Testing the Principals

In a school district where few educators are held individually responsible for poor results, Supt. Ruben Zacarias has put the principals of the 100 lowest-achieving schools through an important drill to figure out what is wrong on their campuses and what might work to improve them. For the Los Angeles Unified School District, it is an unprecedented drive to increase accountability.

Zacarias has required each of the 100 principals to devise a plan of action, make changes without procrastinating and set reasonable schoolwide performance goals, such as a five-point increase on standardized test scores and doubling the number of students moving from bilingual education to classes taught in English. If he can wrench improvements from the lowest- performing schools, which are predominantly in the city’s poor and working-class neighborhoods, principals of the district’s other 550 elementary, middle and high schools will have no excuse for failure.

During recent weeks, the superintendent has summoned a team from each of the 100 schools to the district’s downtown headquarters to describe their problems and what they planned to do to correct them. The teams included the principal, a teacher representative, the bilingual education coordinator, at least one parent and the school-cluster administrator, who is the principal’s immediate boss and is now charged with following up on improvements.

The exercise proved instructive for Zacarias, a longtime district official now in his first year as superintendent. He learned, for instance, that inexperienced teachers represent 30% to 50% of faculty among the 100 worst schools. At the elementary level, novice teachers are concentrated in the primary grades. Many newcomers are overwhelmed and some veteran teachers have burned out, and yet the principals have no authority to change classroom assignments. The union contract allows teachers to choose what grade they will teach based on seniority, regardless of what a principal deems best for students. To provide more support for new teachers, Zacarias last month doubled the number of experienced mentor teachers assigned to novices throughout the district.

During each of the 100 sessions, the superintendent laid out his expectations, made suggestions and promised help, such as a little money to extend after-school and Saturday tutoring programs. Zacarias has said he understands that a principal cannot single-handedly bring up test scores or reduce absenteeism. But he hinted at tough consequences--such as demotion or dismissal--that rarely are meted out to failing principals because they are Teflon-coated with union protections. In some other urban school districts, including Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, numerous principals have been transferred or demoted and entire schools have been reconstituted, with the staffs entirely reassigned.

Zacarias also reminded the principals that they will be judged on how well their pupils perform on tests scheduled districtwide this March.

During the 90-minute sessions, which ended Friday, the superintendent also examined each school’s budget and prodded principals to spend all funds--especially state money allocated annually for the purchase of textbooks--instead of carrying over money from year to year. He pointed out attendance problems among students and staffs and quizzed parents on the quality of the school.

The strongest principals presented clear and detailed analyses of the causes of failure on their campuses, then offered specific prescriptions for progress. The weakest principals blamed poor test scores on poverty, high transiency rates, language difficulties and the other challenges common to inner-city schools. Zacarias also gave guidance. If a defensive principal cited a common problem, the superintendent would cite a neighboring school, also on the list, that succeeded in resolving a similar challenge. High dropout rate? Garfield High School, on the Eastside, has one of the lowest, just over 1%. Attendance problems? Bell High School in Bell has one of the highest attendance rates, nearly 96%. Plodding bilingual program? Bret Harte Middle School, in South-Central Los Angeles, has one of the highest annual “redesignation rates,” transferring 30% of bilingual students into mainstream classes in English. Children of the same socioeconomic group. Same hurdles. Better results.

Many, including this newspaper, had doubts about whether Zacarias, a career veteran of the district, would be able to wrench change from the failing LAUSD. But so far he’s doing an admirable job of shaking a sleepy and complacent bureaucracy. The real test, of course, will be in the results, not just in the success of this one long-overdue step toward accountability.

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Learning Gap

Fourth-grade scores on 1996 reading and math tests in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“Worst”* schools

Reading: 16.6%

Math: 22.6%

Remainder ** of schools

Reading: 39.5%

Math: 52.4%

*

National average in reading and math: 50%

* Average of scores for the 64 elementary schools listed among the LAUSD’s lowest-performing100.

* * Average of scores for the other 412 elementary schools in LAUSD.

SOURCE: LAUSD, Educational Testing Service score lists.