Students Responsible for Success in School

Re “State Steps In at 10 Lagging L.A. Schools,” Oct. 3, and your Oct. 4 editorial: The schools being audited by the state are not doing poorly because of low-quality teachers. Threats of entire teaching staffs being replaced are regular at all low-performing schools, but they are most disingenuous. I would challenge the state or the LAUSD to switch the entire staffs of any of the 10 audited schools with one of the top schools and see what happens. There would be no great change.

Schools with many limited-English students start at a disadvantage, but the major problems are students with no interest in learning and families who are not actively involved in their children’s education. I teach at a school near those being audited and what I see are unmotivated students who refuse to make real effort because they don’t feel it’s necessary.

Todd Engle

Los Angeles

*

I doubt seriously that it’s the administrators, teachers or union executives who force students to refuse to attend classes or misbehave while there. I doubt that they are the culprits who destroy school grounds and supplies such as books. I don’t think the teachers are berating students if they attempt to excel. No one at the schools is exempting parents from learning English so they can help their children and set an example. And as I recall, most of the drug use and violence in the schools are perpetrated by the students. As long as we don’t make parents and students responsible for their performance, we do them a disservice by giving them an excuse to fail and blame everyone else.

Zelda McKay

Marina del Rey

*

Re “County Ranks Poorly in Exit Test,” Oct. 4: I’m not sure if I’m confused, but having a passage rate of 44% of LAUSD ninth-graders on the language arts portion of a high school exit exam sounds good to me. Shouldn’t we be congratulating those high school freshmen (and their instructors) for a job well done? Or is the issue of concern that the 12th-grade exit standards are appallingly low? What do we tell those who passed? “Congratulations, you passed. You did really well.” Or do we say, “Congratulations, you passed, but you still don’t know anything.”

Laurie Pincus

Los Angeles