State accountability systems are shining a harsh spotlight on failing schools, and education officials in several states are striving to help those schools turn around. In Florida, principals from all 68 schools recently earning "F" grades in the state's accountability system were called to a meeting where they were connected with experts and specialists and encouraged to shop for the help they need. In Virginia, Governor Mark Warner last week announced a program to rescue the state's 34 worst public schools by deploying special teams of principals, teachers, and mentors to try to help them boost achievement over the next year.
But an article in Sunday's Los Angeles Times reveals the daunting task faced by those charged with repairing failed schools. Veteran journalist Richard Colvin describes what the SWAT team of state auditors saw when it arrived a year ago at Fremont High School in South-Central Los Angeles to develop a road map for improving that troubled school. The auditors encountered a dropout factory, Colvin writes, with dismal test scores, widespread illiteracy, overwhelming truancy, poor teacher training and morale, staff infighting and rudderless administration. Because nearly a third of Fremont freshmen read no better than third graders, and test scores show that about 70 percent of Fremont students don't understand what they read, teachers rely on oral reports, movies, picture books, and art projects rather than high-school level academic work involving books.
The school's new principal told auditors "I don't know exactly where we're going. Whatever it is you would have us do, our goal this year is to do it." The reform plan that was eventually developed by the state team required teachers to gear classes to state standards and prepare rigorous weekly lesson plans. Students were to be engaged in "purposeful activities" in reading and math. Teachers were to be trained in proven techniques and monitored by administrators. To Fremont teachers, Colvin comments, the remedies seemed ridiculously weak and little different from those tried before. When auditors returned in the spring, the school was still lagging behind state expectations in five of six major areas. The district announced plans to raise academic standards by moving to a "block schedule," but teachers balked and organized a student walkout in protest, which led the district to delay the implementation of the reform. At the end of the school year, state auditors found some signs of improvement in teaching practices at Fremont, but little reason to expect that the school would be able to produce higher test scores and avoid more serious state sanctions-if the state comes up with any effective ones, that is.
"'F' means first for help, funds," by Stephan Hegarty, St. Petersburg Times, July 12, 2002
"$3 million plan aimed at worst Virginia schools," by R.H. Melton, The Washington Post, July 11, 2002
"A school flails in a sea of chaos," by Richard Lee Colvin, Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2002