Pillar 1: High Expectations
Our society too often blames poor students and their families for school failures, as if it is impossible to imagine that these children can achieve. We reject this notion categorically. Every child can learn regardless of background and our schools should make no excuses and demand results.
We should create school environments where every student is known by name, where students feel valued, and where they learn that hard work yields tangible success. Our goal is to prepare our students to attend college, to enter rewarding careers of the 21st century, and to be prepared to take their place as global citizens.
We should provide clear goals and targets for adults to meet and transparent assessments and information for families to use to track students and school progress. Moreover, we cannot allow dysfunctional school cultures to persist year after year. We need to intervene in chronically underperforming schools promptly with intensive support, and restructure them where necessary, as required by federal and state law. Finally, we should consistently communicate high standards of behavior and pride in our communities with policies such as requiring school uniforms and offering students service learning opportunities.
1. Create College and Work-Going Cultures at All Schools
Too often in our schools today, young people believe a university education or a well-paying job is not accessible because no one in their immediate families had either. We must instill a college and work-going culture in each and every one of our schools. College and job preparation programs such as information nights and college visits should be implemented in middle school, and educators and school site staff should begin to celebrate the accessibility and virtues of a college education and different careers in elementary school. The dozens of institutions of higher learning in our region have a special role to play here, and we must work closely with them to grow their outreach programs.
2. Demand Results
The culture of our school system must be centered on a firm belief in the potential of all students. We must provide educators with the supports and resources they need to educate our children to reach the stiff academic standards established by the State of California. Ambitious but attainable goals must be set for student achievement, and wise, creative plans should be developed annually by each school, which articulate the strategies that will be employed to hit targeted achievement levels, including special efforts aimed at closing the achievement gaps that continue to plague our schools.
With the aspiration and vision of continuous improvement, performance management systems should be put in place to include annual goal setting, appropriate data collection, and ongoing measurement of performance against goals. This data can be used to drive support plans and assistance, to analyze what works and what does not, to offer rewards and recognition, or to intervene when necessary.
3. End Social Promotion Through Supports and Standards
Social promotion hurts everyone! It is unfair to both students and teachers when young people in the same class are at dramatically different levels of preparation. Students should be able to demonstrate mastery of subject material before progressing to the next grade. This is not the case today as too many students automatically advance to the next grade despite having not learned the prerequisite material. For example, only 69% of LAUSD’s fourth graders are ready to advance to fifth grade, yet the vast majority of them do.
Ending social promotion will require the school system to provide intensive after-school and weekend academic interventions to ensure that all students receive the necessary preparation to enable them to advance to the next level. These must be customized interventions to meet the unique learning needs of different subgroups including English Language Learners and special education students. The New York City Department of Education implemented a wide range of interventions targeted at third grade students when social promotion was eased in the 2003-4 academic year. Since that time 99%, or 53,940, of all third grade students begin the fourth grade with the skills they need to succeed.
4. Restructure Chronically Low-Performing Schools After Supports are Exhausted
We cannot allow schools to fail their communities indefinitely. Rapid, effective response teams should be developed to provide intensive support to underperforming schools. If thoughtful intervention efforts are unsuccessful, escalating consequences should occur, including restructuring or reconstitution for chronically underperforming schools and removing employees from chronically underperforming schools as mandated by federal and state law. Any action of this sort must always be faithful to due process rights.
5. Distribute Family-Friendly School Report Cards
Parents, students, and community members are often confused by a complicated accountability system heavy on jargon and data but often confusing in assessing school performance. A recent study conducted by UCLA noted that school report cards were more difficult to understand than the U.S. Internal Revenue Service forms. Transparent, user-friendly report cards that allow parents to understand school performance and managerial capabilities should be distributed regularly to families and the community.
6. Conduct Surveys to Receive Feedback from School Community
Annual participant surveys should be conducted to provide parents, students, teachers, and staff the ability to give specific, measurable feedback on their schools and district services. Feedback from these surveys will be used to identify areas to further support employees and schools and the results should be published in each school’s report card.
7. Require School Uniforms
We should require school uniforms to build a sense of pride and community. Uniforms relieve the adolescent pressure to compete, remind students that they are all on the same team, and minimize conflict over wearing gang colors. Neighboring Long Beach Unified School District has had great success with uniforms. Since requiring students to wear uniforms in 1992, Long Beach schools have seen a 34% drop in assault and battery cases, a 34% drop in physical fights and a 32% decrease in suspensions. Long Beach believes that its uniform policy was a key reason for these improvements.
8. Service-Learning Opportunities for All Students
Every student in LAUSD should engage in quality service-learning experiences prior to high school graduation. Service-learning opportunities promote academic excellence, personal and social development, civic responsibility, and community welfare. Additionally, service-learning experiences link community service experiences to classroom instruction while fostering civic engagement. Based on a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, participation in high quality service-learning experiences correlated with higher rates of attendance, academic achievement, positive work orientation attitudes, political awareness, and positive peer relations between teachers and students in a school. LAUSD currently requires that all high school students participate in service-learning projects prior to graduation. We should expand the diversification of civic engagement opportunities in high schools and extend civic engagement opportunities to the elementary and middle schools levels.
We should create school environments where every student is known by name, where students feel valued, and where they learn that hard work yields tangible success. Our goal is to prepare our students to attend college, to enter rewarding careers of the 21st century, and to be prepared to take their place as global citizens.
We should provide clear goals and targets for adults to meet and transparent assessments and information for families to use to track students and school progress. Moreover, we cannot allow dysfunctional school cultures to persist year after year. We need to intervene in chronically underperforming schools promptly with intensive support, and restructure them where necessary, as required by federal and state law. Finally, we should consistently communicate high standards of behavior and pride in our communities with policies such as requiring school uniforms and offering students service learning opportunities.
High Expectations Initiatives:
|
1. Create College and Work-Going Cultures at All Schools
Too often in our schools today, young people believe a university education or a well-paying job is not accessible because no one in their immediate families had either. We must instill a college and work-going culture in each and every one of our schools. College and job preparation programs such as information nights and college visits should be implemented in middle school, and educators and school site staff should begin to celebrate the accessibility and virtues of a college education and different careers in elementary school. The dozens of institutions of higher learning in our region have a special role to play here, and we must work closely with them to grow their outreach programs.
2. Demand Results
The culture of our school system must be centered on a firm belief in the potential of all students. We must provide educators with the supports and resources they need to educate our children to reach the stiff academic standards established by the State of California. Ambitious but attainable goals must be set for student achievement, and wise, creative plans should be developed annually by each school, which articulate the strategies that will be employed to hit targeted achievement levels, including special efforts aimed at closing the achievement gaps that continue to plague our schools.
With the aspiration and vision of continuous improvement, performance management systems should be put in place to include annual goal setting, appropriate data collection, and ongoing measurement of performance against goals. This data can be used to drive support plans and assistance, to analyze what works and what does not, to offer rewards and recognition, or to intervene when necessary.
3. End Social Promotion Through Supports and Standards
Social promotion hurts everyone! It is unfair to both students and teachers when young people in the same class are at dramatically different levels of preparation. Students should be able to demonstrate mastery of subject material before progressing to the next grade. This is not the case today as too many students automatically advance to the next grade despite having not learned the prerequisite material. For example, only 69% of LAUSD’s fourth graders are ready to advance to fifth grade, yet the vast majority of them do.
Ending social promotion will require the school system to provide intensive after-school and weekend academic interventions to ensure that all students receive the necessary preparation to enable them to advance to the next level. These must be customized interventions to meet the unique learning needs of different subgroups including English Language Learners and special education students. The New York City Department of Education implemented a wide range of interventions targeted at third grade students when social promotion was eased in the 2003-4 academic year. Since that time 99%, or 53,940, of all third grade students begin the fourth grade with the skills they need to succeed.
4. Restructure Chronically Low-Performing Schools After Supports are Exhausted
We cannot allow schools to fail their communities indefinitely. Rapid, effective response teams should be developed to provide intensive support to underperforming schools. If thoughtful intervention efforts are unsuccessful, escalating consequences should occur, including restructuring or reconstitution for chronically underperforming schools and removing employees from chronically underperforming schools as mandated by federal and state law. Any action of this sort must always be faithful to due process rights.
5. Distribute Family-Friendly School Report Cards
Parents, students, and community members are often confused by a complicated accountability system heavy on jargon and data but often confusing in assessing school performance. A recent study conducted by UCLA noted that school report cards were more difficult to understand than the U.S. Internal Revenue Service forms. Transparent, user-friendly report cards that allow parents to understand school performance and managerial capabilities should be distributed regularly to families and the community.
6. Conduct Surveys to Receive Feedback from School Community
Annual participant surveys should be conducted to provide parents, students, teachers, and staff the ability to give specific, measurable feedback on their schools and district services. Feedback from these surveys will be used to identify areas to further support employees and schools and the results should be published in each school’s report card.
7. Require School Uniforms
We should require school uniforms to build a sense of pride and community. Uniforms relieve the adolescent pressure to compete, remind students that they are all on the same team, and minimize conflict over wearing gang colors. Neighboring Long Beach Unified School District has had great success with uniforms. Since requiring students to wear uniforms in 1992, Long Beach schools have seen a 34% drop in assault and battery cases, a 34% drop in physical fights and a 32% decrease in suspensions. Long Beach believes that its uniform policy was a key reason for these improvements.
8. Service-Learning Opportunities for All Students
Every student in LAUSD should engage in quality service-learning experiences prior to high school graduation. Service-learning opportunities promote academic excellence, personal and social development, civic responsibility, and community welfare. Additionally, service-learning experiences link community service experiences to classroom instruction while fostering civic engagement. Based on a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, participation in high quality service-learning experiences correlated with higher rates of attendance, academic achievement, positive work orientation attitudes, political awareness, and positive peer relations between teachers and students in a school. LAUSD currently requires that all high school students participate in service-learning projects prior to graduation. We should expand the diversification of civic engagement opportunities in high schools and extend civic engagement opportunities to the elementary and middle schools levels.
