State releases list of 'worst' schools

A new list of California’s lowest-performing schools includes 39 from Los Angeles County, and a few surprises are among them.

California education officials released their preliminary list Monday and 23 are part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest.

State officials are required to compile the list as a result of state and federal law to make these schools eligible for federal improvement grants. The list represents the lowest-performing 5% of California schools.

Five of the schools are in the Compton Unified School District and two in Lynwood Unified.

California is expected to receive about $415 million from school improvement grants this year. The state, in turn, will hand out grants to schools ranging from $50,000 to $2 million annually per campus for up to three years, officials said. About 190 schools are eligible.

But there are strings attached: Schools that accept the money must adopt one of four federally approved reform models.

The most aggressive include, for example, shutting down a school entirely, but even the least disruptive “transformation” model involves replacing the principal and linking principal and teacher evaluations to test scores.

The preliminary list of schools included some surprises because the formula for selecting schools roped in some higher-performing schools. Federal officials may yet allow the state to remove some of these relatively high performers.

Workman High in the City of Industry, for example, ended up on the list even though it far surpassed its specified improvement target this year on the state’s Academic Performance Index.

The list of 23 L.A. Unified schools did not include six of the 12 that district officials themselves had singled out as bad enough to warrant a possible takeover, including Garfield and San Pedro high schools. Nor did the list include Fremont High, at which the district is requiring staff to re-interview for jobs.

The state’s “worst” list does include some schools that did not make L.A. Unified’s list: Crenshaw High, Washington Preparatory High, Manual Arts High and Miguel Contreras Learning Center.

The reason for the discrepancy is the use of different rubrics. L.A. Unified looked only at performance last year. The state averaged the percentage of students proficient in math and English over the last three years. And a school also could exit the list if it had shown steady gains over five years.

-- Howard Blume

Comments

[syscom3]

Bad schools in Compton and a large number of homicides.

And the politically correct crowd in San Diego State University is offended by a "Compton Cookout".

[Dan Basalone]

This ranking is a joke. Let's see the top of the list; those schools I bet are in the wealthiest districts in the state. It is more than coincidence that the districts with teh poorest families have the lowest standardized test scores. Does any politician or citizen even care that students do best when parents have the educational background and resources to help their children. If you are going to rank schools, do it on the basis of annual growth in that way even the top schools would need to show progress and not just capitalize on having better prepared students with more resources at home.

[Judge Roy Bean]

Since you did not link either list, we'll have to take your word for it.

[Tam60]

Cortines, the board, and the administrators are just inept. The Pint Size Mayor, and Eli Broad picked these puppets. The Mayor, and Cortines are just the biggest puppets we have.

[Rich]

So... where's the list?

[uncle_vito]

Most of the crappy schools are in black neighborhoods. Who would have thought. And they object to RuPaul as a role model?

I'll bet he/she at least graduated from high school.

Vito

[dogrob1]

When i went to MANUAL ARTS it was mainly white and im black what happen? its the city

[boochie]

The schools won't change UNTIL they go back to 1960 standards. The kids will only learn (and most can learn and be successful) if there is strict discipline in these troubled schools.

[Online Notary Class]

The state shouldn't just release this list for the public, they should do something about it..

[MDC]

Crenshaw High? WOW are we surprised? A school that has had 3 principals in the last 3 years. A school that now has a principal that has a google page full of negative reports from past school districts. A school that lacks effective administrative leadership. A school that has great teachers, but not great resources. A school that does not have an effective disipline policy in place. A school where the staff members received the most non-reelect letters in the district. A school with staff members that are pulled away from their regular contracted duties to do task and do not get recognized for it AND that others are paid to do. A school with students who have great academic and athletic ability, (let's not forget about the football team that made it to the state championship undefeated). Point being, there is a great interest in "community organizaitons" to take over Crenshaw. Who wouldn't want to be a part of leading a school that is nationally known?....It is all about politics and popularity!

[Is There a Journalist in the House?]

The List is below, which was omitted from the article:

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/pl/

Boochie, "The schools won't change UNTIL they go back to 1960 standards."

I agree. The catches are that will mean firing bad teachers (Dem's & teachers' unions opposed), enforcing the then-higher academic standards by stopping social promotion & failing bad students, expelling trouble makers, requiring English language proficiency (PC multi-culti's opposed) and ending lower double-standards for Hispanics, blacks & white females at the expense of Asians & white males (affirmative-action).

If this means that 1/3rd or more of 9th graders don't graduate high school (college track), then vocational/technical programs should cover that 1/3rd. Don't force square pegs into round holes.

These are important for the idea of equality under the law as well as maximizing US talent, but wow would the screaming PC moon-bats be loud!

[Don]

Maybe they should consider raising the cost of buying lotto tickets to $2.00 seeing that $1.00 isn't enough to support the schools.

[XxJUANxX]

I'm attending Manual Arts High School..... Thank God I Moving Out Of That High School....

[Concerned]

Reality check schools like Crenshaw High School are deliberately being destroyed for both political and financial gains and student achievement is being used to mask blatant corruption. Let’s examine the facts. Crenshaw’s current principal has been dismissed from 3 school districts and was appointed despite staff and community objections. The principal leads an incompetent and novice administrative team that has no understanding of curriculum and instruction and is unable to relate, facilitate and advocate the needs of Crenshaw students. Consequently, the school has an inequitable master schedule with few honors and AP classes. Class closures and student schedule changes are frequent and tragically many classes are lead by day-to-day substitutes, despite access to $1.8 million QEIA state funds, which should be used to fund qualified teachers. Daily, 300 plus students are tardy/truant and students rampantly walk the hallways smoking. The coup de gras, is the intentional dismissal of EFFECTIVE teachers whose students are excelling on state assessments. To top it off, there is no full time bilingual coordinator and no true and effective in-school intervention programs exist, to address the needs of underperforming students. So how can our students/children excel and perform, when LAUSD endorses an administrative conspiracy that deliberately deconstructs and demoralize the spirit and essence of a public school, in order to auction it off to the highest charter bidder. WAKE UP Crenshaw family and demand justice for our children and community.

[ralph e shaffer]

"THE SCHOOLS WON'T CHANGE UNTIL WE GO BACK TO 1960 STANDARDS." Sorry, Boochie, either you have a short memory or you are too young. I taught in big city high schools in California in the 1950s and 60s. Critics like Boochie were even then denouncing the quality of education in the state's schools. Your ideological ancestors condemned teachers, criticized the curriculum, charged social studies teachers with brainwashing the kids, and condemned social promotion. Little has changed except the ethnic makeup of the schools. I suggest you all go online and read McDonald's op-ed on Wednesday about the phony reform that the current school board is imposing. It's a brilliant piece that every member of the board - and all you public school critics - 0ught to read.

And to the clown who wrote that silly bit about the Compton Cookout - your red neck is showing!

[GRIMREAPER]

"Most of the crappy schools are in black neighborhoods"

"VITO" I hate to bust the racist bubble you live in but there aren't anymore black areas in Los Angeles. The school District is over 80% Latino, so please share the blame equally among the blacks,lations, and whoever elses your small mind can think of.....

[legal resident]

Poor school ratings are a direct result of all the illegals. We need to close the border and round up everyone thats undocumented and fling them back home.
The illegal population is 90% of all of Californias woes. I say we put the National Gaurd at the border and delare Marshall Law.

[Sanam]

Very interesting comments and thoughts everyone... some more intelligent than others.

Eric Schaffer -is there a link to the Wednesday McDonald op-ed you referred to?

[Estelle Fields]

The teachers have no authority. The parents are the boss. There is no discipline. The schools are dirty because children aren't made to pick up their trash. The dress code is as sloppy as the behavior. Go back to the 30's. It's getting worse and worse. The student can swear at the teacher and no one has the authority to do anything. It's the biggest mess ever. What's going on?