A Decade of Innovation HOW THE LAUSD PILOT SCHOOL MOVEMENT IS ADVANCING EQUITABLE AND PERSONALIZED EDUCATION en years ago, the first two LA Unified Pilot Schools opened on the campus of Belmont High School. Today, there are 47 Pilot Schools across the city—representing a powerful Tcommunity-based, teacher-driven reform movement within the nation’s second largest school district. In 2006, LAUSD Local District F Superintendent Richard Alonzo explained, “The community could have taken the easier route and turned to charter schools,” but “we want to bring change from inside of the district to improve things in the district, not try to improve it on the outside.” Improving schools from the inside meant granting them local autonomy to get results. On the whole, it is working. Compared with non-Pilot LAUSD public schools, a significantly higher percentage of students in Pilot Schools report that they feel safe, happy, supported, and respected. Graduation rates are 8 percentage points higher than the district average and Pilot School students’ enrollment in 4-year colleges is 7 percentage points higher. Alongside these measures, Pilot Schools are using their assessment autonomy to pioneer alternative measures, including biliteracy, civic engagement, and graduation by exhibition. As the timeline below describes, the Pilot movement has been sustained by three MOUs and has weathered substantial district flux. Two-thirds of Pilots are housed in new facilities, part of LAUSD’s historic building campaign. This brief identifies the schools, their autonomies, outcomes, and hopes for the future. 3 4 5 10 47 27,046 Years of District LAUSD New school Pilot Schools in K-12 students enrolled in Pilot organizing reorganizations Superintendents complexes 2018 Schools in 2017 3 MOUs Pilot Schools * 1 in 18 Openings LAUSD students L New Contreras Bernstein RFK Chavez Hawkins School Torres Marquez Complex Openings Nava Rivera Sotomayor LAUSD Roy David Ramon John Ramon Michelle Leaders Romer Brewer Cortines Deasy Cortines King Local Local Districts A-F Local Districts 1-7 Educational Service Local Districts NE, NW, Districts Centers 1-5 C, W, S, E History LA Small Community Belmont Pilot Schools LA Pilot Schools Local Schools Stabilization & and Schools Organizing with MOU MOU Empowerment Initiative / LSSEI MOU MOUs Collective Boston Pilots 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 LAUSD PILOT SCHOOL 10TH ANNIVERSARY RESEARCH, PRACTICE & POLICY BRIEF SPRING 2018 | PAGE 1 Pilot School Overview Pilot Schools Track Innovative Center X is working with the School for Social Justice at Miguel Contreras to Pilot Schools serve K-12 students from Outcome Measures measure students’ civic engagement and every local district in LAUSD. Of the Local autonomy matters because it use the data to improve instruction so 52 Pilot Schools created over the past leverages powerful teaching and students can be “champions of dynamic decade, 30 were started from the learning for students. Giving teachers social change.” ground up, most by teams of teachers. and other site-based leaders control Several other Pilots were conversions over their work unleashes enormous from existing small learning communities creative energy into schools and Graduation by Exhibition and career academies. Four of the 52 classrooms. With this burst of innovation Ten Pilot high schools require 12th have closed, and two are consolidating. also comes a heightened responsibility graders to do a culminating exhibition of Each of these stories is heartbreaking, for making public clear and compelling their learning in order to graduate. At both for the students as well as the student outcome measures that Academic Leadership Community (ALC) educators who worked hard to make communities can track, fight for, and seniors present their academic learning, their dream a reality. celebrate over time. Here are just three leadership experiences and community of Pilot Schools’ innovative student service projects to their teachers, Pilot Schools Serve a outcome measures. community members and families. 2012 Higher Proportion of ALC alumna Katherine Trejo, a UC Santa Latino/a and Biliteracy Cruz grad and now United Way LA Education Program Coordinator shares, Economically The national Seal of Biliteracy movement “Part of my ALC portfolio was interning at Disadvanaged Students and passage of Proposition 58 intend to Board Member Monica Garcia’s office, than LAUSD (2016-17) promote bilingualism as a valuable asset. which led to my current job. The support Five Pilot Schools are leading the way of my ALC teachers and completing the Free/Reduced in LAUSD by providing dual language senior portfolio solidified what I wanted Lunch programs in Spanish and Korean. to do professionally: to help my At UCLA Community School, teachers Latino/a community and give back.” and UCLA researchers are developing K–12 biliteracy measurements guided by 65% 70% 75% 80% 85% a local vision to prepare students as Pilot Schools LAUSD biliterate, bilingual and multicultural learners. When asked why they became a Pilot School, almost all principals cited the Civic Engagement value of local autonomy and All Pilot Schools are committed to professionalism. Teacher leadership at educational equity and seven Pilots have helped create strong and foreground the value of civic stable school cultures. Fuller (2016) engagement and social justice in their found that teachers in Pilot Schools have names. The Leveraging Equity and higher levels of collective responsibility, Access in Democratic Education Initiative trust, and commitment than teachers at (LEADE) from UC Riverside and UCLA traditional schools. Pull quote: Pilot School “the senior Autonomy portfolio Howsolidified is it used?what I wantedA few examples. to do professionally: to help my community and give back” BUDGET Increased hiring of teachers and support personnel The senior portfolio CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION Dual language programs, interdisciplinary projects-based learning, internships, dual enrollment, career pathways solidified what I wanted Assessment Senior defense systems, performance assessments, portfolios to do professionally: Professional Development Teacher led professional development, summer planning to help my community and retreats and give back. GOVERNANCE Local decision making, principal evaluation, community representation, Pilot School Organization Katherine Trejo SCHEDULE Flexible block schedules, early school year start 2012 ALC Alumna STAFFING Local hiring committees, elect-to-work agreement LAUSD PILOT SCHOOL 10TH ANNIVERSARY RESEARCH, PRACTICE & POLICY BRIEF SPRING 2018 | PAGE 2 Pilot Schools Have a More Positive School Culture Each year, the Los Angeles Unified LAUSD Student Experience Survey Responses 2016 School District administers a School % agree or strongly agree Experience Survey (SES) designed to LAUSD Student Experience Survey Responses 2016 capture and track a complex set of Do you feel% agree safe or at strongly school? agree outcomes. Estrada (2017) conducted a Are you happy to be at this school? Do you feel safe at school? quantitative study using these survey Do teachers go out of their way to help students? data and found a significant difference Are you happy to be at this school? This school promotes success for all. between LAUSD Pilot Schools and Do teachers go out of their way to help students? Are the school rules fair? traditional schools on many of the This school promotes success for all. selected items. Overall, these data Do teachers treatAre studentsthe school fairly rules atfair? school? illustrate that Pilot Schools are providing Do teachers treat students fairly at school? 50 60 70 80 a more positive school culture than Pilot50 Traditional60 70 80 traditional LAUSD schools. Pilot Traditional Pilot School Students are 2015-16 Pilot School College Ready 2015-16 Pilot School Pilot School Graduates' GraduationGraduation Rate Rate is is Enrollment in 4-year Colleges LAUSD has foregrounded 100% 8 Percentage Points Higher graduation as its primary goal and 8 Percentage Points Higher is 7 Percentage Points Higher than LAUSD district-wide has made steady progress. than LAUSD than LAUSD (2016) From 2012 to 2016, the district’s 100%100% 70% 63% 64% graduation rate increased from 68% to 60% 90%90% 85%85% 77%, and the Pilot Schools’ rate 50% 77% increased from 78% to 85% — 80%80% 77% 40% 34% 27% 8 percentage points higher than LAUSD. 70% 30% 70% Based on data from the National Student 20% 60% Clearinghouse, Pilot School students’ 60% 10% immediate enrollment in 4-year colleges 50% 0% is 7 percentage points higher than 50% LAUSD All Pilot HS LAUSD-All Pilots-All LAUSD- Pilots- LAUSD. Although there is clearly room LAUSD (n=34)All Pilot HS Colleges Colleges 4-year 4-year for growth, both of these indicators are (n=34) evidence that Pilot Schools are on the right path. To inform further improvement, 2010 alumnus of the LA High School of PILOT SCHOOL RECOGNITIONS the Arts, Sidronio Jacobo, is currently f Half of the 18 LA Unified public high schools awarded 2017 Gold, Silver or pursuing a Ph.D. in Higher Education at Bronze status by U.S. News and World Report are Pilot Schools UCLA, with a focus on college access and persistence of first generation f Of the more than 120 Teacher-Powered public schools in urban, suburban, college-going students. and rural settings across 18 states, 17 of them are LAUSD Pilot Schools— representing the largest concentration of teacher-led public schools in the country f Out of the eight