LAUSD Students Need "A Call To Action"

We've all heard a lot about Mayor Villaraigosa's improvement plan for LAUSD schools. We've heard a lot about the replacement of Principals and the need for swift resolution when under performing teacher are identified. What we haven't heard is a "call to action" for students and parents.

“Rather than blaming the abominable dropout statistics, if we are going to
decrease the number of dropouts, the responsibility must be approached as a
shared responsibility,” said LAUSD board member Marguerite LaMotte said. “Based
upon the expectation of all stakeholders that students will not dropout before
graduating, differentiated resources must be provided as needed.”

The first teacher of a child is their parents. Without students and parents stepping up and taking responsibility for learning it will be extremely difficult to change test scores and drop out rates. The best of the best teacher's would still have difficulty with unenthusiastic learners. The vast majority of the teacher's are there to see that their students learn. Mayor Villaraigosa and Superintendent Brewer need to focus on motivating students and parents, not bashing the easy targets, teachers and principals.

We all remember the emphasis that LAUSD District offices put on improving the API. You couldn't walk onto a campus without seeing the API score and what the importance of the score was. At each of the high schools within LAUSD, that same focus should be made on the graduation rate. Students can not achieve a goal; if they have not been asked to.