary and middle school students are in danger of flunking when the district ends social promotion next school year, Supt. Ruben Zacarias said Monday.

The district hopes to avoid holding back tens of thousands of schoolchildren in June 2000 by spending $140 million this year on intervention programs, Zacarias said.

School officials expect to require at least 150,000 struggling students--about 40% of the district’s elementary school students--to attend summer school, Saturday sessions and after-school tutoring programs this year.

To accommodate such a large number of students during the summer at already crowded year-round schools, the district envisions renting space in private and parochial schools and perhaps even storefronts.

“This will be the largest undertaking by this district ever,” Zacarias said of his plan to end social promotion a year earlier than the rest of the state. “The $140-million figure is just a start. It could go up to $2 billion over a matter of years.”

During a lunch with Times editors and reporters, he cited the staggering cost of the intervention programs in arguing against new pay raises demanded by the district’s unions.

Zacarias expressed frustration with the school board’s ongoing salary negotiations with the unions, saying that they detract from efforts to improve student performance. At one point he said that if the district doesn’t show improvement in the near future, “I’ll be at the point” on efforts to break up the district.

“If I become convinced that under our current governance system we cannot do what’s needed to ensure quality education for our kids,” he said, “we have an obligation to look at alternatives.”

Deputy Supt. Liliam Castillo said that on Feb. 2 the district will present to the board its plan for determining who will be promoted to a higher grade.

According to a draft of the policy, students would be judged according to Stanford 9 test scores, teachers’ assessments of classwork and reading ability.

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

In the effort to end the practice of advancing students to a new grade even if they have not mastered the skills of the old one, the district in May will identify those students who are at risk of flunking and order them to participate in remedial classes.

“For funding, we’ll look at federal and state grants, school improvement programs and every piece of state legislation that calls for intervention,” said Castillo, who is in charge of curriculum. “For classroom space, we’ll be looking at local schools, as well as private and parochial schools.

“Our hope is to offer an alternative curriculum for these kids stressing basics in reading, language arts and math--and special after-school tutoring,” she said. “We’ll depend on teachers volunteering for summer school assignments. But we won’t know how many teachers we’ll need until we identify the children in need.”

Los Angeles Unified board member David Tokofsky said Zacarias has underestimated “the size and cost of the problem.”

“I believe we’re going to need a billion-dollar program the first year,” he said. “But $140 million is a good start. If the district can prove that it has made significant improvements in academic achievement, I believe the public will insist that he get the rest of the money needed to get the job done.”

Essentially, the district’s proposal would accelerate what is already called for in a new state law to abolish social promotion in the 2000-01 school year. Under the state’s plan, all school boards will adopt a promotion and retention policy for students expecting to go into grades 3 through 12.

Extra classes will be available during the summer, and districts will have flexibility in identifying students who are likely not to be promoted.

Statewide, about 3 million students perform below their grade levels. But nearly all are promoted only to have their academic problems exacerbated with each advancement.

The district’s plan would take effect in the 1999-2000 school year and target students moving into the third through sixth grades and into the ninth grade. 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.

“There are many details to be worked out,” Castillo said, “but it’s a step that has to be taken on behalf of our students and our city.”