Subtle signs of a turnaround on a troubled L.A. campus

1/15

Mykel Polk, 16, and Areli Martinez, 18, practice a skateboard jump together during lunch on Saint Street, a road that cuts through the 25-acre campus. The schools disjointed layout has made it hard over the years to keep the campus free of vandalism. It also made it easier for students to ditch classes. Charter-school operator Green Dot clamped down this year with a heavy security presence and strict rules, which limited student opportunities for blowing off steam during breaks. But Green Dot has loosened up a bit, allowing skateboarding, pickup soccer games and other activities in selected areas. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

2/15

Fences, draped in an impermeable black canvass, play a huge role in limiting student fights and vandalism at Locke High. They allow an omnipresent security force to exert rigid control over the habitually unruly hallways and grounds. The fences also represent internal borders meant to define a more nurturing setting at a school marked by high dropout rates, low student achievement and episodic chaos that sometimes escalated into violence.

Small schools are integral to the methodology of Green Dot, the charter-school nonprofit that now runs Locke. Students at small schools, the theory goes, are less likely to fall through the cracks, drop behind academically and eventually drop out. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

3/15

Teacher Katy Bridger works with students in her 5th period senior English class. The resourceful rookie instructor persuaded a local bowling alley to give these students a bowling party recently because of the groups academic progress. These students, on average, have not yet reached proficiency, which is the states goal. But this class has improved more than any other that shes teaching, despite some students who miss school a lot and others who are sometimes disruptive. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

4/15

Cassandra Garcia and her boyfriend Salvador Picas, both 16, meet up after school as a bus prepares to leave campus. The bus routes, at a cost of about $500,000, are a key addition this year at Locke even though the district says most students live within “walking distance.” In this Watts-adjacent neighborhood, walking often home means traversing the territory of one or more gangs.

When asked why they take the bus, many students laugh and say theyre lazy. But if pressed further, some acknowledge they feel unsafe walking home, even after learning to avoid certain blocks and keep track of periods when gangs ramp up the violence. Even the football players are hassled, said bus driver Cynthia Kumara, and have said they are grateful for the late bus that comes back for them after practice.

To me, Locke is very, very dangerous school, she said, referring mostly to the surrounding neighborhood. One off-campus shooting happened behind her bus; in a separate incident while she was driving, she saw a young victim being removed from a city bus stop where hed been shot. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

5/15

Students rehearse the final wedding scene from Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing. During the performance, a beaming Joe Malone watched his daughter Lashay play the stolid Leonata, lord of the castle and mother of the bride. He could have sent his daughter to Venice High in West Los Angeles, but hed heard of positive developments at his alma mater. At first I thought it was crazy breaking Locke up into small schools, he said. But I understand they had to do something.

Locke High students havent attempted Shakespeare in recent years. Drama and English teacher Aubrey Whitlock said her drama group has grown from five to 15: For the students to have the guts to do a Shakespeare play -- this would not have flown last year when there was so much negativity. Its like night and day. (Stefano Paltera / Los Angeles Times)

6/15

Locke High student Marcelo Torres, 16, stands inside the schools handball courts after climbing the fence to play a game. Security guards quickly arrived to send the student back to class. The handball courts have traditionally been a hangout for Latino students -- and, if poorly monitored, can become an area where students go to ditch class. Theyve also been the scene of fights related to gang rivalries. The nearby basketball courts have traditionally been a hangout spot for black students, and had some of the same security issues. Since taking over the campus, Green Dot has kept these areas closely supervised and scheduled the handball courts and other outdoor areas for use by different academies at different times, making supervision easier and lessening the potential for conflict. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

7/15

Locke High School students, in their school uniforms, walk home past graffiti along 111th Street near Watts. Rival gang turf surrounds the school, and students are occasionally harassed or even caught in the crossfire. The school uniforms are intended, in part, to defuse such conflicts on campus. But the uniforms have proved no panacea. A number of students resisted wearing them or tried to get away with not tucking in their shirts or wearing their pants below their hip bones, with their boxer shorts showing.

At the start of the year, The Times pulled four students at random from a line of youths whod shown up the first day out of uniform. The school had provided loaner uniforms to each student as well as a warning to get with the program. Of these four, only one apparently made it through the entire year at Locke: One, a junior, left school in February after excessive absences. Another, a sophomore, was sent home for the year with several weeks remaining in the term after repeated behavioral problems. The school could find no record of a third student, also a sophomore -- its possible that hes listed in school records under a different name. Senior Terry Vance was the only one of the four to stay on at Locke. He still hated the uniforms, and didnt like school much better either. He had an up-and-down year marked by attendance issues. He said he wont be receiving a diploma because he has yet to pass the math part of the high school exit exam. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

8/15

Mature olive tree, pepper trees, new turf and other new landscaping elements have brightened up the quad this year at Locke High, which is under the management of Green Dot Public Schools. The hallways and bathrooms are cleaner and better maintained as well, although no one would confuse Locke with a private school or a typical suburban high school. The lunch area remains drab and worn, for example, although students do report that the quality of the food has improved.

The planting of the mature olive trees was financed by actress Cameron Diaz, who had requested that her gift remain anonymous. Green Dot has proved skilled at raising money to support its efforts at Locke and at start-up charters serving urban students. But some have questioned whether this level of support is sustainable, and whether the transformation model at Locke could transfer to other L.A. Unified campuses. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

9/15

Security aide Rogelio Cardenas said he sees both toughness and vulnerability in Locke High students as he controls traffic at an opening in the fence that separates Locke from the gang-plagued streets outside. The black canvass on the fence helps screen out distractions, and also makes it impossible for troublemakers on the outside to target student for harassment -- or worse -- once they are inside the campus.

These students already know theyre in a hole, Cardenas said. Once they leave from this high school, there may or may not be a second chance, but were in a safe environment here. This is the new Locke.

Off campus, students remain literal targets. Two students were shot just off campus this year. Both survived, but one transferred to another school. All told, the carnage is light compared to some years. They survived, 10th grader Ryan Delgado said of the wounded students, shrugging. You get used to it. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

10/15

Students at Locke 4 play basketball during lunch. Locke 4 is one of eight small academies into which the school is divided -- five on the main campus and three offsite. The bungalow in the background houses a classroom for the Opportunities program, which has become the usual destination for students returning from juvenile detention. The primary mission of Locke 4 is to get students back on track if they are far behind on credits or have serious behavior issues. Because these students rarely have access to the rest of campus (including the gym), staff and students improvise for recreation. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

11/15

Locke High School security guard Terry Overstreet keeps watch as students socialize during a lunch period. Students and staff almost uniformly say that an increased security presence this year -- at a cost of $700,000 -- has made the Watts-adjacent campus safer and calmer. Last year, a campuswide brawl erupted in May, and fights and vandalism were commonplace.

Early on, the discipline under the new administrative regime could become quite heavy-handed. Twice in the fall, guards pepper-spayed students. In one case, a guard acted when a student, on his way home after school, failed to heed a command to stop and extinguish a cigarette. Since then, administrators have re-trained guards, running them through scenarios in which they practice how to defuse conflict.

What we believe is that if a student is not following your directions and trying to walk away, allow that student to walk away, said Locke cluster director Kelly Hurley. We will see that student the next day and there would be consequences. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

12/15

Ashley Nolan, center, dances as part of half-time activities during a June exhibition basketball game. The charter-school organization that now operates Locke had never run a traditional high school sports program prior to this year. A few key coaches remained at Locke, which helped keep the sports program largely on track. The charter company, Green Dot, also funded some improvements and overdue maintenance to the equipment and fields. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

13/15

Martha Levin, a science teacher at Locke 4, works with a student in a computer-study program set up for students who are far behind in academic credits. In the past, many of these students would have dropped out or been transferred out -- they were just too far behind. But this program, called Advanced Path, gives students a chance to catch up while remaining in Locke. Most of the students attend in either a morning or afternoon block of four hours. They can also log on at home. The cavernous computer lab, built into a refurbished shop class, has 90 computer stations.

This year, 30 students turned things around quickly enough to graduate in June. Advanced Path is a separate company from Green Dot, the charter organization now running Locke. Advanced Path provides the materials, computers and teachers salaries. In exchange, it gets to keep whats left of the money generated by the student attendance, which has been mixed. On average, students are making it to class a little less than four days a week. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

14/15

Students regularly gather after school to participate in a ninja hand-slap tournament. The session begins with a traditional moment of silence. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

15/15

Porsha Westbrooks, 18, gets a kiss from her mother Deborah Wilson, following a graduation ceremony in which she was the sole participant -- at Locke High, students graduate immediately after completing all of their credits. Porsha was a 5th-year senior who enrolled in the Advanced Path Academy, a program for credit-deficient students; she plans to study cosmetology. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

By Howard Blume

June 24, 2009 12 AM PT

Locke High School English teacher Katy Bridger tried to give her fifth-period seniors a test while Byron Gordon sharpened pencils noisily, Deon Crockett wandered the room complaining at full volume and a girl cursed just as loudly at Deon for being rude. Daniel Dominguez dozed in the back.

Pressing on, Bridger, a 23-year-old recent political science graduate from Tennessee, told students to put away their cellphones and iPods. One student demanded to know why, muttering the F-word.

Despite the momentary chaos and disrespect -- and the fact that half the students were absent -- this class represents improvement at one of the most troubled campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

For years, Locke, on the edge of Watts, has had among the state’s lowest test scores and highest dropout rates. In 2004, 1,451 students enrolled as freshmen; just 261 graduated four years later. Of them, only 85 had completed the courses required to apply to a University of California or California State University school.

A year ago, Green Dot Public Schools, which runs 12 charters serving the city’s urban poor, took over the school. The effort to transform Locke has been a nationally watched test of whether such a large, deeply impoverished urban high school could be transformed by a charter operator. Charter schools are publicly funded but operate beyond the direct control of school districts, exempt from many regulations and union contracts.

New foundation

Locke, which holds its graduation today, remains a troubled school, and Green Dot’s strategy has relied on extra funds that may not be sustainable or readily replicable.

But despite those caveats, a qualified turnaround appears to be emerging.

Students say the campus is safer and calmer. The teachers, although mostly young and inexperienced, receive praise for being devoted and effective. There are signs of academic progress. Students repeat one point over and over: Instruction is better and nearly all teachers work hard and expect them to achieve.

Byron, the student who was sharpening pencils during the test, began the year an unmotivated senior and a Green Dot skeptic. “I thought Green Dot was going to be gone after the first month,” Byron said. “I didn’t think they were going to change anything.”

In September, Bridger had to explain the difference between a noun and a verb. She’s now well past those preliminaries.

“What kind of person does Lady MacBeth want her husband to be?” she asked her class a few days after the test.

“A murderer,” said Deon, appearing more focused that day.

“What does Lady Macbeth want her husband to seem to be?” Bridger continued.

“A hero, a leader,” said Daniel, who was awake that day. He works 35 hours a week at Subway, for $8.25 an hour, to support his girlfriend and their two children.

The test Bridger had given was one of a series of benchmark exams that Green Dot uses to measure progress. When the results came, they showed gains: The average score for Bridger’s fifth-period class, roughly converted to the state’s norms, would be in the low range of “basic,” one level below the state’s goal of “proficiency.” That’s not spectacular, but as 11th graders, 63% of Locke students had tested as “below basic” or worse.

Tough conditions

Locke’s student body includes many who are far behind in credits, others with severe to moderate disabilities, and a small but steady flow of teens returning to school after serving time for criminal activity.

Academic growth over the last year has been uneven, according to Green Dot data. And that has prompted concern. “My nightmare is that the state test scores come in and you’re judged by that,” said Green Dot founder Steve Barr.

Leaders of traditional schools frequently complain about being evaluated mainly by test results; such concerns are often dismissed by charter school operators, including Green Dot.

“We have not unlocked all the mysteries,” said Marco Petruzzi, Green Dot’s chief executive. “We’re very humble about that.”

Daniel and Deon are among about 307 seniors who completed their course work for graduation. Several dozen others will participate in today’s ceremony because they are close enough to finish in summer school. More than 100 seniors didn’t make it.

Byron was kicked out of a Pomona high school two years ago for fighting. He moved in with his father near Locke in part, he said, to escape bad influences, including some in his family. Last year, he got Bs and Cs and he flunked a class.

“Last year it didn’t matter,” said Byron, who earned A’s and Bs this year. “I never had nobody on me like I do now. This year, any class I decide to mess in, I will get in trouble with the teacher. They don’t expect me to mess up.”

Green Dot replaced most of the old Locke faculty and split the school into eight smaller academies. Much of the staff is young, and only 15% have fully completed teacher credentialing requirements. Half have taught for three years or less. And half are 28 or younger.

But many make up in enthusiasm what they lack in years. Bridger regularly spends 12 hours a day on campus, typically arriving just after 6 a.m. When school ends, some students remain seated in her classroom and others file in for extra assistance, to make up work, to help Bridger with projects or just to hang out.

The school’s youth-oriented staffing allows Green Dot to pay higher starting salaries while still maintaining a payroll that averages below traditional public high schools in the area, according to a Times analysis.

Even before Green Dot, Locke had a contingent of energetic newcomers and capable veterans. The math department rebuilt a dormant calculus program, and 44 students enrolled in the class this year.

But the motivated teachers, experienced or not, received inconsistent support, which accelerated burnout, disillusionment and departure, said calculus teacher Fernando Avila.

“This became the place where a lot of teachers not performing in other schools ended up,” Avila said.

Teacher Elijah Woodson said the achievements of the prior staff are underappreciated. Against the Green Dot takeover all along, he nevertheless stayed on after Green Dot asked L.A. Unified to continue to provide teachers for students with disabilities. That will change next year, in part because Green Dot managers are dissatisfied with the way L.A. Unified handled the contracted teachers.

Woodson said he feels personally harassed, with administrators regularly observing and evaluating his teaching. During one visit they focused on a student who was asleep in class -- because of medication, Woodson said -- rather than on 20 others who were paying attention.

Being critiqued is something Green Dot employees must get used to. Bridger said she relies on observations to improve, although not all teachers report favorably on their administrators. And the Green Dot teachers union filed several grievances over pay and working conditions.

Some classes have exceeded 40 students, a dilemma for Green Dot, which prides itself on small classes. And although the staff has made a concerted effort to keep students in school, some have dropped off the radar. A few with serious discipline or attendance issues have recently been sent home.

Targeted teaching

To make classes more manageable, administrators have enrolled some especially challenging students in Locke 4, an academy whose Opportunities program consists of three classrooms set aside for students who are doing poorly or displaying serious behavior problems. The program also accepts students returning after being convicted of crimes.

On a recent Monday, 14 students sat in an Opportunities class with one teacher and an aide -- Green Dot wanted especially small adult-to-student ratios for these youths. The posted class rules were simple: Stay seated during class; complete all of your work; be polite and respectful.

These expectations failed to achieve traction with several students, including a recently arriving freshman.

“Do you need help?” the teacher asked him.

“You need help,” he retorted, looking around for admiration from his peers. “You know, lady, I don’t like you.”

The group was assigned to organize an essay on juvenile justice after reviewing case studies of four young offenders. If students actually write the essay, they’ll get extra credit.

One table over from the ninth-grader, a wiry boy with slicked-back hair said he had landed in Locke 4 after punching a school security guard. He considers gang membership necessary to survive: “That’s almost part of life.”

Then he paused and offered something close to an endorsement of the new Locke: “Other schools, you have your enemies all the time. In this school everybody gets along. People talk to Bloods and Crips.”

He started to work on the essay: “These cases are like what happened to my friends. They got shot at and shot back.”

Last year, said senior Harold Thomas, “every other week a fight or something would be going on. I used to walk from the back to the front and all of a sudden, there was smoke coming from a classroom, and you’d hear the Fire Department coming.”

To secure the campus, Green Dot has spent $700,000 on security, which might prove unaffordable over time. The investment has helped to nearly eliminate fights and reduce graffiti and other forms of vandalism. The school has also fenced off areas on campus to boost security and has provided some bus service so students don’t have to traverse gang territories.

But no strategy can entirely screen out the realities of a tough neighborhood.

In April, a gunman wounded a student in front of campus as students were arriving.

Last October, two gang members approached Donald Wood as he waited at a city bus stop just off campus. The gunman aimed at his head, but the weapon misfired, Donald said.

On the subsequent try, a bullet struck his upper arm and another entered his back, where it remains embedded close to his spine. He missed about three months of school and had to give up plans to return to football and track.

Donald had brushes with the law that included possession of firearms and assault and battery, but before the shooting he had seemed determined to set a new course. He stopped by Locke over the summer to help a former teacher, Maggie Bushek, set up her classroom. And at one point, he told her he did not want to turn out like the hopeless youths he saw in court.

“I catched up on a lot of my credits and I learned a lot of things,” Donald said. “I feel good about my future.”

Moving forward

Through April, 52 students started or transferred into the Opportunity classrooms. Of those, two had dropped out and 14 exited the Green Dot system for other programs.

Donald could be the first to move into the other side of Locke 4, where older students short on credits take self-paced computer courses.

That’s where Porsha Westbrooks, 18, made up two years worth of credits in less than a year. On a Wednesday recently, Porsha, to the applause of classmates, zipped up a light blue graduation gown and rang a bell for a one-person procession that’s become a tradition among the 30 potential dropouts who are now expected to graduate.

“She was rebellious, and she was ditching,” said her mother, Deborah Wilson. Now, “she’s my miracle child.”

Most of these students attend a four-hour shift, and many like the shortened day, especially those with jobs.

But the richness of the curriculum is open to challenge. On a recent Monday, as part of a humanities unit, Harold was reviewing facts about music in the baroque period. The exercise was nothing more than rote memorization: He never actually listened to baroque music, which he pronounced “barrack.”

The two sectors of Locke 4 -- Opportunities and Advanced Path -- have allowed Green Dot to hold onto students who would have been unable to remain at a typical Green Dot start-up. Many probably would have dropped out of the old Locke.

Byron’s diploma was never in question, but he found himself this month in a situation he never anticipated -- among a handful of students auditioning to give the senior class speech. His didn’t get the nod, but he’ll celebrate being accepted by Tuskegee University in Alabama, Grambling State University in Louisiana and Jackson State University in Mississippi. He chose Cal State Northridge because, he said, it’s close to his “support system.” He’s not referring to his family.

“My resources,” he said, “the people I come to for help, the support I get -- is from Locke High.”

howard.blume@latimes.com