This is not a good time to be a student in my state.
The University of California is jacking up tuition by 20% (in addition to the rate hike students and their families absorbed earlier this year) while cutting classes and services.
And it was announced yesterday that our budget woes continue to worsen: we're back to a $21 billion deficit.
The beleaguered Los Angeles Unified School District held a meeting last week where they told their employees to expect even more job losses in 2010. Class sizes are escalating to silly proportions, and although the District has made gains in test scores recently, all of this bad news does not bode well for continued improvement.
What's a mother to do?
It is a sad state of affairs that Los Angeles can boast of some of the state's best public schools...and many of its worst. If you live in an affluent neighborhood, you've got some pretty good choices. If you don't, you're basically screwed. It is a situation that endures after decades of hand-wringing and reforms that never seem to do the trick.
Complaining about LAUSD is something of a local sport -- no one ever gets hurt by dissing the District, and some people benefit from it. Pointing out the flaws in the school system is a sure way to sell a lot of papers, garner good ratings, and get yourself elected.
And yet...
Test scores are not truly indicative of a school's quality, or the effectiveness of any given teacher. Yes, some teachers should be forced to retire and some administrators are ineffective. But most of the people I've met at LAUSD are sincere in their desire to help our children reach the heights of their potential... they are just hamstrung by bureaucracy, politics, red tape, history and budget woes.
This is on my mind today because Megan starts high school next fall, and we need to figure out where she will go. Our neighborhood high school is not a viable option. Despite what I said above about test scores, I don't want to send her to a poorly performing school when there are "better" ones nearby. And even if I did, it would be like moving to a new town and starting fresh. She's been attending school outside our neighborhood since kindergarten, so she doesn't know anybody who will be going there.
So we've been shopping around.
A couple of weeks ago, we visited the other high school in our zip code, which went charter several years ago and so doesn't have to answer to most of LAUSD's arcane rules. It also doesn't share the district's budget problems. I've heard through the grapevine that this school began the year with a $2.5 million surplus. Class sizes are smaller than the District average, equipment is new and maintained, and nobody is talking about teacher cuts.
When we got to the campus, we were impressed by how clean and well organized it was. It has the feel of an exclusive prep school. The teaching staff (at least, the ones we were able to observe) are young, enthusiastic and engaged. The students (at least, the ones we met) were neat, polite and articulate. The word that came to mind was "disciplined." They reminded me a bit of the scene in "The Sound of Music," when Maria has her first meeting with the regimented Von Trapp children.
We were given an informational packet that ran down the school's graduation requirements (which echo the prerequisites for getting into the CSU and UC systems), explained the summer transition academy (MANDATORY for all incoming freshmen - "Do not schedule any vacations during this time!"), stats on test scores and college admission rates (a whopping 96% of the students go on to higher education), and an explanation of the three ways an out-of-neighborhood student can apply.
One of these is a magnet. LAUSD instituted this program 30 years ago after years of turmoil over Federally imposed busing and massive white flight to private schools.The idea was that high quality, smaller specialty programs within a school would attract students from all over the District, including those from more affluent (i.e., white) families who might otherwise opt out of the system. As the purpose of the program is to achieve racial balance, the magnets receive Federal funding that has allowed them to thrive despite the budgetary problems of the rest of the District.
The program has been wildly successful - so much, that as my friend Marsha (@sweatpantsmom) asserts, they have resulted in a further decline of neighborhood schools, as the best and brightest students are drained away to magnets.
She's right. She's also right when she says that a small group of dedicated parents can do wonders to turn around an under-performing school. That said, it's not an easy task and I'm not willing to gamble my daughter's future on the proposition that I could make a huge difference at our neighborhood school.
Some Los Angeles magnet schools have developed into the state's best. Balboa Gifted Magnet in Northridge consistently shows up as one of the top public elementary schools in all of California. It's very difficult to get into. According to this year's "Choices" brochure (sent to every LAUSD family so they have an opportunity to apply to the program), in 2008 there were 1789 applications for a school that has 267 openings in 2010-11.
Popular magnet schools select their applicants through a complicated points and lottery system. As they need to achieve racial balance, there are quotas established for the different major ethnic groups in the city, and they change each year as the school population changes. Specialized magnets for gifted or highly gifted children have additional testing and grade requirements that must be met before a student can be accepted.
Many of Megan's friends transferred to Balboa when they were eligible in first and second grade. We applied, but never won the lottery. Fortunately, LAUSD has another program for high achieving students who (for whatever reason) do not attend a gifted magnet. It's called School for Advanced Studies (SAS), and is a kind of honors program within a campus. The SAS kids pretty much stick together throughout their academic career. Unlike the magnet program, there is no mandate that it be racially balanced. It receives little, if any, Federal funding and so is at the mercy of the LAUSD budget.
We were not impressed with our little neighborhood elementary school the year our daughter entered kindergarten. The playground was unkempt and the PTA lady who showed us around the school was very negative about everything. There was no SAS program. We were afraid to send her there.
We ended up in an SAS at a school three miles west, and aside from the fact that every time Megan established a best friend she transferred to Balboa, these were happy and productive years. Even so, we continued to send in our Choices application each December. That was so we could rack up points for the transition to middle school.
In the spring, we were informed we were waitlisted for the magnet of our choice, which had accepted Megan's current best friend. Fortunately, the middle school just up the street from our home does have an SAS program, and we felt comfortable sending her there. The only thing I stressed about was the fact that only a couple of kids she knew would also be attending.
When your children are little, you have a lot of control over who they hang out with. If there's something you don't like about a kid or her parents, you simply don't schedule a playdate there. By the time your kid starts middle school, that power is long gone. You just have to hope that the kids your child chooses to spend time with are nice. And if you like their parents too, that's a bonus.
A couple of weeks into the summer of '07, we got a call from the magnet middle school informing us that they had an opening for Megan, if she wanted it. She was away at gymnastics camp at the time (with her friend Maggie), so I had to wait until evening to ask her how I should respond. The squealing on the other end of the phone said it all. She's been at the magnet ever since, and couldn't be happier.
Which brings us back to the tour of the charter high school, which is just a couple of blocks away from the SAS elementary school we attended through fifth grade. Most of our friends live within that school's boundaries, so they are assured a spot there... and Megan would go in already having lots of friends.
The charter school has both an SAS program and a rigorous math and science magnet. Their students are required to take four years of both subjects (while the District only asks for three years of math and two years of lab science). "Do not apply to this magnet if your child doesn't LOVE math and science," the counselors warned us.
Megan is strong in these subjects, but I don't think they make her heart sing. We will not be wasting our one magnet application by applying there. The good news is that we can try to get in through both an SAS application and open enrollment.
The bad news: The charter school has approximately 100 openings in each of the three programs, each of which historically receives about 1,000 applications. Selection is by lottery. So we have a 1 in 10 chance of getting in -- not too good.
We embarked on a second high school magnet tour yesterday. This school is about five miles from home, in a neighborhood that's seen better days. Test scores for the school as a whole are not so good... but the magnet, which offers a humanities curriculum, has an excellent track record.
If the charter school was like the Von Trapp household before Maria, the humanities magnet reminded me of the kids in play clothes made from floral draperies. This magnet takes an interdisciplinary approach to teaching. According to the brochure contained in the parent packet, 9th grade requirements include "an innovative science course...that demonstrates the connection between biology, geography, and the development of civilization."
In most classes, they don't use the state textbooks. Classrooms are arranged with desks facing the middle, to encourage active participation and debate. Again, I was impressed by the enthusiasm and energy of all the teachers we observed.
We sat in on a class that combined the study of art and religion. One teacher came out to tell us how his students are examining the nature of humanity through the lenses of Stendhal, Freud and Marx. The magnet coordinator boasted that his school's kids consistently outscore the charter school (with the math and science magnet) on the AP Calculus exam. The classroom walls are decorated with fanciful student-designed murals and pop art sculptures.
I LOVED this school, as did some of the other parents I knew on the tour. Megan and her friends did, too - although they're a bit worried about the strong writing requirements, which include 10-page essays at the end of each teaching module and more homework than I ever thought possible (four hours or more per night). I have a different attitude about this now that gymnastics is no longer a part of our lives. It's high school and college prep. They can bring it on.
Best of all - the magnet coordinator practically guaranteed acceptance."If you truly want truly want to go here, you'll get in," he said.
For the first time in a while, I'm feeling good about our prospects. I hope that lasts.
This month's Yahoo! Motherboard theme is the state of public education in an era of huge budget cuts. Here are some other posts on the topic:
- Hormone Colored Days: Parenting Gifted Children. Advocating for Gifted Children
- It's All About Balance: Arts in Education
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