Los Angeles Case Analysis
In this paper I try to introduce, analyze and evaluate the reform efforts of the Los Angeles Unified School District. I note that the relatively short time frame since Mayor Villaraigrosa took partial responsibility of the school district makes it hard to tell whether or not LAUSD urban school reforms are working, although I also note that district test scores have been stagnant for a while. Finally, I make the recommendation that LAUSD improve its strategy by focusing on the three c’s: clarity, comprehensiveness, and cohesion.
Content
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Learning from Los Angeles
Dramatic Lessons on School Reform from the Entertainment Capital of America
Jason J. Wong 5/12/2008
Abstract: In this paper I try to introduce, analyze and evaluate the reform efforts of the Los Angeles Unified School District. I note that the relatively short time frame since Mayor Villaraigrosa took partial responsibility of the school district makes it hard to tell whether or not LAUSD urban school reforms are working, although I also note that district test scores have been stagnant for a while. Finally, I make the recommendation that LAUSD improve its strategy by focusing on the three c’s: clarity, comprehensiveness, and cohesion.
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................. ...................3 The Problem................................................................................ ...............................3 Failed Reforms.......................................................................................... ..................4 Governance Structure................................................................................................6 Current Reforms.........................................................................................................7 Lessons from New York City............................................................................. .........10 Other Recommendations..........................................................................................12 Endnotes................................................................................... ...............................15
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 2 of 16
School District Reform Lessons from Los Angeles Unified School District Introduction The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the second largest school district in the nation, and serves more than 700,000 students in almost 1,000 schools. LAUSD is a minority majority school district, with Latinos comprising the majority of the student population. Approximately 73% of LAUSD’s students are of Hispanic origin, 11.1% of African American origin, 9% are White, 4% are Asian, while Filipinos,American Indians and Pacific Islanders comprise of approximately 3% of the student population. LAUSD runs on a budget of approximately $14 billion dollars1. Like most urban school districts, LAUSD is plagued by low test scores, proportionally high minority and impoverished students, a large bureaucratic organization, and relatively high rates of classrooms taught by non-NCLB compliant teachers.2 LAUSD is also challenged by nearly annual budget deficits that are precipitated by state budget cuts, declining student enrollment, and rising costs of conducting regular business (such as in purchasing
1
This information is derived from the district factsheet, available on: http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/docs/PAGE/CA_LAUSD/LAUSDNET/OFFICES/COMMUNICATION S/COMMUNICATIONS_FACTS/0708ENG_FINGERTIP_FACT_SHEET.PDF
2
The district accountability report card can be found at the following website: http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 3 of 16
commodities and paying for salary increases for teachers, administrators, and staff). The Problem According to the latest school district accountability report card, on average three out of every four students fail to meet state proficiency standards for English-Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Science.
3
Given that Mayor Antonio Villaraigrosahad only begun to assume
some accountability over the school system only two years ago, it is too soon to tell whether or not LAUSD’s current reform strategies are effective. Current test scores indicate, however, that excluding English-Language Arts scores most subject proficiency test scores district-wide have remained stagnant. Even though it is too soon to tell the effectiveness of LAUSD’s reform efforts, by comparing LAUSD’s approach to school reform with the New York City Department of Education’s, we can better analyze where improvements can be made to LAUSD’s approach from the lessons learned only recently in New York. Failed Reforms LAUSD had made prior attempts to address its chronic underperformance and inefficient bureaucratic organization as recently as the 1990s. During this time, LAUSD came up with two reform models LEARN (The Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now) and LAAMP
3
http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 4 of 16
(The Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project) which attempted to give individual schools more authority over day to day decisions and give principals even more authority to make changes in classroom curriculum to benefit students. The theory of action was that increased local control can help cut down waste and similarly improve student learning outcomes.
4
Although this theory of action makes sense, ultimately these reforms (which in many ways mirror New York City’s current theory of action of empowering school5 sites to make decisions that theoretically will best meet student needs)were unsuccessful. Test scores failed to improve, and the lack of fiscal resources to continue thesereforms meant that LEARN and LAAMP were destined to be short-lived. Common criticisms against these reforms maintained that these reform efforts were isolated from core district operations6, were not able to coherently work around rules governing fiscal management as determined by courts, categorical programs, and district practices to give LEARN and LAAMP schools unrestricted funds to support new programs, and finally a major criticism against these reforms included the idea that these reforms
4
One such brief and comprehensive report concerning these reforms can be found written by Professor Charles T. Kerchner, of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245031970 _08312005.pdf
5
For this paper, “empowerment” in the context of schools means enabling the principal or a local school council to make decisions on a school site level concerning budget, curriculum, and school policy which were previously decided upon by the school district.
6
Core district operations are a reference to district-level resources and actions that support school sites, such as budget, professional development, curriculum review, assessment tools, etc.
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 5 of 16
were time consuming and didn’t provide a clear idea of how teaching practices within the classroom needed to change in order to support increased school empowerment and improved learning results. 78 Furthermore, increased local control failed to reduce waste. Eleven minidistricts were created9, which ideally would have meant that administrators within these mini-districts could respond better to individual school needs. Rather, these eleven mini-districts merely increased the number of bureaucratic layers within the school district as a whole, and as we previously noted, didn’t affect student learning outcomes.10 Later reform would consolidate these eleven mini-districts and reduce them to eight.11 Governance Structure Mayor Villaraigrosaoriginally attempted to take over responsibility and authority over LAUSD similar to how Mayor Bloomberg subsumed control over New York City’s public school system. Mayor Villaraigrosa attempted to pass legislation that would remove power from the Board of Education and
7
One such brief and comprehensive report can be found written by Professor Charles T. Kerchner, of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245031970 _08312005.pdf
8
Improved learning results is a term that, for our purposes, can be determined by a rise in state test scores over a period of time. Other possible measurable indicators are graduation rates, and high school exit examination passages.
9
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/new/announce/superintendent_search/11districts.html
10
http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations24503197 0_08312005.pdf
11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Unified_School_District#cite_ref-14
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 6 of 16
give it to the Superintendent. The Superintendent, in turn, would be selected from a council of mayors from within the cities in LAUSD. This would effectively give Mayor Villaraigrosacontrol over the school district because the council of mayors would be weighted by population, but must act by a 90% weighted vote. The city of Los Angeles has 82% of the residents in LAUSD.12 Unfortunately for Mayor Villaraigrosa, the bill that had passed the California Legislature and which had been signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t survive a lawsuit brought on by the Board of Education and was deemed unconstitutional (according to the California State Constitution).13 Disappointed in the court, and legal system in general, Villaraigrosa declared "Let's face the hard truth. The legal system no longer leads the way."
14
Mayor Villaraigrosa had planned to appeal this ruling, but
ultimately the election of two school board members, which he supported, gave him the indirect control over the school board from which Mayor Villaraigrosa thought he could work with.15
12
Full text of the legislation can be viewed here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/0506/bill/asm/ab_1351-1400/ab_1381_cfa_20060829_231717_asm_floor.html
13
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_4945776 http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2007/10/mayor-challenge.html
14
15
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/JUDGE+SETS+HEARING+ON+LAUSD+CASE+BILL+COULD+ BE+PUT+IN+EFFECT+PENDING...-a0156790084
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 7 of 16
Current Reforms LAUSD’s current reform model isreflective of a shotgun approach to fixing deeply entrenched problems. Information culled from the school district website lists the range of district-wide reforms currently being pursued by the school district16: clean bathrooms initiative, discipline foundation policy, mathematics program, periodic assessment program, dropout prevention and recovery program, closing the achievement gap, and the integrated student information system (ISIS, which is a system by which the school district can track and analyze student performance on various quantitative assessments). It is interesting to note that these initiatives do not seem to cohere around a central theory of action or reform strategy. While closing the achievement gap and cleaning up bathrooms may be laudable goals, there is a noticeable lack of unity and preference among LAUSD’s top priorities. For example while one may reasonably assume that closing the achievement gap takes precedence over cleaning up bathrooms, we cannot sure of how much of what attention is devoted to where. Furthermore, the lack of unity among LAUSD’s top priorities make it difficult to determine a central theory of action by which to evaluate LAUSD’s model, and/or communicate said theory to the large workforce and community of LAUSD. This latter point is
troubling because a lack of communication from the top-down makes it
16
The “district initiatives” page lists all of these reforms, some of which are vague and indeterminate. http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,123281&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 8 of 16
difficult for top level administrators to ensure that as reforms and ideas trickle down the LAUSD bureaucratic organization, these ideas and reforms maintain their coherence and relevance to the larger theory of action that should be pursued by the district at large. It is also interesting to note that within each of these core areas identified by LAUSD, there is little cohesiveness among various aspects of the district organization to address problematic areas thoroughly and comprehensively. For example, in describing the district’s goal to reduce the achievement gap among various ethnic groups, the district’s website reads17: The mission of the Los Angeles Unified School District's Academic English Mastery/Closing the Achievement Gap Branch is to assure equity in access to rigorous standards-based, college preparatory, curricula for all students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The work of the Branch is comprehensive and research-based and is an important component of the Superintendent's "Theory of Action" intended to eliminate disparities in educational outcomes for underachieving students. This office- in partnership with local districts and central office staffs-supports implementation of the district's Closing the Achievement Gap Initiatives including The Action Plan for A Culturally Relevant Education That Benefits African American Students and All Other Students and provides ongoing, comprehensive professional development and training for administrators, teachers, coaches, and other support staff relative to meeting the cultural, linguistic, and academic needs of students and to eliminating achievement and proficiency gaps. What’s missing from this description is the idea that school culture and environment, teaching practices and the instructional core, and assessment and accountability tools (to name a few examples) can all work together comprehensively to combat persistent academic performance gaps in LAUSD. Although the passage states that lowering the achievement gap is a
17
http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,186035&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 9 of 16
part of a “Theory of Action,” the theory is broadly referenced and does not provide definitive foundation for how their plan will affect student learning outcomes. Furthermore, their proposed solutions are mostly vague generalities, such as when they reference “partnership” (what will these partnerships look like? What organization(s)/department(s) will oversee these partnerships and evaluate their effectiveness?), and “professional development” (what kind of professional development are they calling for? From whom? Who will design it and evaluate it?). This lack of a clear
cohesive plan to have the entire school district address this major problem indicates that the academic performance gap is treated as separate from all of the other priorities of the school district, rather than as a problem that the entire district should work in tandem to solve. A final criticism of this passage concerns the question of clarity and communication. If lower level administrators, teachers, staff, and community members can hardly translate the district’s nebulous goals and action plans, then how can these plans be carried to their fullest potential and desired effect? Professor Reville might describe the idea that blueprints and policy ideas automatically translate into improved student learning outcomes and desired effects as a “zone of wishful thinking.” Earlier we noted that the failure of LEARN and LAAMP stemmed from their lack of coherence, and also from their relative isolation from other core district operations. This meant that the LEARN and LAAMP reforms were unsustainable, and ultimately faded, wasting valuable time and resources. As long as LAUSD’s current
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 10 of 16
reform efforts similarly seem to lack coherence and are similarly isolated from other district operations and resources, then these latest series of reforms too may come and go with few, if any, improved student learning outcomes to show for these past few years. We noted earlier how although Mayor Villaraigrosa has only had informal control over the school district for the past two years, student test scores during his choiceSuperintendent’s tenure has been relatively stagnant. Furthermore, LAUSD failed to meet adequate yearly progress for the school year 2007.18 Lessons from New York City When Mayor Bloomberg took control of New York City public schools, he teamed up with Chancellor Kline to pursue a comprehensive reform strategy with two phases called Children First. The first phase involved the restructuring of the school district in order to stabilize the school district and lay the foundation for further reform. Once the school district was stabilized, they planned on rolling out a second phase of their Children First reforms. Phase two emphasized empowering schools and holding them accountable for improved student learning outcomes. LAUSD can learn from NYC to improve its own practices in many ways. NYC’s reform model is relevant to our study of LAUSD because both districts are greatly influenced by their mayor, are among the largest school districts
18
http://api.cde.ca.gov/AcntRpt2007/2007aprdstaypoverview.aspx?allcds=1964733
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 11 of 16
in the nation, are very diverse, face similar bureaucratic challenges, and are both attempting to improve student learning outcomes. The first idea that LAUSD should try to emulate is to consolidate authority and attempt to stabilize the school district in order to lay a foundation for further reform. LAUSD schools are currently in turmoil and are overcrowded, some schools having had to turn to year-round academic calendars in order to handle the demand. The district should attempt to alleviate these overcrowded schools by busing students to under-enrolled schools. This might not be a politically popular idea, but severely overcrowded schools’ learning environments may be negatively impacted if the overcrowding leads to unsafe facilities use (fire hazards, etc.), increased fights and gang violence, and/or negatively impact the school learning community by restricting student clubs and organizations’ access to meeting space, student teacher ratios, etc. In order to maximize the effectiveness of district-wide reforms, the school district might need to address school overcrowding in certain areas. Another area of concern for the school district are the resources currently being wasted on consulting firms. Current consulting firms that handle important responsibilities of the district cost approximately two to three times more than their in-house counterparts. An estimated $100 million dollars is lost in this manner, which instead could be going to professional development, building costs, and/or giving schools more resources in which to teach students.
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 12 of 16
Secondly, LAUSD should have a clearer action plan that relates to their district-wideinitiatives. NYC’s Children First initiative succinctlyrevolves around increasing student learning outcomes by empowering schools to make decisions concerning individual student needs. The rest of their reform methods and plans revolve around supporting this goal. In LAUSD, as previously noted, there isn’t as clear a coherence. Initiatives range from anything between cleaning student bathrooms, to lowering the achievement gap. LAUSD plans of action are also unclear, vague, and as a previously referenced passage indicated, difficult to comprehend. LAUSD’s current reforms also don’t clearly emphasize their relationship with improving student learning outcomes. For example, the school district states that cleaning up bathrooms is a district priority. They could tie this reform clearly to improving student outcomes by more broadly stating a goal of promoting clean academic facilities as a method by which to improve school environments that can lead to noticeable benefits to student learning outcomes. Student learning outcomes should be the overriding priority in LAUSD’s school reform because test scores overall are abysmally low. Finally, LAUSD should learn from New York City’s use of assessment and accountability tools. New York City’s use of qualitative (school site visits) and quantitative (student test scores) assessment tools, and widely available school report cards have helped New York City schools move more toward a
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 13 of 16
culture of accountability and improvement whereas LAUSD’s test scores for the past two years are indicative of stagnation. Other Recommendations On top of these three ideas derived from lessons from New York City’s approach to urban district reform that can be applied to LAUSD, the school district should consider drastic methodologies by which to infuse all underperforming schools with a sense of urgency and prod them toward change and improvement. Quite obviously, the state of affairs for the vast majority of Los Angeles public schools should not be allowed to persist. It is great that Mayor Villaraigrosa is taking on a huge public responsibility by tying his reputation with that of the performance of his city’s schools. On the other hand, just utilizing new assessments won’t change the learning culture at most schools, which are inefficient and problematic because of stagnant low student achievement. The only targeted strategy that the district is taking to improve school curriculum for district schools are the secondary math and literacy programs. Toward improving math, the district strategy reads that the program’s twin goals are to20: • • To implement a coherent, District-wide content and standards-driven mathematics plan. To provide instructional and professional support to local districts and school sites, so that ALL students will achieve proficiency in Algebra 1 and more advanced mathematics courses. These goals are supported strategically through four program components:
19
19
http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3 http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,123281&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP
20
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 14 of 16
One major critique that comes to mind right away is that the district only seems to target high school level math, rather than seek to attempt to find students who are struggling with math and intervene earlier. A comprehensive math strategy should aim to increase math scores drastically across all grade levels, not just in high school. Perhaps a limitation, however, that would require LAUSD to only focus on a smaller targeted area of its student population would be limited resources by which to expand their mathematics action plan. On the other hand, if improving math were a priority then if this is the case the district should apply for funds, or rearrange their budget, in order to emphasize this need and not pursue an incomplete reform strategy that leaves out approximately two thirds of its students. It is also interesting to note that the first goal recognizes the district’s need fora coherent action plan with regards to the specific instruction of math. They should apply this observation, as previously noted, to other areas of their reform strategy as well. In sum, LAUSD should evaluate, and change its approach according to three c’s. The first of which is that the district should work on improving the clarityof school district goals, initiatives and action plans. This can help the district better communicate with its lower-level administrators, teachers, and staff so that reforms aren’t just carried out, to use a Revilleian term, “in a zone of wishful thinking.” Secondly, the school district should pursue comprehensive reform that addresses the needs of the entire district student population, and also utilize reform which don’t seem separate and
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 15 of 16
disparate from other goals of the school district. For example, the district could improve on clarifying the relationship between clean bathrooms and improved student learning outcomes. Finally, the district should work on breaking down bureaucratic barriers in order to increase district office cohesionwhich can help the district target problematic areas from a wide variety of available district resources. By utilizing these various strategies, LAUSD can improve upon its current reforms, and draw upon lessons learned in New York to make their own efforts more successful. For example, in the past LAUSD took the approach that by creating separating mini-districts from each other, waste could be reduced and ideally each of these mini-districts can best respond to the problems unique to their area. On the other hand, New York City’s reform model shows that a centralized authority can increase the responsiveness of all schools in a large area. By separating organizations from each other, LAUSD would have a harder time cohesively addressing problems endemic to all district schools. Centralizing district authority can also help the district better rein in waste, as ultimately many mini-districts (of which there are now eight) are finding themselves with redundant positions, and this separation also makes it difficult for the central district office to rein in wasteful spending on consultants (which has been a nearly perpetual problem).
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 16 of 16
Endnotes
This information is derived from the district factsheet, available on: http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/docs/PAGE/CA_LAUSD/LAUSDNET/OFFICES/COMMUNICATION S/COMMUNICATIONS_FACTS/0708ENG_FINGERTIP_FACT_SHEET.PDF 2 The district accountability report card can be found at the following website: http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3 3 http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3 4One such brief and comprehensive report concerning these reforms can be found written by Professor Charles T. Kerchner, of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245031970 _08312005.pdf 5 For this paper, “empowerment” in the context of schools means enabling the principal or a local school council to make decisions on a school site level concerning budget, curriculum, and school policy which were previously decided upon by the school district. 6 Core district operations are a reference to district-level resources and actions that support school sites, such as budget, professional development, curriculum review, assessment tools, etc. 7One such brief and comprehensive report can be found written by Professor Charles T. Kerchner, of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245031970 _08312005.pdf 8Improved learning results is a term that, for our purposes, can be determined by a rise in state test scores over a period of time. Other possible measurable indicators are graduation rates, and high school exit examination passages. 9 http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/new/announce/superintendent_search/11districts.html 10 http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245031970 _08312005.pdf 11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Unified_School_District#cite_ref-14 12 Full text of the legislation can be viewed here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/0506/bill/asm/ab_1351-1400/ab_1381_cfa_20060829_231717_asm_floor.html 13 http://www.dailynews.com/ci_4945776 14 http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2007/10/mayor-challenge.html 15 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/JUDGE+SETS+HEARING+ON+LAUSD+CASE+BILL+COULD+BE +PUT+IN+EFFECT+PENDING...-a0156790084
16The “district initiatives” page lists all of these reforms, some of which are vague and indeterminate. http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,123281&_dad=ptl&_schema=PT L_EP 17 http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,186035&_dad=ptl&_schema=PT L_EP 18 http://api.cde.ca.gov/AcntRpt2007/2007aprdstaypoverview.aspx?allcds=1964733 19 http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3 20 http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,123281&_dad=ptl&_schema=PT L_EP
Learning from Los Angeles
Dramatic Lessons on School Reform from the Entertainment Capital of America
Jason J. Wong 5/12/2008
Abstract: In this paper I try to introduce, analyze and evaluate the reform efforts of the Los Angeles Unified School District. I note that the relatively short time frame since Mayor Villaraigrosa took partial responsibility of the school district makes it hard to tell whether or not LAUSD urban school reforms are working, although I also note that district test scores have been stagnant for a while. Finally, I make the recommendation that LAUSD improve its strategy by focusing on the three c’s: clarity, comprehensiveness, and cohesion.
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................. ...................3 The Problem................................................................................ ...............................3 Failed Reforms.......................................................................................... ..................4 Governance Structure................................................................................................6 Current Reforms.........................................................................................................7 Lessons from New York City............................................................................. .........10 Other Recommendations..........................................................................................12 Endnotes................................................................................... ...............................15
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 2 of 16
School District Reform Lessons from Los Angeles Unified School District Introduction The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the second largest school district in the nation, and serves more than 700,000 students in almost 1,000 schools. LAUSD is a minority majority school district, with Latinos comprising the majority of the student population. Approximately 73% of LAUSD’s students are of Hispanic origin, 11.1% of African American origin, 9% are White, 4% are Asian, while Filipinos,American Indians and Pacific Islanders comprise of approximately 3% of the student population. LAUSD runs on a budget of approximately $14 billion dollars1. Like most urban school districts, LAUSD is plagued by low test scores, proportionally high minority and impoverished students, a large bureaucratic organization, and relatively high rates of classrooms taught by non-NCLB compliant teachers.2 LAUSD is also challenged by nearly annual budget deficits that are precipitated by state budget cuts, declining student enrollment, and rising costs of conducting regular business (such as in purchasing
1
This information is derived from the district factsheet, available on: http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/docs/PAGE/CA_LAUSD/LAUSDNET/OFFICES/COMMUNICATION S/COMMUNICATIONS_FACTS/0708ENG_FINGERTIP_FACT_SHEET.PDF
2
The district accountability report card can be found at the following website: http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 3 of 16
commodities and paying for salary increases for teachers, administrators, and staff). The Problem According to the latest school district accountability report card, on average three out of every four students fail to meet state proficiency standards for English-Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Science.
3
Given that Mayor Antonio Villaraigrosahad only begun to assume
some accountability over the school system only two years ago, it is too soon to tell whether or not LAUSD’s current reform strategies are effective. Current test scores indicate, however, that excluding English-Language Arts scores most subject proficiency test scores district-wide have remained stagnant. Even though it is too soon to tell the effectiveness of LAUSD’s reform efforts, by comparing LAUSD’s approach to school reform with the New York City Department of Education’s, we can better analyze where improvements can be made to LAUSD’s approach from the lessons learned only recently in New York. Failed Reforms LAUSD had made prior attempts to address its chronic underperformance and inefficient bureaucratic organization as recently as the 1990s. During this time, LAUSD came up with two reform models LEARN (The Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now) and LAAMP
3
http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 4 of 16
(The Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project) which attempted to give individual schools more authority over day to day decisions and give principals even more authority to make changes in classroom curriculum to benefit students. The theory of action was that increased local control can help cut down waste and similarly improve student learning outcomes.
4
Although this theory of action makes sense, ultimately these reforms (which in many ways mirror New York City’s current theory of action of empowering school5 sites to make decisions that theoretically will best meet student needs)were unsuccessful. Test scores failed to improve, and the lack of fiscal resources to continue thesereforms meant that LEARN and LAAMP were destined to be short-lived. Common criticisms against these reforms maintained that these reform efforts were isolated from core district operations6, were not able to coherently work around rules governing fiscal management as determined by courts, categorical programs, and district practices to give LEARN and LAAMP schools unrestricted funds to support new programs, and finally a major criticism against these reforms included the idea that these reforms
4
One such brief and comprehensive report concerning these reforms can be found written by Professor Charles T. Kerchner, of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245031970 _08312005.pdf
5
For this paper, “empowerment” in the context of schools means enabling the principal or a local school council to make decisions on a school site level concerning budget, curriculum, and school policy which were previously decided upon by the school district.
6
Core district operations are a reference to district-level resources and actions that support school sites, such as budget, professional development, curriculum review, assessment tools, etc.
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 5 of 16
were time consuming and didn’t provide a clear idea of how teaching practices within the classroom needed to change in order to support increased school empowerment and improved learning results. 78 Furthermore, increased local control failed to reduce waste. Eleven minidistricts were created9, which ideally would have meant that administrators within these mini-districts could respond better to individual school needs. Rather, these eleven mini-districts merely increased the number of bureaucratic layers within the school district as a whole, and as we previously noted, didn’t affect student learning outcomes.10 Later reform would consolidate these eleven mini-districts and reduce them to eight.11 Governance Structure Mayor Villaraigrosaoriginally attempted to take over responsibility and authority over LAUSD similar to how Mayor Bloomberg subsumed control over New York City’s public school system. Mayor Villaraigrosa attempted to pass legislation that would remove power from the Board of Education and
7
One such brief and comprehensive report can be found written by Professor Charles T. Kerchner, of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245031970 _08312005.pdf
8
Improved learning results is a term that, for our purposes, can be determined by a rise in state test scores over a period of time. Other possible measurable indicators are graduation rates, and high school exit examination passages.
9
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/new/announce/superintendent_search/11districts.html
10
http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations24503197 0_08312005.pdf
11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Unified_School_District#cite_ref-14
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 6 of 16
give it to the Superintendent. The Superintendent, in turn, would be selected from a council of mayors from within the cities in LAUSD. This would effectively give Mayor Villaraigrosacontrol over the school district because the council of mayors would be weighted by population, but must act by a 90% weighted vote. The city of Los Angeles has 82% of the residents in LAUSD.12 Unfortunately for Mayor Villaraigrosa, the bill that had passed the California Legislature and which had been signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t survive a lawsuit brought on by the Board of Education and was deemed unconstitutional (according to the California State Constitution).13 Disappointed in the court, and legal system in general, Villaraigrosa declared "Let's face the hard truth. The legal system no longer leads the way."
14
Mayor Villaraigrosa had planned to appeal this ruling, but
ultimately the election of two school board members, which he supported, gave him the indirect control over the school board from which Mayor Villaraigrosa thought he could work with.15
12
Full text of the legislation can be viewed here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/0506/bill/asm/ab_1351-1400/ab_1381_cfa_20060829_231717_asm_floor.html
13
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_4945776 http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2007/10/mayor-challenge.html
14
15
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/JUDGE+SETS+HEARING+ON+LAUSD+CASE+BILL+COULD+ BE+PUT+IN+EFFECT+PENDING...-a0156790084
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 7 of 16
Current Reforms LAUSD’s current reform model isreflective of a shotgun approach to fixing deeply entrenched problems. Information culled from the school district website lists the range of district-wide reforms currently being pursued by the school district16: clean bathrooms initiative, discipline foundation policy, mathematics program, periodic assessment program, dropout prevention and recovery program, closing the achievement gap, and the integrated student information system (ISIS, which is a system by which the school district can track and analyze student performance on various quantitative assessments). It is interesting to note that these initiatives do not seem to cohere around a central theory of action or reform strategy. While closing the achievement gap and cleaning up bathrooms may be laudable goals, there is a noticeable lack of unity and preference among LAUSD’s top priorities. For example while one may reasonably assume that closing the achievement gap takes precedence over cleaning up bathrooms, we cannot sure of how much of what attention is devoted to where. Furthermore, the lack of unity among LAUSD’s top priorities make it difficult to determine a central theory of action by which to evaluate LAUSD’s model, and/or communicate said theory to the large workforce and community of LAUSD. This latter point is
troubling because a lack of communication from the top-down makes it
16
The “district initiatives” page lists all of these reforms, some of which are vague and indeterminate. http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,123281&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 8 of 16
difficult for top level administrators to ensure that as reforms and ideas trickle down the LAUSD bureaucratic organization, these ideas and reforms maintain their coherence and relevance to the larger theory of action that should be pursued by the district at large. It is also interesting to note that within each of these core areas identified by LAUSD, there is little cohesiveness among various aspects of the district organization to address problematic areas thoroughly and comprehensively. For example, in describing the district’s goal to reduce the achievement gap among various ethnic groups, the district’s website reads17: The mission of the Los Angeles Unified School District's Academic English Mastery/Closing the Achievement Gap Branch is to assure equity in access to rigorous standards-based, college preparatory, curricula for all students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The work of the Branch is comprehensive and research-based and is an important component of the Superintendent's "Theory of Action" intended to eliminate disparities in educational outcomes for underachieving students. This office- in partnership with local districts and central office staffs-supports implementation of the district's Closing the Achievement Gap Initiatives including The Action Plan for A Culturally Relevant Education That Benefits African American Students and All Other Students and provides ongoing, comprehensive professional development and training for administrators, teachers, coaches, and other support staff relative to meeting the cultural, linguistic, and academic needs of students and to eliminating achievement and proficiency gaps. What’s missing from this description is the idea that school culture and environment, teaching practices and the instructional core, and assessment and accountability tools (to name a few examples) can all work together comprehensively to combat persistent academic performance gaps in LAUSD. Although the passage states that lowering the achievement gap is a
17
http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,186035&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 9 of 16
part of a “Theory of Action,” the theory is broadly referenced and does not provide definitive foundation for how their plan will affect student learning outcomes. Furthermore, their proposed solutions are mostly vague generalities, such as when they reference “partnership” (what will these partnerships look like? What organization(s)/department(s) will oversee these partnerships and evaluate their effectiveness?), and “professional development” (what kind of professional development are they calling for? From whom? Who will design it and evaluate it?). This lack of a clear
cohesive plan to have the entire school district address this major problem indicates that the academic performance gap is treated as separate from all of the other priorities of the school district, rather than as a problem that the entire district should work in tandem to solve. A final criticism of this passage concerns the question of clarity and communication. If lower level administrators, teachers, staff, and community members can hardly translate the district’s nebulous goals and action plans, then how can these plans be carried to their fullest potential and desired effect? Professor Reville might describe the idea that blueprints and policy ideas automatically translate into improved student learning outcomes and desired effects as a “zone of wishful thinking.” Earlier we noted that the failure of LEARN and LAAMP stemmed from their lack of coherence, and also from their relative isolation from other core district operations. This meant that the LEARN and LAAMP reforms were unsustainable, and ultimately faded, wasting valuable time and resources. As long as LAUSD’s current
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 10 of 16
reform efforts similarly seem to lack coherence and are similarly isolated from other district operations and resources, then these latest series of reforms too may come and go with few, if any, improved student learning outcomes to show for these past few years. We noted earlier how although Mayor Villaraigrosa has only had informal control over the school district for the past two years, student test scores during his choiceSuperintendent’s tenure has been relatively stagnant. Furthermore, LAUSD failed to meet adequate yearly progress for the school year 2007.18 Lessons from New York City When Mayor Bloomberg took control of New York City public schools, he teamed up with Chancellor Kline to pursue a comprehensive reform strategy with two phases called Children First. The first phase involved the restructuring of the school district in order to stabilize the school district and lay the foundation for further reform. Once the school district was stabilized, they planned on rolling out a second phase of their Children First reforms. Phase two emphasized empowering schools and holding them accountable for improved student learning outcomes. LAUSD can learn from NYC to improve its own practices in many ways. NYC’s reform model is relevant to our study of LAUSD because both districts are greatly influenced by their mayor, are among the largest school districts
18
http://api.cde.ca.gov/AcntRpt2007/2007aprdstaypoverview.aspx?allcds=1964733
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 11 of 16
in the nation, are very diverse, face similar bureaucratic challenges, and are both attempting to improve student learning outcomes. The first idea that LAUSD should try to emulate is to consolidate authority and attempt to stabilize the school district in order to lay a foundation for further reform. LAUSD schools are currently in turmoil and are overcrowded, some schools having had to turn to year-round academic calendars in order to handle the demand. The district should attempt to alleviate these overcrowded schools by busing students to under-enrolled schools. This might not be a politically popular idea, but severely overcrowded schools’ learning environments may be negatively impacted if the overcrowding leads to unsafe facilities use (fire hazards, etc.), increased fights and gang violence, and/or negatively impact the school learning community by restricting student clubs and organizations’ access to meeting space, student teacher ratios, etc. In order to maximize the effectiveness of district-wide reforms, the school district might need to address school overcrowding in certain areas. Another area of concern for the school district are the resources currently being wasted on consulting firms. Current consulting firms that handle important responsibilities of the district cost approximately two to three times more than their in-house counterparts. An estimated $100 million dollars is lost in this manner, which instead could be going to professional development, building costs, and/or giving schools more resources in which to teach students.
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Secondly, LAUSD should have a clearer action plan that relates to their district-wideinitiatives. NYC’s Children First initiative succinctlyrevolves around increasing student learning outcomes by empowering schools to make decisions concerning individual student needs. The rest of their reform methods and plans revolve around supporting this goal. In LAUSD, as previously noted, there isn’t as clear a coherence. Initiatives range from anything between cleaning student bathrooms, to lowering the achievement gap. LAUSD plans of action are also unclear, vague, and as a previously referenced passage indicated, difficult to comprehend. LAUSD’s current reforms also don’t clearly emphasize their relationship with improving student learning outcomes. For example, the school district states that cleaning up bathrooms is a district priority. They could tie this reform clearly to improving student outcomes by more broadly stating a goal of promoting clean academic facilities as a method by which to improve school environments that can lead to noticeable benefits to student learning outcomes. Student learning outcomes should be the overriding priority in LAUSD’s school reform because test scores overall are abysmally low. Finally, LAUSD should learn from New York City’s use of assessment and accountability tools. New York City’s use of qualitative (school site visits) and quantitative (student test scores) assessment tools, and widely available school report cards have helped New York City schools move more toward a
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 13 of 16
culture of accountability and improvement whereas LAUSD’s test scores for the past two years are indicative of stagnation. Other Recommendations On top of these three ideas derived from lessons from New York City’s approach to urban district reform that can be applied to LAUSD, the school district should consider drastic methodologies by which to infuse all underperforming schools with a sense of urgency and prod them toward change and improvement. Quite obviously, the state of affairs for the vast majority of Los Angeles public schools should not be allowed to persist. It is great that Mayor Villaraigrosa is taking on a huge public responsibility by tying his reputation with that of the performance of his city’s schools. On the other hand, just utilizing new assessments won’t change the learning culture at most schools, which are inefficient and problematic because of stagnant low student achievement. The only targeted strategy that the district is taking to improve school curriculum for district schools are the secondary math and literacy programs. Toward improving math, the district strategy reads that the program’s twin goals are to20: • • To implement a coherent, District-wide content and standards-driven mathematics plan. To provide instructional and professional support to local districts and school sites, so that ALL students will achieve proficiency in Algebra 1 and more advanced mathematics courses. These goals are supported strategically through four program components:
19
19
http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3 http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,123281&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP
20
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 14 of 16
One major critique that comes to mind right away is that the district only seems to target high school level math, rather than seek to attempt to find students who are struggling with math and intervene earlier. A comprehensive math strategy should aim to increase math scores drastically across all grade levels, not just in high school. Perhaps a limitation, however, that would require LAUSD to only focus on a smaller targeted area of its student population would be limited resources by which to expand their mathematics action plan. On the other hand, if improving math were a priority then if this is the case the district should apply for funds, or rearrange their budget, in order to emphasize this need and not pursue an incomplete reform strategy that leaves out approximately two thirds of its students. It is also interesting to note that the first goal recognizes the district’s need fora coherent action plan with regards to the specific instruction of math. They should apply this observation, as previously noted, to other areas of their reform strategy as well. In sum, LAUSD should evaluate, and change its approach according to three c’s. The first of which is that the district should work on improving the clarityof school district goals, initiatives and action plans. This can help the district better communicate with its lower-level administrators, teachers, and staff so that reforms aren’t just carried out, to use a Revilleian term, “in a zone of wishful thinking.” Secondly, the school district should pursue comprehensive reform that addresses the needs of the entire district student population, and also utilize reform which don’t seem separate and
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 15 of 16
disparate from other goals of the school district. For example, the district could improve on clarifying the relationship between clean bathrooms and improved student learning outcomes. Finally, the district should work on breaking down bureaucratic barriers in order to increase district office cohesionwhich can help the district target problematic areas from a wide variety of available district resources. By utilizing these various strategies, LAUSD can improve upon its current reforms, and draw upon lessons learned in New York to make their own efforts more successful. For example, in the past LAUSD took the approach that by creating separating mini-districts from each other, waste could be reduced and ideally each of these mini-districts can best respond to the problems unique to their area. On the other hand, New York City’s reform model shows that a centralized authority can increase the responsiveness of all schools in a large area. By separating organizations from each other, LAUSD would have a harder time cohesively addressing problems endemic to all district schools. Centralizing district authority can also help the district better rein in waste, as ultimately many mini-districts (of which there are now eight) are finding themselves with redundant positions, and this separation also makes it difficult for the central district office to rein in wasteful spending on consultants (which has been a nearly perpetual problem).
Jason Wong Urban Education Policy Professor Reville Page 16 of 16
Endnotes
This information is derived from the district factsheet, available on: http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/docs/PAGE/CA_LAUSD/LAUSDNET/OFFICES/COMMUNICATION S/COMMUNICATIONS_FACTS/0708ENG_FINGERTIP_FACT_SHEET.PDF 2 The district accountability report card can be found at the following website: http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3 3 http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3 4One such brief and comprehensive report concerning these reforms can be found written by Professor Charles T. Kerchner, of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245031970 _08312005.pdf 5 For this paper, “empowerment” in the context of schools means enabling the principal or a local school council to make decisions on a school site level concerning budget, curriculum, and school policy which were previously decided upon by the school district. 6 Core district operations are a reference to district-level resources and actions that support school sites, such as budget, professional development, curriculum review, assessment tools, etc. 7One such brief and comprehensive report can be found written by Professor Charles T. Kerchner, of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245031970 _08312005.pdf 8Improved learning results is a term that, for our purposes, can be determined by a rise in state test scores over a period of time. Other possible measurable indicators are graduation rates, and high school exit examination passages. 9 http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/new/announce/superintendent_search/11districts.html 10 http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245031970 _08312005.pdf 11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Unified_School_District#cite_ref-14 12 Full text of the legislation can be viewed here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/0506/bill/asm/ab_1351-1400/ab_1381_cfa_20060829_231717_asm_floor.html 13 http://www.dailynews.com/ci_4945776 14 http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2007/10/mayor-challenge.html 15 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/JUDGE+SETS+HEARING+ON+LAUSD+CASE+BILL+COULD+BE +PUT+IN+EFFECT+PENDING...-a0156790084
16The “district initiatives” page lists all of these reforms, some of which are vague and indeterminate. http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,123281&_dad=ptl&_schema=PT L_EP 17 http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,186035&_dad=ptl&_schema=PT L_EP 18 http://api.cde.ca.gov/AcntRpt2007/2007aprdstaypoverview.aspx?allcds=1964733 19 http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=darc3 20 http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,123281&_dad=ptl&_schema=PT L_EP
