Panel Seeks Remedy for Skills Gap

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution this week requiring Supt. Roy Romer to create a plan within six months to close the academic achievement gap separating African American and Latino students from their Asian and white peers.

“If you measure it with standardized tests, more African American and Latino students are failing reading and math,” board member Jose Huizar said.

On the most recent Stanford 9 basic skills exam, African Americans and Latinos scored in the 34th percentile overall, compared with the 67th percentile for whites and the 70th for Asians, according to the school district.

The resolution, which was sponsored by Huizar and fellow board members Genethia Hudley-Hayes and David Tokofsky, requires Romer to show how current curriculum, instruction and staff development programs will close the learning gap.

The districtwide reading and math programs for elementary students, which have been praised for boosting test scores, and the recently established middle and high school literacy plan will also be reviewed, Huizar said.

The schools that rank lowest on the state’s Academic Performance Index are predominantly African American or Latino and are located in some of the highest poverty areas in Los Angeles, Huizar said.