By Jana Carlisle
Executive Director, Partnership for Learning

I recently led a diverse group of professionals - from business, education and community organizations - to visit high-performing Los Angeles public elementary, middle, and high schools: Synergy Charter Academy (K-5), Green Dot Locke High Schools (three on same site), KIPP L.A. College Preparatory (5-8), and Aspire Centennial College Preparatory Academy (6-8), which also has two elementaries on site. The six L.A. schools our group visited were among the best I have ever experienced.

The purpose of this trip was to view effective teaching, learning and leadership models that could be transferable to Washington, especially for underserved students and those stuck in low-performing schools. This state has made little to no impact on the opportunity gap since 1996, as 2011 results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed. Charter schools focused on the opportunity gap can certainly be one part of the solution.

Interestingly, schools in Los Angeles operate on one of the lowest per pupil expenditures in the country - the ones we visited received an estimated $5,000 to $7,000 per pupil from Los Angeles Unified School District. They serve some of the highest concentrations of low income and students of color in the country. The schools we visited served between 95 to 99 percent Latino from southeast L.A. - better known as Watts or its surrounding area.

As someone who has worked as an education reformer from both within and outside of school systems for close to 20 years, I have visited my share of model schools over the course of my career, including those located throughout the states of Arizona, New Mexico, New York and Washington, and the urban areas of Boston, Chicago, New York, Phoenix, Rochester, Seattle and now Los Angeles.

I have studied effective schools, organizations and practices in this country and abroad; written a best practice school case study; and researched and wrote a dissertation on high school reform and how to transform a school system while drawing on the existing learning styles and experiences of its educators. As a parent of three children, I have also experienced traditional affluent suburban public schools, one of the aforementioned best-practice urban elementary schools, a private catholic high school, a private expeditionary learning middle school and a large urban public high school.

My motivation for continuing my career as an education reformer is my belief in education as a democratic right and an economic necessity. There is an ever-growing need for our country to educate all students to different and higher levels of academic and technical prowess and to provide urban or rural students - who are low income and predominantly from communities of color - with effective educational options and safety nets that do not leave their academic and technical skill acquisition, and thus their futures as contributing citizens, to chance. Regardless of a student's post-secondary pathway, these schools provided students with the option not just to graduate high school, but also to develop the skills and attributes sought by employers, technical training providers, colleges and communities in general.

I would describe the six L.A. schools as effective not because of their type (public charter), but rather because of their consistency, commitment, expectations, motivation, and their teaching, learning, leadership, assessment, professional development, and data practices.  They were relentlessly dedicated to equity. 

Students were engaged in learning -– discussing, debating, providing feedback, instructing, answering, writing, calculating, researching, producing, tutoring, and processing. Their classroom walls included student performance data snapshots, varied demonstrations of students’ current work, and materials and whiteboards that reinforced lessons and behavioral expectations. These schools introduced students to strong college-going cultures evidenced by students’ ability to identify with specific colleges or universities, discuss college expectations and application processes, classroom affiliations with a teacher’s alma mater, and displays of numerous college banners. If students weren’t meeting specified learning gains, in one school additional adults followed the struggling students throughout the day and worked closely with the classroom teacher to pre-teach the student; in another school, students were taught by their classroom teachers or peers in after school and Saturday sessions.

Whether we talked to students or adults, these schools demonstrated:
1) adherence and commitment to a common mission and set of teaching, leadership, and behavioral practices and norms;
2) dedication to, belief in, and targeted support for students and their academic success;
3) consistent, cogent, and aligned curriculum, instruction, and assessment systems;
4) engagement with and respect for the community and parents;
5) regular and transparent analysis of student, teacher, school leader, and school climate data for purposes of evaluation, improvement, ongoing student and adult learning, and decision making;
6) school schedules and professional planning and peer observation time that reinforced the school's mission; and,
7) continuously improving academic results.

The students we encountered had both aspirations and options. The adults with whom we interacted had dedication, skill, support, and instructional, leadership, and school coherence to ensure that nothing was left to chance for these students. We learned a tremendous amount from our visit -- about charter schools; good teaching, learning, and leadership; and the palpable possibilities available - for our students, their communities, and their futures.

Finally, we need to remember that public charters are just one option that our education system in Washington should examine. Charters aren't guaranteed to be successful, but there are enough models in other states that can be followed to provide solid options for students and their families. If charter schools are adopted in Washington, they won't immediately provide systematic change, but they can certainly pave the way for key reforms that need to be made in our education system.

Dateline: January 26, 2012, 3:17 pm