Locke High Test Results

So-So Results for Mayor's School Program

Mayor backs plan of private take-over of some schools

Mayor V. waddles into layoff mud

Mayor Villaraigosa wants exemption from state laws

This is not a good sign for Measure Q

If the LA Daily News said this we might not think of it the same way. But when the LA Times comes out against LAUSD's Measure Q, Superintendent Brewer & Mayor Villaraigosa may have some selling to do.

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.

Principals Pushed Out

Just five months after Mayor Villaraigosa took control of 10 of Los Angeles' lowest-performing schools, principals at seven of the sites requested transfers.After the principals' transfer requests, the mayor's partnership sought applicants through advertisements within Los Angeles and across California. The new principals named Tuesday are: Tim Sullivan, Markham Middle School; Leo Gonzalez Jr., Stevenson Middle School; Sonia Miller, Gompers Middle School; Christina Rico, Hollenbeck Middle School; Charlene Green, Ritter Elementary School; Tanya Stokes-Mack, Figueroa Elementary School; and Sherri Williams, 99th Street Elementary School. Mayor Villaraigosa should work on cleaning up the surrounding
neighborhoods.

Five of the seven schools are within a 5 mile area. They all draw from the same neighborhoods. If the Mayor wants to do something about the schools. Maybe he should focus on cleaning up the area around the schools. On a daily basis, the students have to dodge prostitutes, gang-members, drug dealers, and the local drunk to get to school. How can you expect administration and staff to get the best from their students if the students do not come to school prepared and are distracted daily by outside influences. Yes, Mayor Villarigosa has to do something about the performance at these schools. But it is unfair to hang the performance solely on the principals head. Has he looked at the crime rate in these neighborhoods and looked to fire the LAPD Precinct Captains? Has the Mayor called on the local PTA to work more with families? Failing schools are not just one persons fault.

Power Play of Week

Mayor Villarigosa has played a very shroud political move with the new LAUSD bond measure. Not only is he requesting additional funds, but he is tying those funds to both school improvement, and charter school expansion. What the mayor has done, is to tie two opposing forces (teacher union and charter schools) to getting additional funds for the district. A very dangerous move, but one that takes guts and a little muscle. If The Mayor can get the teachers union and the charter school community to publicly back the bond, he will have a team of spokes people that the fiscally conservative can not readily attack. Smart move Mr. Mayor! Good luck with keeping these two opposing interest in-line and on message.

P.S. Work on the transparency issue. It will be very difficult to push through, if LAUSD is not forthright and exact on how the funds are to be spent. The tax payers have not forgotten about Belmont.

Step in the Right Direction

We didn't know The Mayor reads TCI. A day after tackling the subject of the LAUSD & the Community College District exploring partnerships. This announcement appeared in the L.A. Times.

L.A.'s Santee school to team up with Trade-Tech College
Mayor Villaraigosa announces a program to train students in culinary arts and tourism while they complete high school. The goal is to prepare them for both a career and further college education.
A $1.2-million program designed to curb galloping high school dropout rates will send Santee Education Complex students to Los Angeles Trade Technical College to train in culinary arts and tourism Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Tuesday.

We think this is the first step in the right direction. We hope the Mayor's office keeps good account of where the money goes. Let's make sure that the 1.2 million is EFFECTIVELY spent.

Rhetoric

I was reading the attached article when I read this quote from our Mayor:


Villaraigosa said dropout rates are one of the factors he will look at with his partnership schools. "We are going to track the dropout rates and focus on what it takes to keep kids in school. Our goal is to graduate every student and see them go on to college."

Yeah, and my goal is to win the lottery.
We here at TCI have yet to understand why the Mayor would want the albatross of LAUSD hanging anywhere on him. But since he decided to embark on this challenge of reform, his goals aren't quite realistic.

Every child going to college is unrealistic and impractical. If it were to happen, how much would it cost to go to USC? The better option for the District & Mayor to consider is implementing teaching these students a trade. What happened to schools teaching auto-mechanics and wood shop? The reason these subjects were taught, it was understood that not every student would go on to college and in order to be able to take care of yourself, students would have to have some type of skill.

Auto-mechanics and wood shop would be a good start. But it is 2008, what about culinary, computer graphics, cosmetology, child development, and office technology classes. I hope what the Mayor was thinking, trade schools and community colleges.