Redirect the Focus Back to Schools

The shake-up at the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters has grabbed all the headlines, but our attention should be focused on where the real action is: in the schools. The school board must challenge its new leadership to present a vision and a strategy for teaching and learning in individual schools.

Reform efforts, such as those of our group, the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project, or LAAMP, and the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now, or LEARN, have found that real improvements require a sustained focus on the actual conditions in schools. The changes that count are those that improve the way students, teachers and principals interact on a daily basis and those that involve parents as partners in the education of their children.

The LAUSD needs to discipline itself by adopting--and then sticking to--a set of instructional goals encompassed in a long-term strategic plan. Nothing is more frustrating to teachers and schools than to be told to drop everything and embrace the reform of the week when they have barely absorbed the last reform.

LAAMP, LEARN and our many partners have witnessed important improvements taking hold at the school level. We encourage the district leadership to incorporate the following in developing their vision for public education in Los Angeles:

* Do better at training, recruiting and supporting new teachers.

California’s state-mandated class-size reduction program, coupled with the overall teacher shortage, has exacerbated the fundamental problem plaguing schools in the poorest neighborhoods, which is that the neediest students get the least-prepared teachers. Students facing a parade of substitutes cannot be expected to compete with those who work with a consistent team of qualified educators over a year or longer.

LAAMP’s teacher preparation program, developed with the LAUSD and the local California State University campuses, has identified promising practices, including mentoring and extensive technology support, that help new teachers meet the challenges they face in the urban classroom.

* Develop a better process for grooming future principals and supporting them as true leaders.

Principals spend more time managing the onslaught of demands from their superiors than they do on leading their own schools. Further, principals get transferred at an alarming rate, making it all but impossible for the schools to sustain a steady course of improvement.

* Give schools the tools to monitor their progress and craft local solutions for improvements.

Annual test scores are not enough to compel teachers to improve their teaching, since students are gone by the time the scores arrive. The LAUSD must complete the information systems and provide the training needed to diagnose and address problem areas sooner.

* Reinforce structures that link schools pre-K to high school.

Kids need a seamless and coordinated education from preschool through high school. Accountability must be shared. Also, educators must work as teams and not blame last year’s teachers for not preparing the students.

* Don’t expect miracles if you don’t provide the means to make them.

Nothing hurts morale more than being held accountable for things beyond your control. As the state and the district tighten the screws on the schools, they must also accept responsibility for providing each and every school with the basic tools they need: well-trained teachers, effective principals and essential facilities and materials, including up-to-date textbooks and technology.

* Involve parents as part of the solution.

Low-income and immigrant parents are too often perceived as part of the problem of low achievement rather than as potential partners in forging solutions. Engaging select parent activists in district-directed committees and activities is not sufficient. LAUSD must take aggressive steps to help schools build meaningful partnerships with parents.

The school board’s commitment to put strong leaders in place is commendable. But at the end of the day, central office managers don’t raise reading scores. On-site principals and teachers do. It’s time to create a vision for how we can best help these educators do their jobs.