Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines is not happy with the complicated methodology used by the state Department of Education to determine a list of the lowest 5 percent of "persistently low-achieving schools."
In a March 18 letter to members of the State Board of Education and Education Secretary Bonnie Reiss, Cortines called the list "an embarrassment to the district and the state."
His frustration? LAUSD has seriously low-achieving schools that were left off the list, while some not-so-bad campuses -- such as Carson High School -- made it on. That's just what his special assistant Sharon Robinson told me when we talked last week about Carson's addition to the list, which now includes 31 LAUSD campuses.
The list was finalized at a state board meeting March 11 where several schools were swapped out (and where Carson High was added).
The 188 schools named are eligible for between $50,000 and $2 million in federal stimulus funding, but they must complete one of four fairly drastic interventions. Options include shutting down completely, reopening as a charter, firing at least half the staff and the principal, or replacing the principal and embracing less specific educational reforms.
Cortines, who heads the largest district in the state and is certainly not alone in his complaints about the state's methodology, sent state officials a list of 28 schools that he believes should be targeted by the initiative. Carson High is not on his list.
Cortines did keep Gardena High -- which was also named to the lowest-achieving 5 percent -- on his own recommended list.
He requested a review of the process for creating the list. You can look at a PDF of his letter here.
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