Awards Honor Schools, Teachers, Programs

By BOBBY CUZA

May 19, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Norwood Street Elementary School is in many ways a typical inner-city school facing typical inner-city problems: high poverty, low parental education levels and students who speak little or no English.

Most parents are immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala. Ninety-seven percent of students qualify for free and reduced lunches.

What’s extraordinary is the measures the school has taken to help students overcome their obstacles.

Beginning with Hand to Hand, a night class for parents of kindergarten and first-grade students, Norwood is reaching out to parents and yanking them headlong into the learning process.

“From the very first day of school it starts,” said Principal Rita Flynn. “We actually bring them in off the yard and give them pan dulce and coffee and say, ‘We’ve got a class that’s going to help you to help your child at home.’ ”

The innovative Hand to Hand program, which relies on grant money, won a $10,000 award Thursday from the Los Angeles Educational Partnership, presented to the school at the nonprofit group’s second annual Excellence Awards.

The Excellence Awards recognize eight teams of teachers, four schools and three “school communities” in the Los Angeles Unified School District for exceptional efforts, as measured largely by test scores. Teachers receive $5,000 grants and schools receive $10,000.

“Part of the reason LAEP wants to recognize these schools is to proliferate these practices. What these schools and these teachers are doing is working,” said Susan Way-Smith, the organization’s president and chief executive. “It gives you a real sense of hope that things are not quite as bleak as sometimes they’re painted.”

Norwood, south of downtown, was recognized in the School Communities category for its myriad community involvement programs, which include daily English and U.S. citizenship classes and a Healthy Start program that links families with local health services. A Lap Read program targets parents whose children haven’t started school, by teaching them to read aloud to their infants and toddlers.

The hub of all this activity is the Parent Center, which occupies a room in the school’s main building. Even though overcrowding has created a space crunch--just this year, the auditorium was converted into two classrooms--the Parent Center has remained intact.

The Parent Center is “a visible sign here that parents are important,” Flynn said. “Without that, we don’t have the place to carry out these programs. It honors the parents’ place in this school. They’re not adjunct; they’re central to us.”

It’s no coincidence, then, that more than 200 parents lend their services to the Parent Volunteer program. Or that attendance is nearly perfect at parent-teacher conferences.

And although test scores remain low, the Los Angeles Educational Partnership said the school’s steady progress has helped its cause.

“It’s still a low-performing school,” said Judy Johnson, partnership vice president. But “the increase in performance is consistent,” she added. “they’re getting better and better, slowly.”

Last year, for instance, 120 students were redesignated as English speakers, up from the 50 who were redesignated in 1997-98. And Stanford 9 scores in language arts, reading and math are creeping upward.

Said Flynn: “Every time parents become involved--and that’s our whole key--then the kids’ scores are going to improve.”

Teaching Awards

* Patricia Murphy and Roy Hayashida, 156th Street Elementary School

* Jennifer Yoo, Molly Schroeder, Carmen Dean and Adria Metson, Welby Way Magnet School

* Dana Menck and Steve Cordova, Westside Leadership Magnet School

* Merrie Wartik, Julia Mason and Joan Douglas, Wonderland Avenue Elementary School

* Penny Atkinson Horstman and Maria Parocua, Camellia Avenue Elementary School

* Jose Franco, Clementina Gregoire and Jose Umana, Franklin High School

* Shayna Kohn, Craig Ingram and Patty Godinez, Haddon Avenue Elementary School

* Ange McNeel, Jim Baxter, Sandy Latt, Georgina Garcia-Medrano, Lisa Gaboudian and Alice Katz, Lassen Elementary School

School Awards

* Ramona Elementary School