L.A. Elementary Schools May Get Sixth Grade Back

The Los Angeles Unified School District is considering a shift of sixth-grade classes next year from some middle schools to as many as 124 elementary schools that now end at fifth grade, officials said.

The reconfiguration, proposed to begin in July, is supposed to help ease crowding in middle schools and add more instruction days for students on year-round calendars. It would take advantage of a demographic shift that has left some elementary campuses with more room for students than the upper levels.

“The big population bulge that went through the system is now entering high schools, so we’re not quite so impacted at the elementary schools,” said Merle Price, the district’s deputy superintendent for instruction.

As word of the possible change has started to spread through the district, it is drawing mixed reactions. The teachers union opposes it, saying it would be disruptive. Some parents and principals welcome it, saying it would help sixth-graders academically and keep them in the more sheltered elementary school environment for another year.

“If sixth-graders can fit in an elementary school, there is an advantage to it,” said Gordon Wohlers, chief of staff for Supt. Roy Romer.

L.A. Unified has raised average test scores at the elementary level for four years in a row, an achievement officials believe has been driven by reading and math reforms. It will be easier to stay on target with such efforts if some sixth-grade students remain in the smaller elementary school setting, officials said.

“We want more personalization,” said Wohlers. “Rather than having middle school students see six teachers every day, we’re trying to reduce that so ... the teachers get to know the children better.”

The plan, which officials stress remains under study, is expected to be presented to the Board of Education in January. It could affect about a third of the district’s 425 elementary campuses and 19 of its 74 middle schools.

The primary goal is to switch elementary and middle school students who are currently on a three-track, 163-day schedule, onto a four-track 180-day schedule. The calendar change could put more middle school students on campus at the same time, so it would be helpful to transfer sixth-graders to elementary campuses, Wohlers said.

Besides the demographic shift, some elementary campuses have extra space because of the opening of a handful of new primary centers that include kindergarten through second-grade students.

L.A. Unified has 415 elementary schools that run from kindergarten through fifth grade. Ten other elementary schools still enroll sixth-graders.

Terry Campa, principal of the 700-student O’Melveny Elementary School in San Fernando, said she was surprised when she was notified recently that her school might be asked to include sixth-grade students.

“We’re an overcrowded school already,” she said.

But Verna B. Dauterive, principal of the 450-student Franklin Elementary School in Los Feliz, said she is delighted by the prospect of giving sixth-grade students a better learning setting.

“We do have extra space and we welcome the sixth-graders,” she said. “We really prefer to have our sixth-graders with us, even though they’re a little taller and all of that. They still need the nurturing that elementary school students [get].”

Elementary schools will be excluded from becoming K-6 campuses if doing so would cause more students to be bused, worsen crowding or put more students on year-round calendars, Price said.

The district’s last grade-level reorganization began in 1985 and took more than seven years to complete, Price said. High schools began enrolling students in grades nine through 12, instead of starting with 10th grade. Middle schools, which previously enrolled grades seven through nine, switched to grades six through eight.

The changes were implemented, in part, because college admissions requirements are based on a ninth- through 12th-grade system, Price said.

John Perez, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, said the union opposes the plan because it will complicate the lives of parents and teachers. The last reconfiguration took years for staff and families to get used to, he said. He added that there has not been enough teacher or community input.

The proposed four-track system would work like a college quarter system, said Larry Carletta, a district administrator involved in the plan.

There would be four 60-day blocks of instruction, and each student would attend three of them, he said. Students would have shorter vacations and more continuous stretches of class days, he said.

A common criticism of three-track calendars, and some four-track schedules, is that B-track students, who end one school term on June 27, then start a new one on July 1, are given unequal educational opportunities. B-track has the most erratic schedule and the fewest magnet and advanced placement courses available.

But Wohlers said the district will try to work with each school to see which configuration is most suitable.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all,” he said. “And, of course, nothing is final yet.”