Column: Learning Matters: Glendale Unified has history of offering schools of choice

Neighborhood schools aren’t what they once were. In past generations, nearly all public school students went to school close to home. Then “school choice” happened.

Broadly defined as the freedom for students to attend publicly-funded schools outside their attendance zones, school choice first appeared in the form of magnet schools designed to encourage racial and socio-economic integration.

As school accountability measures focused more attention on student achievement, school choice came to be seen more as a market force to encourage innovation and investment.

Schools of choice currently range from district-run magnet schools and specialized programs to district or corporate-run charter schools, and even, in some states, vouchers for private schools. Online learning options appear in a variety of settings.

Glendale’s own history with schools of choice began with Clark Magnet High School in the late 1990s, followed by its first Spanish language dual-immersion program at Edison Elementary in 2003.

Today, while balancing the simultaneous successes and budgetary challenges of three magnet schools and dual-immersion programs in seven languages, the district must also wrestle with both corporate charter advocates seeking a foothold in the district and the charter-friendly state and federal departments of education.

So, as budgetary anxiety builds and the district is forced to respond to interests from outside its borders, it might be helpful to reflect on the local history of school-choice programs. What choices has the district made and offered to families, and why?

Glendale opened Clark Magnet in 1998, at the height of a student population boom that had already resulted in nearly half of its elementary schools transitioning to year-round education.

For years, the district had engaged parents and community members in discussions about educational reform opportunities.

Finally, with Hoover and Glendale high schools filled beyond capacity, and with the urging of Supt. Jim Brown, voters approved a bond measure that allowed for the transformation of the long-shuttered Clark Junior High into a high school technology magnet.

As reflected by the school’s popularity and its collection of awards over the last 20 years, Clark has been a resounding success, thanks in large part to Brown’s choice of the founding principal, Doug Dall.

Dall was committed to the school-reform principles outlined in the California Department of Education’s 1992 blueprint, “Second to None,” and was able to hire teachers who shared that commitment.

However, though Clark was designed in accordance with educational research to improve student achievement, the motivating force behind the creation of Clark was more basic. The district needed more space for students.

Glendale’s next venture into school choice was a similar mix of financial necessity informed by educational research on English language instruction.

Following the passage of Proposition 227 in 1998, which eliminated most bilingual education in California, a group of teachers at Edison Elementary began working with district administrators to develop a voluntary dual-language-immersion program.

Led by Joanna Junge and Cristina Allen, the team developed a program they thought would best serve English-language learners as well as the children whose parents understood the value of language acquisition in a global society.

With the school board’s approval, Edison’s Spanish-immersion program opened with 18 students in 2003. Helped by a modified inter-district permit policy, Edison began attracting families from outside the district just as school enrollment in Glendale and elsewhere started to plummet because of high housing costs and low birth rates.

With school funding directly tied to school enrollment, Supt. Mike Escalante soon recognized the financial benefits of expanding dual-immersion programs.

Determined to prevent the likely closure of Franklin Elementary because of low enrollment, Escalante and staff presented the board with a proposal that became the Foreign Language Academies of Glendale, known as FLAG.

Soon FLAG programs were growing not just at Edison and Franklin, but eventually at eight other elementaries in one of seven languages — Spanish, Armenian, French, German, Italian, Korean and Japanese.

Dual-language immersion not only saved Franklin and supported the district’s budget through some of its leanest years, it has also improved learning, engaged parents and served as a model of language instruction for schools across the country and in neighboring districts.

Glendale’s successful choice experiments have grown out of the combined interests of passionate educators informed by sound educational research, the financial needs of the district, and the interests of students and their families.

The purposes and interests of corporate charter advocates are harder to understand, especially in the context of Glendale’s success.

JOYLENE WAGNER is a past member of the Glendale Unified school board, from 2005 to 2013, and currently serves on the boards of Glendale Educational Foundation and other nonprofit organizations. Email her at jkate4400@aol.com.