L.A. District Unveils Plan to End Social Promotion

Los Angeles Unified School District officials on Monday unveiled the largest urban education reform program in U.S. history--their plan for ending social promotion and launching intervention programs for 139,000 students in danger of being held back in June 2000.

Officials had worried that the $71-million effort, which aims to end social promotion a year earlier than the rest of the state, could collapse without the involvement of parents citywide.

So far, however, the response from parents has been overwhelmingly in favor of the effort, which calls for enrolling tens of thousands of struggling students in voluntary after-school, weekend and off-track classes beginning July 1.

Moreover, a more than ample 7,000 teachers have applied to provide the special instruction--tailored to fit each student’s needs--at local schools.

Given the enthusiastic support, the district on Thursday will hold “roll-out sessions” for special teams of principals, parents and teachers at each school to help implement the plan.

Also this week, education officials will begin training 600 parents to help introduce the new standards-based policies--and new report cards aligned to state standards--to other parents at every school in the district.

“This begins a change in the very culture we work in, and in the way we handle at-risk students,” said Carmen Schroeder, associate superintendent. “And for the first time, we are providing a comprehensive plan for students who aren’t making it.”

“We’re enthusiastic because parents seem to have understood how important all this is,” she added. “Teachers too. They will be getting additional training and support to help students achieve standards.”

This year, students will be referred to intervention programs based on last spring’s Stanford 9 results and on teachers’ assessments of whether their skills meet state requirements for grade level.

The process will change somewhat next year, when a child’s score on the augmented Stanford 9 tests in reading, language arts and math--which are aligned to state standards--and a teacher’s assessments will weigh most heavily in deciding if he or she should be promoted to the next grade.

Parents will be notified in writing continuously during the school sessions of the progress of their child. Parents can appeal a decision first at the school level, then at the local cluster office.

Promotion criteria will differ for various classifications of students as follows:

* Generally, all students in grades 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 are expected to meet minimum proficiency standards in reading, language arts and math in order to be promoted to the next grade.

* Students with limited English proficiency--who make up about 50% of the district’s student population of almost 700,000--must be promoted if teachers determine that they are making adequate progress in language development, even if they fail to meet the minimum proficiency level.

* Students with disabilities are expected to meet promotion standards unless otherwise indicated on their individualized education programs.

Overall, students not meeting grade-level or course standards at any point during the 1999-2000 school year will be referred to summer, after-school and Saturday intervention programs.

Summer school will provide 60 hours of instruction; after-school sessions will allow for one hour in reading and one hour in math per day; and Saturday programs will give two-hour blocks of additional assistance. However, these programs are flexible, and the length of time students are assigned to an intervention program will depend on their success in meeting standards.

Careful record-keeping is intended to ensure that students can leave an intervention program when they have achieved a particular standard.

As part of 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, about 15,000 teachers next month will receive special scoring guides to assist students who fail to meet minimum standards in reading, language arts and math.

Similarly, the parents of students identified as at risk of flunking will receive special brochures detailing what is expected of their child academically--and what they can do at home to ensure success in the classroom.

For example, brochures to be mailed soon to the homes of second-graders urge that parents set specific times and places for their children to complete homework assignments. They also encourage them to give praise when it is deserved, and to ensure that their children write daily. Student classroom work should be displayed prominently.

The district’s plan aims to accelerate intervention programs in preparation for a new state law that abolishes social promotion in the 2000-01 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.

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

Ending social promotion in Los Angeles will mean an overhaul in the way report cards monitor students’ academic progress. When the district’s plan takes effect next month, new computerized cards will go out to schools districtwide.

The new report cards are designed to reflect student achievement of state standards. With the cards, teachers will evaluate students on a four-point scoring system: advanced, proficient, partially proficient and not proficient in grade-level reading, language arts, math and other subjects.

Student achievement marks in these areas will determine intervention referrals and whether a student is promoted at the end of the school term.

Given the complexity and scale of the effort--some details of which are still being worked out--district officials are optimistic that student achievement will improve significantly over the next year.

“The eyes of the nation will be on LAUSD in June when more than 100,000 at-risk students enter intervention programs,” said Robert Collins, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. “But the highest stakes will come next June when we decide who gets promoted and who gets held back.”

“We’re talking about a major change in the largest institution in the city,” added Collins. “And it can only happen by the collective will of every person in Los Angeles.”