Policy Brief january 2010

There’s Lots to onventional wisdom holds that Unified, Executive Summary Learn from L.A.: like other big city school Policy Levers for systems, is incapable of Big institutions, like public edu- coherentC change. There’s “puro canto cation, change slowly but often Institutional Change y nada de opera” (only singing and no dramatically. The history of the opera), said one observer.1 But a long Los Angeles Unified School Dis- Charles Taylor Kerchner view of the District’s history reveals its trict over the past five decades surprising adaptability in the face of reveals an organization pulled great change in its political and social up from its early 20th Century environments. History reveals bold Progressive Era roots. Decades auditions of new organizational forms, of reform efforts have provided which if fully adopted would provide a lively audition for what a new the libretto for a new institution of institution of public education public education. could look like. But public policy and the surrounding As the title of our recent book, Learn- political system have created an ing from L.A., indicates, there is much atmosphere of continuing crisis to learn from the Los Angeles Unified rather than a new institutional School District (LAUSD) about large- stability. scale institutional change in public education.2 In particular, this history In this policy brief Charles raises three key questions: Kerchner reviews the recent history of LAUSD, drawing n How and why did the Los Angeles from the recent book, Learning Unified School District (LAUSD) from L.A.: Institutional Change depart from the Progressive Era Policy Brief 10-1 in Public Education. He shows legacy that gave it a “best in the how successive reform efforts West” reputation among large school have sketched out the design Charles Taylor Kerchner is Research systems? of a more effective educational Professor at Claremont Graduate n Why were efforts to audition a new University. His recent work system, and identifies five policy form of public education incom- focuses on the politics of large- levers that can help to create a plete? scale change in institutions. He is new institutional structure for n currently studying the implications What are the policy levers that might public education, in LA and of changes in learning and move LAUSD beyond the politics of beyond. teaching for the structuring of muddling through from one crisis to public education. another? P O L I C Y B R I E F

Exit the Progressive Era civil rights activist Elnora Crowder period, collective bargaining fueled journeyed to Watts and convinced employee distrust and made personnel Progressive Era politicians seized con- Mary Ellen Crawford to sign a com- decisions subject to negotiation. Local trol of Los Angeles and its schools in plaint that originated a 26-year struggle control was effectively dead. 1903, rewriting the city charter to take over integration. The lawsuit made control of education away from the public the extent to which LAUSD As fiscal capacity shifted to the state, so mayor and city council and to establish did not ensure success for African too did education policy momentum. a model of public education that would American or Latino children, and an Bill Honig’s election as state school be institutionalized throughout the aura of distrust descended. The high- superintendent in 1982 had little to country. The institution of public edu- trust logic of confidence was replaced do with the politics of LAUSD, but it cation was built around four ideas: by a low-trust logic of inspection and symbolized a sea change in education n Apolitical governance, with non- compliance. Hemmed in by its own politics. Education activism began partisan school board members cho- history and political backlash against to be exercised by people other than sen from community leaders without integration, the District appeared dis- seasoned education professionals, obvious particular interests. ingenuous and the board was increas- and it began to be directed toward n Local control of finance and edu- ingly divided. Activists sought redress what were perceived as declines in 5 cational policy with loose oversight in Sacramento and Washington. student achievement. Honig’s alarm from the state. bell was amplified by the publication n A professional hierarchy of educators Over the following 15 years, the deseg- of A Nation at Risk, which launched to control school operations. regation battle led to events that badly a new era of reform across the United 7 n A logic of confidence in which those undermined confidence in the District States. outside the system were assured that and at the same time hollowed out its In LAUSD the school board changed those inside were up to the task of capacity to respond to problems. The dramatically. During the post World providing the best possible education Elementary and Secondary Education War II period, the board was com- to the community’s children.3 Act of 1964—the legislative parent of No Child Left Behind—brought posed largely of low profile school district boosters. There were hints of By the 1920s the Los Angeles public increased federal support for schools, ideological difference, but nothing schools had become a “paradigm of but did so with vastly increased exter- close to the raw politics that emerged Progressive reform.”4 And the four nal scrutiny. Within LAUSD, as in during the desegregation battles. ideas persisted for another 40 years, other public school districts, each Beginning in the 1970s, though, the including a remarkable post-World categorical program created an orga- school board took on a higher political War II expansion in which the District nizational fiefdom. Relatively few profile, sometimes serving as a step- was opening new schools at the rate of additional resources went into regular 6 ping stone to higher office. Kathleen a classroom a week. Voters approved classrooms. The combination of the Brown, daughter of one governor and 24 consecutive bond or tax issues to Serrano equity lawsuit and the passage sister of another, was elected to the provide schools for the children of the of Proposition 13 removed the power board in 1975, as was Diane Watson, baby boom. to tax and manage fiscal strategy. Local taxes, largely on property, contributed who went on to achieve a career in the Beginning in the 1960s, however, more than 60 percent of the LAUSD legislature and Congress. Bobby Fie- LAUSD encountered several challenges operating budget in 1960; they now dler became Watson’s sparring partner to its institutional legitimacy, and over contribute little more than 10 percent, over integration issues and rode the the next quarter-century its operational and the school board has little ability backlash to Congress for two terms. powers were hollowed out. In 1963, to raise operating revenue. In the same Others followed the political pathway

2 There’s Lots to Learn from L.A.: Policy Levers for Institutional Change through the school board, including suburbanization because Los Angeles When LEARN’s plan, For All Our Maxine Waters, Jackie Goldberg, and became the place of settlement for the Children, was presented to the school Jose Huizar. largest influx of immigrants since the board in March 1993, it was called “the early 20th Century. Immigration saved beginning of a new system that would In 1979 the board began to be elected the District from the demoralizing recreate our neighborhood schools from districts rather than citywide, end- experience of contraction and school changing from a centralized command ing another Progressive Era tradition of closing that was visited upon many and control system to an output driven a “trustee” board and acknowledging a other cities. Instead it fostered huge system.”11 politics of constituency representation. educational challenges and severely This change increased the influence of overcrowded schools. LEARN shared many ideas with the employee unions, particularly United other plans that had been released Teachers Los Angeles. UTLA influ- In 1967, prodded by the U.S. Depart- over the preceding quarter century. ence peaked in the late 1980s, when ment of Justice, the District began to Even though there was great differ- President Wayne Johnson asserted that plan in response to its changing student ence in how key goals were to be the “political strength of teachers can- demographics. The original Planning reached, the guiding ideas remained not be underestimated” and that “the Team proposed a major reform with intact from plan to plan. One of these message is you better listen to us or you four elements: decentralization, grass- was the goal of nudging LAUSD are in political trouble.” 8 This would roots involvement, higher standards toward a network form of operations, remain the case for a decade. for all, and greater variety and choice. and breaking down the single admin- These four elements have reappeared istrative hierarchy. LEARN reformers The cost of running for the school in virtually every subsequent reform called for the nation’s second largest board increased drastically. In the plan.10 school district to be radically decen- spring of 2007 Tamar Galatzan, who tralized. Individual schools would During the 1980s, the District under- was backed by Mayor Antonio Vil- gain control over their own funds, and took two huge planning efforts, each laraigosa, spent $2,762,540 to defeat in return they would be held account- involving hundreds of people, but John Lauritzen, who was backed by able for results. the teachers union in what is believed neither plan was implemented. The to be the most expensive school board second plan—The Children Can No LEARN also shared with previous race in history.9 Longer Wait—was approved by the plans the idea that parents should have school board, but fell by the wayside in a greater role in their children’s educa- Auditioning Alternatives the 1990 budget crisis. Indeed, succes- tion, and that there should be greater sive budget crises have preoccupied the variety in the types of schools available As in other big city school systems, District since the late 1960s. and more choices for students among LAUSD experienced wrenching demo- schools. graphic changes in the years follow- By the late 1980s, a political coalition ing 1950. In the space of 50 years a was beginning to form in support of In addition, all of the plans shared the student body that was about 85 per- the key reform ideas represented in most radical idea of all: the expecta- cent white and middle class became the older plans. The reform movement tion that virtually all students should nearly 85 percent students of color known as LEARN (Los Angeles Alli- reach high standards of achievement. and preponderantly poor. The pattern ance for Restructuring Now) brought This goal was gradually enshrined of student demographic change in together a classic big-tent civic coali- in legislation and, most powerfully, LAUSD differed from that in most large tion involving business, labor, and in the accountability mechanisms cities, however. Enrollments did not hundreds of participants in community adopted by the state and federal severely decline with white flight and meetings and discussion sessions. governments.

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From 1993 to 2000 more than half the But none of these things killed LEARN. build on the LEARN experience. It schools in LAUSD voted to join LEARN It died because the political forces that would have divided the District into or participate in the Los Angeles Annen- supported it were not as strong as the quasi-autonomous subdistricts, each berg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP) forces that wanted to end it. Enthu- with its own superintendent. But, “families-of-schools” venture. Each siasm declined. Some administrators Cortines, good to his word to be only school wrote a site action plan, which was within the District felt that the charter an interim, resigned after six months supposed to link resources with school school legislation that was passed in when former Colorado governor Roy outcomes. And each school became part 1992 was a more straightforward way Romer was appointed Superintendent. of a support network. LAAMP staffed up to move schools to quasi-autonomy. Romer, declared LEARN a failure, to provide direct support. The Los Ange- Key figures in the business and civic and re-centralized management. The les Educational Partnership and others leadership grew weary of scuffles with subdistricts became administrative provided assistance in both instruc- the District. Helen Bernstein concluded divisions rather than autonomous tional and operational development. her tenure as president of the teachers organizations. Categorical funds that The Advanced Management Program union, and shortly thereafter died in had been controlled by schools were at UCLA ran summer institutes. The an accident. Superintendent Sidney recaptured by the central office and emerging design was that of a profes- Thompson, who had been LEARN’s used in part to support mandated sional learning community.12 champion, retired and was replaced reading and math programs. Romer, by Ruben Zacarias, who allowed the with support from employee unions Implementation encountered the usual program to expire. and others, also embarked on a $15.2 bumps in the road. Administrators and billion construction program, one of teachers had a hard time establishing The leaders of LEARN and LAAMP the largest public works projects in new collaborative working relation- despaired at the slow pace of progress, U.S. history. ships. Moving funding to the schools and they turned their attention toward proved difficult, and concerns about the movement and Despite rising test scores and construc- categorical funds remained a sticking toward gaining control of the school tion throughout the city, the “failing point, especially for principals who board. In 1999, a declaration of cri- schools” label continued to be applied found that they would receive less sis became the litmus test for school to LAUSD and emerged as an issue in funding under LEARN. And there board candidates. A slate supported by the mayoral campaign in 2005. Follow- was rampant distrust. The UTLA left former mayor Richard Riordan and a ing his victory and continuing to the wing distrusted union president Helen political action committee called the present, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Bernstein because of her association Coalition for Kids took on members of repeated the declaration of failure with the business executives who were the incumbent board. The challengers and sought to gain influence over the part of the LEARN working groups. won, setting the stage for a decade of District.14 Cortines returned as super- District administrators distrusted increasingly expensive school board intendent in 2008. By this time LEARN UTLA leadership because the union elections in which the union’s power and the previous reforms were almost seemed to have more access to reform over board elections was weakened. forgotten and generally regarded as a program decisions than they did. And failure: a big city school reform that did just as LEARN was starting, the state’s The new board brought in Ramon not gain traction, another example of new assessment system was scuttled, Cortines, a veteran superintendent “spinning wheels.”15 so the reform program was deprived who had led school districts in several of the external benchmarks necessary cities including New York to serve as Nevertheless, in very many ways the to measure progress in the promised interim superintendent. He produced audition of a more decentralized, output-driven system of education.13 a decentralization plan that sought to varied, standards-based, grass-roots

4 There’s Lots to Learn from L.A.: Policy Levers for Institutional Change oriented school district continues. In board in March, 1993, a parade of Five Policy Levers effect, LA has already become a net- speakers pledged everlasting support. In various ways all of the recent work of schools. Some 155 charters “We’re there for the long haul,” said reforms in LAUSD have auditioned a now operate in LAUSD in addition Ted Mitchell, the dean of education network form of organization. Bureau- to 172 magnet schools that are freed at UCLA and now president of the cratic hierarchies look like tall triangles from some District regulation. Two school board.17 Seven years with power and authority at the top, prototype charter districts are under later, LEARN had gone out of business, while networks look like lattices or operation. Locke High School is and LAAMP, which had financially spider webs with power in the nodes operated by a charter management supported and deepened its reforms, and the linkages between them. At organization. Mayor Villaraigosa has was closing up shop. the center of the network, a small core gained control over 11 schools. Several staff provides strategic direction and schools operate under modified “slim” LEARN operated on a big-tent, civic support. Because each of the operating labor contracts that leave some work- coalition model of politics that brought nodes works independently, however, rule determination to the schools. together a wondrous array of busi- networks can respond more quickly And there are other experiments as ness leaders, unionists, and civic and more effectively than traditional well. More than a quarter of LAUSD worthies with widespread grassroots hierarchies when customization or task students now attend schools oper- participation in its formation. After complexity are required. Their relative ated outside the conventional district a two-year organizing campaign, it isolation allows more experimentation hierarchy. presented 85,000 supporting petitions to the school board, which voted 7-0 to and learning from mistakes. In a well- As an experiment in urban school approve its plan. But LEARN assumed designed network, the failure of one reform, the diverse network of schools that Los Angeles Unified was willing part does not compromise the entire that LAUSD has become represents a and capable of carrying out the plan. system. larger, more fundamental reform than LEARN was masterful at the politics more prescriptive models seen in New of initiation, but its coalition was not A network of high capacity schools York, Chicago, or Philadelphia, three organized around implementation. would recenter authority on the school, districts that policy scholars and think Its political structure prepared it for and focus on the educational work that tanks point to as models of reform. Yet, a short-term conventional crisis, not happens there. It would expand the LAUSD remains what columnist Patt long-term institutional change. As a roles and responsibilities of teachers, Morrison called “the Rodney Dan- result, when implementation stumbled principals and parents as they work to gerfield of districts.”16 Its reputation is there was not enough political pressure support and educate students, just as inconsistent with the progress it has to recover the momentum. they were trained to do under LEARN made. The critical public sees failed and LAAMP. It would also create a new projects and auditioned ideas rather There will be many more auditions as role for the District as the manager than the outlines of a new education LAUSD evolves, but moving beyond of a portfolio of schools: monitoring system. audition to opera requires some con- performance, aiding potentially strong crete policy changes that give change schools and eliminating weak ones. But why just an audition rather than a an anchor in law and substantial invest- Finally, it would expand the state’s role reorganization around the network-of- ments of public funds. The LEARN as an agent of assessment by revamping schools that LAUSD has become? The experience suggests that there are five the testing and assessment system and answer lies partly in time and partly critical policy levers that could help creating positive incentives for mea- in politics. When the LEARN plan to produce a network of high capacity sured improvement for both schools was being introduced to the school schools, in LAUSD and beyond. and students.

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In order to establish a network of Existing arrangements offer examples The encouragement of autonomous schools five policy changes are needed, of several logical forms of autono- operating units offers LAUSD several which could be accomplished through mous networks: the geographic fam- advantages. First, it allows artful bor- statute, initiative, or charter amend- ily of schools tried out by LAAMP, rowing from experiences in the charter ment. Past reform efforts have laid the the Palisades Cluster or the Belmont sector without turning the District into groundwork for such a system. Large Zone of Choice, the brand name a charter district “in which all public pieces of the opera have already been identity of Green Dot or KIPP, schools are charter schools.”19 Second, written. LAUSD now faces the chal- or the common focus typified by it allows schools operating under an lenge of bringing these together in a the International Baccalaureate, or autonomous network statute to bor- melodious whole. Humanitas. row from the experience of the charter sector, without leaving the existing In addition to the autonomous net- Autonomous Schools District. Third, autonomous networks works that exist already, LAUSD also and Networks are a means to decentralize LAUSD needs a way to effectively decentralize without resorting to a legal breakup For more than a generation, LAUSD the public schools it has. The statutory of the District, which would most has both frustrated and been frus- tools currently available to charter likely simply reproduce the existing trated by efforts to decentralize. The schools can serve as models for leg- organizational problems on a smaller charter school universe has begun to islation or for an initiative that would scale. The networks would have the create its own institutional structures, create legitimate autonomy within same operating freedoms that existing including a school code, a financing LAUSD. system, and a support infrastructure. charter management organizations Many of the leaders of LAAMP and In August 2009, the LAUSD board possess, and the schools within an LEARN found themselves attracted passed a bold and highly contro- autonomous network could legally be to the charter sector because they versial resolution that may have the charter schools or they could follow could move forward with changes effect of connecting the District’s other models created by experiments without having to overcome the many future to its past reforms. Following in LAUSD schools. Fourth, the autono- obstacles they had encountered while four hours of public comment and mous network idea encourages grass- working inside the District. One of six weeks of behind the scenes nego- roots connections between schools the clear lessons from the last four tiation, the board approved (6-1) a and communities without creating LAUSD leaders is that whatever motion by first term member Yolie the cumbersome local governance structural arrangement is favored by Flores Aguilar to subject up to 250 arrangements that some other cities, the current superintendent will not of the District’s schools to a request- such as Chicago, have attempted. be favored by the next one. Thus, for-proposal process. That process whatever means is developed to cre- would allow charter school organiz- For teachers and administrators work- ate a more decentralized, network ers to compete with internal planning ing in District operated schools and for form or organization it needs an teams in designing the operations of the students attending them, autono- anchor in law and public policy. The two classifications of schools. Fifty mous networks offer the possibility of legal authority to create autonomous newly constructed schools will be positive local initiative within LAUSD. networks, and to legitimate the net- opened for bid, along with an unde- The current bifurcation between highly works themselves, would insulate the termined number of the 211 schools regulated District schools and the networks from the favor or disfavor that have remained in federal Pro- much greater freedom allowed in the they receive under any given super- gram Improvement status for more charter sector creates a strong incen- intendent. than three years.18 tive for people who want to make city

6 There’s Lots to Learn from L.A.: Policy Levers for Institutional Change schools work to exit LAUSD, and it in Hawaii, where a single school system There is probably no greater incen- ties the hands of those who stay. The serves the entire state. A variation of the tive for academic success among poor current policy divide handicaps public weighted student formula idea is under families than the prospect of college school reformers, creating a disadvan- consideration in New York City, and a scholarships linked to continuing tage that should be removed. recent national commission report rec- performance in high school. The key ommends its adoption nationwide.20 to making high school work better Student-based Finances for poor and working class children The differences in budgetary flexibil- is to create a pathway to college that is If the idea of autonomous networks of ity between centralized and weighted both well lighted and level. If the job schools is to become a reality, money student formula districts are dramatic. of high school is to prepare students must follow students into the schools Nearly 92 cents of every operating fund for further education—as is the case they choose to attend. Moving resource dollar are controlled at the school site with elementary school—rather than allocations to the individual student in Edmonton versus 7 cents in Los preparing students for direct entry into 21 level would motivate schools to pay Angeles. adult work and society, then incen- greater attention to the interests of tives for students to continue their parents and students as they compete Positive Incentives education are critical to high school for enrollments and resources. One of performance. LEARN’s crucial flaws was its inability The existing system is chock-full of to remove financial controls on local negative incentives and mandates at all LAUSD and numerous community schools, at least in part because LAUSD levels. These do not appear to be having organizations support creating a path- was prevented from doing so by con- the intended effects. In February 2009, way to college or high-level technical tractual funding regulations. some 311 LAUSD schools were in state training. But the existing pathway to sanctioned Program Improvement sta- college is littered with obstacles that are Legislation will be required to allow tus; 120 of these had been in PI status mostly hidden from parents and stu- LAUSD to move funds to individual for five years or more.22 dents. Becoming designated as English schools in ways that make it possible for fluent is one of these. Without effective teachers and principals to make alloca- In constructing a positive incentive English Language Learner reform, only tion decisions that are responsive to system, it is essential to recognize that a small minority of students in LAUSD student needs as they perceive them. The students, not teachers, are the real take a college-ready curriculum. most logical way to do this is to create workers in the educational system. Rel- a weighted student financing formula, atively little attention has been given to Teachers need incentives, too, but merit either uniquely for LAUSD or for all how to create incentives for students, pay for test scores is not at the top of the districts in the state. Under a weighted from making it socially acceptable to list because it is virtually impossible to student formula, extra dollars would fol- study hard and take difficult courses to administer objectively. Instead, policy low special education students, English providing monetary rewards for suc- entrepreneurs might take a hard look at Language Learners, and other high-need cess. A number of schools have highly modifying the existing salary schedule students without the restrictions that engaging courses of study (e.g.,the so teachers are paid for acquiring the accompany categorical programs. Humanitas project), and others have skills schools need and for taking on built extensive support systems (e.g., added responsibility as their careers The weighted student formula idea is not Advancement Via Individual Determi- progress. 23 Teachers respond to incen- new. Its application began in Edmonton, nation or AVID), but these are largely tives for goals they can achieve. Every Canada in the 1970s, and it has been considered ancillary to the core cur- year thousands of L.A. teachers earn tried in Seattle and Houston as well as riculum and the testing program. salary credit points through continuing

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education, and several thousand networks in subject areas and special- is to take seriously the belief that par- of them have become certified by ties so that they become part of how ents are a child’s first educators, then the National Board for Professional the education system improves itself. the system of communication about Teaching Standards, responding to the For schools, the technology exists to student learning needs to include $15,000 bonus negotiated by UTLA. provide real-time feedback on student them. Teachers also respond to opportuni- progress that could lead schools to n Provide direct assistance to students. ties to work in good schools. They flee making better adjustments in how they Homework help and study guides bad ones as rapidly as they can, and organize teaching. Schools themselves can be provided by educators or by even schools in the most challenging could become smarter organizations. intelligent software. communities are able to keep veteran n Open source the curriculum. While teachers who feel successful there. A technology infrastructure requires the need for conventional textbooks a financial investment, albeit a much and support material will continue, Regardless of what incentives are cho- smaller one than new school construc- the time has long passed for a few sen, the key is to move the incentive tion. Such an investment is difficult in publishers to monopolize access to structure from punishment and blame the current budget environment, but educational material in school. to reward and recognition, for students voters in Los Angeles have approved n Provide direct instruction that and teachers alike. a huge infrastructure expansion in the supplements classroom teaching and District, and there is precedent for large provides instruction in subjects not A Student investments in educational technology available at all schools. Web-based Learning Infrastructure 24 elsewhere. Public policy ought to look offerings for credit recovery and beyond the current fiscal abyss and During the same decades as educators Advanced Placement are multiplying use stimulus funds for system change and reformers launched big reform rapidly and should be a part of the rather than system maintenance. 25 projects, youngsters all over the world organized curriculum. n Provide self-paced examinations and changed the way they interacted with A student learning infrastructure certification of competency in ways and processed information. Yet, most would have six elements: educational reforms were directed to that break down the relationship n changing how adults worked rather Provide information to students between time spent in classrooms than how students learned. and their parents. At a minimum, and progress toward graduation parents should have ready access to from high school. Only when this The technology exists to support sig- easily understandable report cards, relationship—one of the most endur- nificant changes in how students learn. indicators of progress toward col- ing aspects of the Progressive Era—is Technology can individualize instruc- lege readiness or being designated as broken can we begin to expect sub- tion and match instruction and student English fluent, examples of advanced stantial productivity gains in public learning style. It can provide instant and proficient work according to education. An external examination feedback to students that will allow state standards, course schedules, system tied to student progress them to learn from their mistakes, and teacher contacts. also creates a system in which both correcting the “bugs” in their cogni- n Create a means of communication decentralization and standards- tive programs. Open sourcing (well with parents through the web or based accountability are possible. underway in higher education) could email. Electronic communication allow the sharing of pedagogy and new is not a substitute for face-to-face Expanding the use of technology raises cognitive tutor tools across borders of meetings but a valuable alternative equity issues. Equity demands that we all kinds. For teachers, the technology when teachers and parents cannot provide support for low-income house- exists to expand the tradition of teacher meet in person. If public education holds to insure access to technological

8 There’s Lots to Learn from L.A.: Policy Levers for Institutional Change resources. Unlike many other issues academies, virtual academies, and the Attention to the five policy levers dis- of equity, however, providing tech- hundreds of other “clinical trials” being cussed here can structure Los Angeles’ nological access to people of limited undertaken by the District itself. messy educational politics in produc- financial means appears increasingly tive ways that will be recognized as the feasible. The cost of connectivity and Beyond Permanent Crisis foundation of a 21st Century school hardware is decreasing, and family system. Organizing the District as a In many ways, the Los Angeles Unified subsidies through grants or tax cred- network of schools, moving funding School District has not received the its are among the easier public policy and authority to individual schools, positive policy attention it deserves. problems to solve. providing positive incentives for When urban education reform is men- students and adults, investing in an tioned, attention is directed elsewhere, Increase Variety in Schools and infrastructure for learning, and pro- particularly to those cities that have Choice among Them viding variety and choice in schooling tried to dampen down urban politics are the means through which LAUSD One of the legacies of LAUSD’s deseg- by vesting authority in a mayor and can exert pressure on itself. Only after regation efforts is a sophisticated czar-like superintendent. By com- pulling a few well chosen policy levers internal choice system involving both parison, Los Angeles looks chaotic as can the discordant voices now clamor- preference weights and random choice. it appears to bounce from one crisis ing to be heard come together and be The District distributes catalogs listing to the next. But Los Angeles’ politics recognized as opera. the schools by speciality and location, have been more productive than they appear at first. maintains a website for parents and Endnotes students seeking admission to magnet Over the past several decades, the Dis- 1 schools, holds parent education ses- Maria Casillas, who headed the Los Angeles sions and runs informational programs trict has proven itself adept at reacting Annenberg Metropolitan Project in the 1990s. to huge financial crises, major changes Quoted in Charles Taylor Kerchner, David J. Mene- on its educational television station. fee-Libey, Laura Steen Mulfinger and Stephanie in its student population, enrollment Clayton, Learning from L.A.: Institutional Change The major problem now is that there are growth, and changes in expectations. in American Public Education, (Harvard Education not enough good choices to go around. The District, the reform community, Press, 2008), 203. In 2008, the District estimated that and the education interest groups 2 The theme of institutional change is explored in there were 70,000 applicants for 12,000 have been adept at producing bold the context of other urban districts in: William Lowe Boyd, Charles Tayor Kerchner, and Mark openings. To respond, the District plans and trying them out. Currently, Blyth, eds., The Transformation of Great American needs to create more novel and focused LAUSD has more charter schools School Districts: How Big Cities are Reshaping Public Education (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education schools, coherent in themselves and and a broader range of experimental Press, 2008). connected with the standards set by operating arrangements than any in 3 For a longer and more conceptual presentation, the state and nation. the . All of this has been see: Kerchner, Charles Taylor, David Menfee- produced by the politics of muddling Libey, and Laura Steen Mulfinger. “Comparing the Choice is not simply about marketizing through successive crises. But sing- Progressive Model and Contemporary Formative schooling; it is also a mechanism that Ideas and Trends,” In The Transformation of Great ing without a libretto produces noise, American School Districts: How Big Cities Are allows public schools to experiment not an opera, and muddling through Reshaping Public Education, edited by William with different types of instruction. incremental changes comes at a price. Lowe Boyd, Charles Taylor Kerchner and Mark LAUSD and schools statewide stand Blyth, 11-32. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Without a defining change, the District Press, 2008). to gain from the huge natural experi- is still vulnerable to the “permanent 4 Judith Raftery, Land of Fair Promise: Politics and ment with organizational structures crisis” label. Reform in Los Angeles Schools, 1885-1941 (Stan- and learning modalities represented ford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992), 191. by home schooling, charters, career

There’s Lots to Learn from L.A.: Policy Levers for Institutional Change 9 P O L I C Y B R I E F

5 Stephanie Clayton, A Brief History of Efforts to la-oe-morrison11-2008dec11,0,811903.column, Desegregate the Los Angeles Unified School District downloaded July 24, 2009. (Claremont: Claremont Graduate University 17 Learning from L.A., 17. Learning from L.A. Project) 2008. Available at: http://www.charlestkerchner.com/uploadImages/ 18 As this is written, the procedures are ongoing for Desegregation.pdf picking which schools will be subject to the bid- ding process as are the requirements for those who 6 Richard Rothstein, Where’s the Money Going? would bid to operate them. Changes in the Level and Composition of Education Spending, 1991-1996 (Washington, D.C.: Economic 19 Paul T. Hill, Charter School Districts (Progressive Policy Institute, 1996). 14, 18. Policy Institute, 2001), http://www.ppionline.org/ ppi_ci.cfm?contentid=3365&knlgAreaID=110&s 7 National Commission on Excellence in Education, ubsecid=134 (accessed December 14, 2007). See A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational also Education Commission of the States, State Reform, A Report to the Secretary of Education Policy Options for Creating Charter Districts, 2003 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, and other ECS publications on same subject. 1983). 20 For papers and recommendations from the School 8 Rich Connell, “L.A. Schools Election,” Los Angeles Finance Redesign Project see: www.schoolfi- Times, March 21, 1989, and Sam Enriquez, “Teach- nanceredesign.org. ers Give a Lesson in Power at the Polls,” , June 8, 1989. 21 William G. Ouchi, Making Schools Work: A Revo- lutionary Plan To Get Your Children the Education 9 Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, “2007 They Need, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), LAUSD Election.” http://ethics.lacity.org/efs/ 81ff. public_election.cfm (accessed July 17, 2007). 22 http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/offices/bulletins/ 10 For a more detailed examination of these reform PIlist09.pdf. Downloaded July 23, 2009. plans tracking the ideas as they developed, see David Menefee-Libey, Charles Taylor Kerchner, 23 Allan Odden and Carolyn Kelley, Paying Teachers and Laura S. Mulfinger, “The Persistence of Ideas for What They Know and Do: New and Smarter in Los Angeles School Reform,” in William Lowe Compensation Strategies to Improve Schools, (Thou- Boyd, Charles Tayor Kerchner, and Mark Blyth, sand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Inc., 1997).

eds., The Transformation of Great American School 24 Districts: How Big Cities are Reshaping Public Edu- Scotland, which has approximately the same cation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, number of students as LAUSD, has invested about 2008). $53-million in an internet system that connects every student, teacher, and school in the country, 11 LEARN working group chair Robert Wycoff at linking all to the national curriculum and allow- March 13, 1993, school board meeting. Charles ing collaboration at all levels. See: Science, January Taylor Kerchner et al., Learning from L.A.: Institu- 2009.

tional Change in American Education (Cambridge, 25 MA: Harvard Education Press, 2008), 13. Andrew A. Zucker, Transforming Schools with Technology: How Smart Use of Digital Tools Helps 12 Learning from L.A., 148-150. Achieve Six Educational Goals (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2009). On the projected 13 Learning from L.A., 155. use of technology see: Clayton M. Christensen, 14 Learning from L.A., 178-180. Antonio R Villarai- Michael B. Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson. Disrupt- gosa, “New Schools, New Day: Give Outside ing Class: How Disruptive Technology Will Change Groups the Chance to Run New L.A. Campuses.” the Way the World Learns. (New York: McGraw- Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2009, A21. Hill, 2008).

15 Frederick M. Hess, Spinning Wheels: The Politics of Urban School Reform. (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998).

16 Patt Morrison, “LAUSD: A Crisis Too Good To Waste,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 11, 2008, http:// www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/

10 There’s Lots to Learn from L.A.: Policy Levers for Institutional Change There’s Lots to Learn from L.A.: Policy Levers for Institutional Change 11 Policy Brief

School of Education, Stanford University 520 Galvez Mall CERAS Rm. 401 Stanford, CA 94305-3084 (650) 724-2832

e would like to thank the James Irvine Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for financial Wsupport for the publication of this policy brief. The views expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of PACE or its funders.

Recent PACE Publications n Susanna Loeb and Jon Valant. Leaders for California’s n Susanna Loeb and David Plank. Learning What Works: Schools. Policy Brief 09-4, September 2009. Continuous Improvement in California’s Education System. Policy Brief 08-4, August 2008. n Sean F. Reardon and Michal Kurlaender. Effects of the California High School Exit Exam on Student Persistence, n Julia Koppich. Reshaping Teacher Policies to Improve Achievement, and Graduation. Policy Brief 09-3, Student Achievement. Policy Brief 08-3, March 2008. September 2009. n Susanna Loeb, Tara Beteille, and Maria Perez. Building an n Heather J. Hough. The Quality Teacher and Education Act in Information System to Support Continuous Improvement in San Francisco: Lessons Learned. Policy Brief 09-2, May 2009. California Public Schools. Policy Brief 08-2, February 2008. n Heather J. Hough and Susanna Loeb. The Development n Jennifer Imazeki. Meeting the Challenge: Performance Trends of a Teacher Salary Parcel Tax: The Quality Teacher and in California Schools. Policy Brief 08-1, February 2008. Education Act in San Francisco. May 2009. n Anne K. Driscoll. Beyond Access: How the First Semester n Julia E. Koppich and Jessica Rigby. Alternative Teacher Matters for Community College Students' Aspirations and Compensation: A Primer. March 2009. Persistence. Policy Brief 07-2, August 2007. n Katharine Strunk. Collective Bargaining Agreements in n W. Norton Grubb and David Stern. Making the Most of California School Districts: Moving Beyond the Stereotype. Career-Technical Education: Options for California. Policy Policy Brief 09-1, January 2009. Brief 07-1, April, 2007. n Conditions of Education in California, October 2008.