Great Public Schools Now Executive Director Myrna Castrejon at a June news conference announcing the first three grants.

Great Public Schools Now announced Thursday it will give up to $3.75 million in grant funds next year to expand up to five academically successful LA Unified school campuses in underserved areas — the nonprofit’s first partnership with the school district.

GPSN launched its program in June, when it gave its first grants, totaling $4.5 million, to Teach for America, an after-school program called Heart of LA and Equitas Academy, which runs three charter schools in LA’s Pico-Union neighborhood.

GPSN Executive Director Myrna Castrejon said replicating high-performing schools has not been attempted in Los Angeles before or anywhere in the nation at the same scale, and the organization is encouraging the “best and brightest” in the district to apply for grants to expand their successful schools’ impact on more children in LA.

“We are excited to begin this collaboration with LA Unified schools where we know high-needs students are finding supportive learning environments that result in high achievement,” Castrejon said. “Our goal is to increase the number of students enrolled in high-quality programs, and to do so quickly.”

 GPSN is encouraging schools that fit certain criteria to apply for the grants. Castrejon said her organization wants to help successful leaders do more, rather than tinker with what’s working.

“We feel strongly that it is actually the leaders and the school that have the will and vision to do more that should apply rather than us deciding to do x, y or z,” she said.

“Frankly, I’m really excited to see who will apply,” she said.

Castrejon said her organization has been working with Superintendent Michelle King and her staff to develop the process, which she described as collaborative and open.

“I am excited about the opportunities to increase the number of high-quality choices for our LA Unified families,” King said in a statement. “We have schools in every corner of the district where students are excelling. Investing in these campuses will allow more of our students to attain the knowledge and skills to be successful in college, careers and in life.”

The grants — that will range from $50,000 to $250,000 annually over three years — will only be given to district-run schools. They must be used to expand successful schools by either adding seats or adding a new campus of a school.

Here are some of the criteria:

• schools must be non-selective, high-performing magnets, pilot or traditional schools;
• at least half of the students must meet or exceed proficiency in math or English on state tests
• no fewer than 25 percent of all students must perform at proficient levels
• schools as a whole must perform significantly better in math and English than surrounding schools with similar demographics
• schools must enroll special education students and English language learners at rates similar to the district as a whole
• administrators should have the autonomy to pick their own teaching staffs
• at least 80 percent of the students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch

GPSN will also provide up to five planning grants of $20,000 to help schools prepare their applications. The deadline to apply for a planning grant is Oct. 28.

Applications for the grants will be due in February. An advisory committee will vet the applications, and the GPSN board of directors will make a final decision by April.

Castrejon said the grants are not intended to replace traditional funding of schools through ADA but will be used to support school leaders to do effective planning.

King said she has asked local district superintendents to identify the district’s most successful models and to develop competitive proposals.

“These grants can help us bring additional resources to meet our students’ needs,” said Christopher Downing, who oversees 148 schools as superintendent of Local District South. “They deserve every learning opportunity that will create pathways to college and 21st-century careers.”

Map of 10 neighborhoods where Great Public Schools Now will focus its efforts.

GPSN’s areas of focus are in South LA, East LA and the northeast San Fernando Valley because they have “chronically underperforming schools and few high-quality school choices for struggling families,” according to the organization’s plan released in June. In the 10 identified neighborhoods, 160,000 low-income English language learners are enrolled in schools where 80 percent of students are learning below their grade level, according to the plan.

GPSN’s new plan outlines its targeted areas of funding as teacher and leadership pipeline and support, facilities, community engagement and school replication.

GPSN is also holding a town hall meeting Oct. 22 at St. Mark’s Banquet Hall, 14646 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, 91405 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to hear feedback from parents and the community on its program. Another event will be held on Dec. 10 in LA, the location will be announced.

Great Public Schools Now’s executive director, Myrna Castrejon, announces the first grants at a news conference last Thursday.

By Caroline Bermudez

More than once in California, it has taken a major lawsuit to try to propel long-awaited change for its schools. In 1999, the State Allocation Board was sued because of overcrowding in Los Angeles public schools. Last year, a coalition of groups brought a lawsuit accusing the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) of diverting money away from low-income, foster children, and English-language learners.

So it’s a welcome development when instead of looking to the court system to improve schools, educational inequities can be addressed through partnerships among schools, nonprofits and philanthropies.

Great Public Schools Now (GPSN), a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles, is awarding grants to successful programs and schools—be they traditional public schools, charter schools or magnet—to replicate or expand their efforts to improve schools for 160,000 students in 10 low-income Los Angeles neighborhoods.

On Thursday GPSN announced its first three grants—$2 million for Teach For America to focus on training more special education teachers for traditional schools, $2 million for Equitas Charter Network to build a school and expand its new K-4 campus, and $500,000 for new space for an after school program run by Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA).

The fact that Great Public Schools Now is open to supporting any type of high-achieving program (and not just charter schools) is a refreshing development in a city whose school board has been hostile to the expansion of charters.

For parents who reside in the low-income neighborhoods GPSN will focus on, they say it’s time for the conflict between traditional public schools and charter schools to end.

Mary Najera, community liaison for Extera Public Schools and a veteran parent organizer who lives in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, said she was excited by the collaborative nature of Great Public Schools Now.

“If charter schools are going to work with traditional public schools, then let’s go for it,” she said. “I love the idea that they’re all sitting at the table together. At the end of the day, it’s not your money, it’s the kids’ money.”

Carmen Avalos, city clerk for the South Gate community of Los Angeles and a mother of six children, four of whom attend charter schools, said the Great Public Schools Now plan has been greatly anticipated by parents of color like herself who have endured what she called a “two-tiered system.”

“It’s long overdue, particularly in homogeneous communities of color,” she said. “There should be high-quality access for all students. Zip code should not determine how far you can get.”

As a former LAUSD biology teacher, Avalos said the most promising part of the plan was its emphasis on teachers’ professional development. She said that it was a misconception that struggling neighborhoods don’t have any talented educators.

“We have great teachers, but they don’t have the opportunity to shine and share and learn from others,” Avalos said. “There are not enough [of these] teachers in one school.”

Like so many urban districts, Los Angeles schools suffer a dearth of quality and money. Great Public Schools Now is not putting a cap on how much money it will award or how many organizations will win grants. Not many cities have received such a boon.

“Every kid we help is a win,” said Glenn Gritzner, a GPSN spokesman. “As long as more kids need help, we’re keeping at it.”

That’s belated news for parents like Avalos who experienced years of frustration before finding the right schools for her children—and then had to fight for these schools to remain open.

“Once you know what quality is, you never go back to mediocre,” she said.

DETAILS ON THE GRANT WINNERS

• Teach For America Los Angeles will receive $2 million to train and develop new corps members and alumni. The organization will increase its crop of teachers from 80 to 130 teachers next year. Out of this number, between 45 and 50 members will be placed as special education teachers in traditional public schools and their affiliates.“Given the current talent shortage I knew we would need to increase the number of new teachers joining our Los Angeles corps…This support will allow Teach For America to have a greater presence and impact across the highest-need public schools – with a focus on traditional LAUSD schools – in Los Angeles,” Lida Jennings, executive director of Teacher For America Los Angeles, said in a statement.

• Equitas, founded in 2009 in the Pico-Union neighborhood, got $2 million for a new building for Equitas Academy #3. Malka Borrego, Equitas’ founder and chief executive, says her network has a waitlist of more than 1,000 families. Through the funding, Equitas Academy 3 will be able to expand from 100 kindergarten students to 500 in grades K to 8.“Our families want access to schools. We’re trying to unite Los Angeles and develop strong schools,” said Borrego, a third-generation resident of the neighborhood.

• Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), a nonprofit organization in the Rampart district that operates after-school academic and arts programs for over 2,300 children, won $500,000 to help construct a new 25,000 square foot building. Tony Brown, the charity’s executive director, said its current building is overcrowded and HOLA has a waitlist of more than 300 families.With the grant money, Brown said, HOLA will be able to eliminate the list by 2020. The new building will open next year and give HOLA the ability to accommodate families eager to place their children into its programs.“Ninety-seven percent of the families we serve live in poverty,” Brown said. “They are craving the types of programs and services we provide. This is a huge victory for families who have been in a sub-par system.”

Caroline Bermudez is senior writer at Education Post. Before that she was a staff editor at The Chronicle of Philanthropy, covering the nonprofit world, with a particular focus on foundations and high net-worth giving.

Maria Silva worked hard to find the right schools for her kids.

As a stay-at-home mom, she could spend the time and effort it took to research schools and she was willing and able to drive her daughter from their home in Bell to downtown Los Angeles to attend a magnet high school.

A mother of three, Silva is the star of an advertising campaign for a new initiative to expand access to high-performing schools to tens of thousands of students in Los Angeles’ low-income areas.

The ad campaign was unveiled Thursday at Great Public Schools Now’s launch at a news conference at Heart of LA in Westlake. The six-figure advertising campaign features three television ads and a two-minute video that was posted Friday on the organization’s website as well as a digital and print advertising campaign.

In the spot featuring Silva, she explains that her daughter was a “completely changed person” when she switched schools.

“Enough with politics,” Silva says in the commercial. “All of our children deserve the school that fits regardless of where they live. Please help us bring high-quality education for all of our children in Los Angeles.”

Maria Silva, featured in an advertising campaign for Great Public Schools Now, spoke at a news conference Thursday.

Silva’s three children have attended traditional district schools, charter schools and district magnet schools.

Silva’s oldest daughter, Sarahi, attended her neighborhood elementary schools. The first was Liberty Boulevard in South Gate near where the Silvas lived, but then the school’s boundaries were changed and when Sarahi was in third grade, she had to attend State Street Elementary School, which was farther away.

“It didn’t make sense at the time, but we had to follow what the rules are,” Silva said.

Sarahi then enrolled for two years in a district middle school, but Silva realized her daughter wasn’t adapting well in the environment.

“She would come home crying because there were other kids who were struggling, because there were other kids on drugs,” Silva said. “It hurt her so much that it affected her grades, so I decided I needed to take my daughter out of that environment into something that fits in her best interests.”

Sarahi graduated at the top of her class from State Street Elementary, but her grades weren’t the same in middle school.

“She needed a very different type of school. I felt like her needs weren’t being met. So I started looking for something better,” she said.

But Silva understands that just because the school wasn’t the right fit for her daughter, it doesn’t mean the school is “bad.”

“There are other students who are thriving in that school because maybe their personality was different. For my child, that wasn’t the case,” she said.

Sarahi liked structure. Some teachers know how to run a disciplined classroom, while other teachers seemed to let the children run the classroom, Silva said.

Magnolia, a network of charter schools, was opening a middle school in Bell where the Silvas now live. Silva didn’t know much about charter schools, and some of her neighbors were upset about the school’s arrival, but she thought she’d give it a try because a friend’s daughter was doing well at a charter school.

Sarahi went to the charter school for 8th grade and graduated as valedictorian.

“At the end, she will tell you, ‘It was the best school I’ve attended. My teachers made me feel like I mattered, that whatever I was going through mattered’,” Silva said.

Now that Silva realized there were options, she dug into finding a high school for her daughter.

“I learned that I could look somewhere else, and I’ve been doing that ever since,” she said.

She opted for a district magnet school for her daughter’s high school – Downtown Magnets High School in downtown Los Angeles.

Sarahi thrived at the school, her mother said. After changing her mind a few times about what she wanted as a career — from forensic scientist to police detective — her future career path was formed in debate club where she discovered her love of forming an argument.

Silva said Sarahi spent her days in her room researching and rehearsing speeches.

“I thought, this child needs to get a life,” Silva joked.

But it paid off. Sarahi received a full-ride scholarship to Hampshire College, a private liberal arts college in Western Massachusetts. Sarahi, now 18, is studying international jurisprudence. She wants to be a lawyer.

Silva has also spent time researching schools for her two sons.

The middle child, Samuel, went to a magnet program at Miles Avenue Elementary, a district school in Huntington Park, before he went to Magnolia Science Academy #8 for middle school like his sister and then onto Downtown Magnets High School. He is starting 11th grade.

The youngest, Isahi, 11, will be in 7th grade at Magnolia Science Academy #8. He also attended the magnet program at Miles Avenue Elementary and Academia Moderna K-5 Charter School in Huntington Park.

Silva is already looking for a high school for Isahi. She is researching magnet schools that specialize in the medical field.

She says many parents don’t know about other options for schools until it’s too late. That might change if there are more options in the community.

“I would love for schools to open with the same curriculum, with the same ideas as the ones my kids attend further away,” said Silva, who said she got involved with Great Public Schools Now through a friend and interviewed to be in the commercials. “I agree with that completely. I’m here to support that because that’s what I believe.”

Un emprendimiento masivo para aumentar el acceso a una educación de alta calidad para decenas de miles de estudiantes de bajos recursos en Los Angeles fue revelado hoy a través de un esperado plan de Great Public Schools Now (GPSN, Excelentes Escuelas Públicas Ahora), una organización sin fines de lucro que recibe una buena cantidad de fondos y que se formó el año pasado.

El objetivo es extender el acceso a 160,000 estudiantes que GPSN ha identificado y que asisten a escuelas deficientes en 10 barrios de bajos ingresos de Los Angeles de manera que puedan asistir a escuelas exitosas que esta organización quiere ayudar a duplicar o expandir

Los barrios están en el Sur de Los Angeles, Este de Los Angeles y el Noreste del Valle de San Fernando, y fueron elegidos porque están llenos de “escuelas de bajo rendimiento crónico y hay muy pocas opciones de escuelas de alta calidad para las familias que tienen dificultades económicas”, señala el plan.

GPSN proporcionará fondos y apoyo a escuelas de alto rendimiento, sin importar qué tipo de escuela sea – escuela charter o autónoma, tradicional, piloto, magnet o afiliada — de manera que se puedan duplicar y ampliar. Asimismo, apoyará a las escuelas propuestas con el potencial de que se conviertan en planteles de alta calidad.

El enfoque cada vez más extenso es una transición de un plan inicial publicado el año pasado antes de que se formara GPSN para expandir las escuelas charter en Los Angeles.

Myrna Castrejon

“Se trata de un tipo diferente de iniciativa, muy distinto a la que se ha intentado antes en Los Angeles”, dijo Myrna Castrejón, directora ejecutiva de GPSN. “Estoy muy entusiasmada, en particular por la oportunidad de trabajar a través de todos los sectores con el fin de poder realmente fortalecer a toda la educación pública”.

El otro cambio notable del plan inicial es la escasez de datos.  El nuevo plan no incluye una cantidad específica de dólares que la organización tiene por objetivo recaudar, no da un plazo para inscribir en escuelas exitosas a los 160,000 estudiantes que están en escuelas que no tienen un alto rendimiento, no enumera los posibles donantes, ni nombra a ninguna escuela específica – charter, magnet o de otro tipo – como un modelo que quiera duplicar.  

Yolie Flores, miembro de la junta de GPSN y ex miembro de la junta escolar del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Angeles, indicó que algunos detalles se darán a conocer durante una conferencia de prensa el jueves, en la cual se darán a conocer varios ganadores de las subvenciones. Pero también dijo que la junta está recién formada y todavía están precisando los detalles.

“Creo que van a poder escuchar algunos detalles sobre el trabajo el jueves”, dijo. “Esto es en parte porque la junta se acaba formar. Tenemos mucho trabajo por hacer para trazar el plan y queremos una oportunidad para poder hacerlo “.

La estrategia para financiar a “toda la escuela” en lugar de solamente un programa específico también representa un cambio en los esfuerzos de reforma de la educación en Los Angeles, de manera que todos los recursos, y no sólo un programa, dentro de una escuela estén alineados con la misión de éxito de los estudiantes.

Castrejon lo llama la estrategia “dentro de estas cuatro paredes”.

Todo “se reduce a culturas escolares realmente sanas y robustas que tengan la capacidad de prever cuál será el trabajo para los niños, y que tengan la suficiente, por así decirlo, autonomía, responsabilidad y rendición de cuentas entre sí y hacia su comunidad para poder llevarlo a cabo”, dijo.

Si bien el plan de GPSN se aleja del plan del verano pasado centrado en las escuelas charter, el éxito de las escuelas autónomas independientes en Los Angeles sentó las bases para la última evolución de la reforma educativa en la ciudad, dijeron varios miembros de la junta.

Bill Siart, presidente de GPSN, dijo que el historial que algunas escuelas han tenido en la última década para mejorar los resultados de los estudiantes en los barrios de bajos ingresos significa que ahora es posible duplicar el éxito en una manera que no era posible antes.

“La verdadera clave es que esto es distinto a la mayoría de los esfuerzos de reforma que he visto y en los que de hecho he estado involucrado”, dijo Siart, también presidente de ExED, una organización sin fines de lucro que proporciona servicios de apoyo y negocios a las escuelas autónomas. “Afortunadamente, hemos dedicado suficiente tiempo en varias escuelas y ahora éstas son escuelas que realmente tienen un buen desempeño en las zonas pobres. Históricamente, la verdad no había suficientes ejemplos como éstos.  Pero ahora está claro que es posible y no es sólo una o dos – sino docenas de escuelas”.

Castrejon dijo que se ha aprendido una lección de las escuelas autónomas que han desarrollado culturas escolares fuertes en donde todos los recursos dentro de la escuela están alineados con una misión de éxito para los estudiantes. “Lo que es interesante acerca de esto es que tenemos la oportunidad de extender esa teoría de acción, por así decirlo, en el distrito”, dijo. “Creo que es una diferencia significativa e importante de la manera en la que los esfuerzos de reforma escolar han cobrado forma en Los Angeles y algo que, con suerte, podrá orientar nuestro trabajo para lograr un gran impacto a un ritmo acelerado”.

Los padres exigen escuelas exitosas. En su informe, GPSN indicó que hay más de 40,000 estudiantes que están en lista de espera en las escuelas charter y “miles más” intentan inscribirse en los programas de escuelas magnet populares del distrito.

Castrejon dijo que ya se ha reunido dos o tres veces con la Superintendente Michelle King, del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Angeles y planea tener más reuniones este verano y en otoño para hablar a fondo sobre los detalles de su trabajo en lo que respecta a las escuelas del distrito. Se calcula que los primeros resultados de parte de la implementación se verán aproximadamente en un año

GPSN también está dando a conocer hoy la composición de su junta compuesta por siete personas, las cuales cuentan con décadas de experiencia en educación.  Además de Siart y Flores, quien es también miembro titular de Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, (Campaña para la Lectura a Nivel de Grado), los miembros de la junta son Gregory McGinity, director general de política de The Broad Foundation (La Fundación Broad); Maria Casillas, fundadora de Families in Schools (Familias en las Escuelas); Virgil Roberts, presidente de la junta de Families in Schools; Marc Sternberg, director del programa de educación K-12  de the Walton Family Foundation, ( La Fundación de la Familia Walton) y Allison Keller, vicepresidenta y directora general de finanzas y directora general de  W.M. Keck Foundation (Fundación W.M. Keck).

LA School Report recibió por anticipado una copia del plan oficial bajo la estipulación de que no lo comparta ni se hable de él.  

El Plan inicial del verano pasado, publicado en el diario Los Angeles Times en agosto, describió una iniciativa audaz para financiar una expansión masiva de las escuelas autónomas independientes. Fue muy específico en su objetivo, el cual era inscribir a la mitad de los estudiantes de todo el Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Angeles en las escuelas autónomas dentro de un período de ocho años recaudando cerca de mil quinientos millones de dólares. Incluyó una lista de donantes específicos que quería solicitar, así como las organizaciones específicas de escuelas autónomas que propuso como modelos para expandir, incluyendo varias organizaciones importantes de administración de escuelas autónomas en el Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Angeles como KIPP Public Charter Schools, (Escuelas Autónomas Públicas KIPP), Alliance College-Ready Public Schools (Alianza de Escuelas Públicas de Preparación para la Universidad) y Green Dot Public Schools (Escuelas Públicas Green Dot).

Ese plan fue intensamente criticado por UTLA, el Sindicato de Maestros de Los Angeles, y varios miembros de la junta, incluyendo al presidente Steve Zimmer y Scott Schmerelson, quienes lo caracterizaron como un plan que podría llevar a la quiebra al distrito y acabar con el sindicato debido a la masiva cantidad de fondos por alumno que el distrito podría perder. La junta también aprobó una resolución unánime en enero declarando su oposición al plan.

Las escuelas autónomas son financiadas a través de fondos públicos, pero son escuelas que se administran a nivel privado y reciben sus fondos directamente, por lo que cada vez que un estudiante sale de una escuela tradicional del Distrito Escolar de LA, los siguen los fondos estatales y federales. El Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Angeles tiene ya a 101,000 de aproximadamente 650,000 de sus estudiantes inscritos en escuelas autónomas, más que cualquier otro distrito del país, y se enfrenta a  grandes déficits de presupuesto en los próximos años, en parte debido a una pérdida continua de la inscripción de estudiantes en escuelas autónomas.

“Éste no es un plan para todos los niños, ni una estrategia para todos los niños”, dijo Zimmer a LA School Report en septiembre. “Es, de manera muy explícita, una estrategia para algunos niños, una estrategia a través de la cual algunos niños tendrán una mejor educación en una escuela financiada con fondos públicos que asume que otros niños serán dañados por esa oportunidad.”

En el momento de la publicación del plan inicial en el Times – varios miembros de la junta GPSN caracterizó su publicación como una fuga de información –  todavía estaba conectada con la Fundación Broad, una importante fuente de financiación de las escuelas autónomas en Los Angeles.  Desde entonces, se formó GPSN y se hizo cargo del plan de la Fundación Broad y ha estado trabajando para alejarse del plan preliminar.  En noviembre, GPSN anunció que su financiación no sería sólo para las escuelas autónomas, sino también para las escuelas administradas por el distrito.  Siart y varios otros miembros de la junta también le dijeron al LA School Report que ninguno de los miembros que están en la junta actual tuvieron algo que ver con el desarrollo del plan preliminar.

Con la junta compuesta de personas conectadas con varios patrocinadores principales de las escuelas autónomas, tales como la Walton Family Foundation y la W.M. Keck Foundation, y sin que el plan actual dé información detallada sobre cuánto dinero se destinará a las escuelas autónomas en comparación con las escuelas del distrito, no está claro si el plan oficial de hoy va a frenar la crítica y el escepticismo que recibió el plan preliminar del año pasado.

Siart y otros miembros de la junta en repetidas ocasiones recalcaron que el plan preliminar del año pasado no reflejó las intenciones actuales de GPSN.  Siart también dijo que los miembros de GPSN se habían reunido con la Superintendente King y ella expresó su apoyo.

“Nos sentamos con la nueva superintendente y hablamos conceptualmente sobre lo que estábamos tratando de hacer, y de qué manera esto significa mejores escuelas para los niños, algo que ella apoya.  No sé cómo no podría apoyar algo como esto.  Dijimos que no es sólo para las escuelas autónomas, que es en lo que el otro plan se enfocaba. Esto podría ser para escuelas magnet o escuelas tradicionales”.

KIng fue ascendida a superintendente en enero después de fungir como superintendente adjunta a los dos superintendentes anteriores, John Deasy y Ramón Cortines. En marzo, cuando se le preguntó en una reunión en el ayuntamiento sobre la  aparente parcialidad del distrito hacia las escuelas autónomas, ella dijo, “Desgraciadamente tenemos etiquetas, diciendo que éste es mejor que aquél. Tampoco es nosotros contra ellos”.

“Definitivamente creo que el hecho de que usted está escuchando cosas similares de nosotros dos es bastante deliberado”, dijo Castrejon. “Sí representa una nueva manera en la que el distrito intenta extender el impacto de lo que se está haciendo. Mi conversación con la superintendente se ha centrado en hablar en general sobre cómo vemos el papel que esto desempeña. Ciertamente, el interés del distrito en extender el alcance de las escuelas magnet y otros programas innovadores que están dando resultados para los niños y estamos muy alineados a eso”.

A pesar de que no se incluyó en el plan que se publicó hoy, Roberts dijo que GPSN también puede financiar escuelas en el área de Los Angeles que no forman parte del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Angeles, incluyendo el Distrito Unificado de Compton y el de Inglewood.  Roberts también hizo hincapié en que el plan se trata de la financiación de todo tipo de escuelas que tienen éxito.

“Estamos adoptando un enfoque diferente ahora y diciendo que nuestro objetivo es crear escuelas para los niños que han sido marginados. Vamos a crear esas escuelas dondequiera que los encontremos y con quienquiera que desee que funcionen. Así que no se trata de extender las escuelas autónomas. La atención se centra en los niños”, dijo Roberts.

El dinero para las escuelas que quiere duplicar financiará cuatro áreas: participación y enlace con la comunidad, programas de preparación de maestros, conseguir instalaciones adecuadas y subvenciones para la réplica de escuelas.

“Las personas que manejan la escuela autónoma o la magnet tendrían que desear que se duplicaran. Estamos muy entusiasmados si están contentos y satisfechos con lo que están haciendo, pero eso no es algo que financiaríamos”, dijo Siart.

Siart indicó que GPSN está esperando hasta el otoño, cuando el estado publique un posible plan de rendición de cuentas, lo que ayudará a GPSN definir el nivel de una escuela exitosa que el grupo quiera ayudar a expandir o duplicar. Asimismo, explicó que con el fin de recibir subvenciones, una escuela debe tener un historial comprobado de ayudar a los estudiantes pobres a que alcancen el éxito académico y tengan un deseo de extender o duplicar sus operaciones.

El plan publicado hoy no aborda el impacto potencial que pueda tener su expansión de las escuelas de calidad en las escuelas tradicionales de la zona que están teniendo dificultades. El plan hace un llamado para duplicar las buenas escuelas, no mejorar las que están fracasando, pero si esas escuelas con dificultades pierden la inscripción de estudiantes para que asistan a las escuelas que GPSN expanda, parece una conclusión lógica que esas escuelas podrían cerrar o tendrían que despedir personal, lo cual le costaría al Distrito de LA dinero del presupuesto.

“Ésa no es una decisión fácil de tomar [el cierre de escuelas], y es prematuro tomarla en este momento”, dijo Flores. “Nadie merece estar en una escuela que no esté dando buenos resultados. Ni un maestro, ni un director, un niño, ni un padre. Por lo que debemos estar orgullosos de que vamos a eliminar gradualmente las escuelas que fracasan y establecer un entorno escolar de calidad para cada uno de los estudiantes en el Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Angeles. Y pensar bien lo que eso significa.

“Tenemos que ser muy conscientes de lo que esto significa para la infraestructura, lo que significa esto para la finalización del distrito y lo que quiere decir que para los empleos y el sustento del personal.  Éstas son preguntas importantes que yo no voy a eludir. Creo que todos tenemos que hacer esto juntos, pero no debemos condenar a los niños a escuelas que no estén dando buenos resultados porque nos preocupamos por esas otras cosas. Hay que preocuparnos por esas otras cosas, pero no a expensas de lo que los niños necesitan para tener una buena educación”.

Myrna Castrejon, executive director of Great Public Schools Now

Myrna Castrejon, who was named executive director of Great Public Schools Now in January, was thrust into the spotlight this week with the release of the organization’s plan to increase access to high-performing schools for 160,000 students it identified as attending failing schools in poor areas.

Castrejon came from the California Charter Schools Association, where she spent 12 years in various leadership roles. In an interview with LA School Report ahead of the plan’s release, Castrejon talked about her guiding principles during her career in education reform and her excitement about coming back to Los Angeles.

She first came to LA in late 1999 to work on a school reform effort called Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project, known as LAAMP, a $53-million grant challenge program funded by the Annenberg Foundation. She now has taken the lead on the latest major reform effort in the city.

What do you hope conversation will be around the plan’s release?

I certainly hope that people see how different this is from prior efforts. And I hope it will catalyze a new set of dialogue and conversation about how do we make this work. As you know, the plan is essentially one where we are landscaping our broad mission and how we will work. In spite of the many conversations I’ve had in the last four months since I was named to this post, we’ve really been taking stock of what’s possible of where the obstacles are and really setting a course. But very quickly this will turn to implementation and execution.

On the lack of details in the plan and differences between the final plan and the draft plan that was published in the Los Angeles Times in August:

First of all, that work occurred more than a year ago. Our landscape continues to evolve, as it continues to evolve moving forward as well. One of the things we’ve been doing in the last four months have been really to listen very closely and to talk to people about what they need and how they can see this work moving forward.

I think it’s important as we get more specific into execution … that we don’t completely bake things in isolation. And so, the lack of specifics I think, it’s very driven by that, the need and the opportunity for us to build this collaboratively.

When do you expect to see first impacts of the plan?

We will be making early grants starting now and the impact will begin when the work begins.

Specifically, on the school replication track, planning and developing new schools is typically around an 18-month process. Certainly we are already working with the district to begin to identify how we might be able to operationalize this. From our conversations with the superintendent’s office, we certainly want to begin the work in earnest this fall. I would expect probably within a year we’ll be seeing the first results of those efforts.

On the charter side, work continues. We’ll be looking for opportunities to strengthen the pipeline as early as possible.

How would you characterize your relationship with LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King?

Superintendent King and I have had an opportunity to sit down and chat very specifically about our joint efforts two or three times in the last four months. I definitely think the fact that you’re hearing similar things from both of us is quite intentional. It does represent a new way for the district to pursue amplifying the impact of what they’re doing. My conversation with the superintendent has been focused on talking generally about how do we see this playing out. Certainly the district’s interest in expanding the reach of magnets and other innovative programs that are delivering results for kids, we’re very much aligned in that.

Why this is happening now and why is this happening in Los Angeles?

It all comes down to the scope and size of the challenge. We know that when you’re looking even at just those 10 neighborhoods we have an aggregate of about 160,000 students who are still enrolled in schools that are not capitalizing on the full potential that those kids bring to the table. We do have a tremendous sense of urgency. There are great things happening across LA, but so much more work needs to happen.

One of the pieces of the story that is consistent throughout, say the last 25 years of school improvement and reform, is the scale of the challenge in Los Angeles is just significantly greater than practically any other area in the United States, and, therefore, the challenge and the urgency are huge. We do see this as an interesting new development, a different path for Los Angeles than has ever been attempted before. The “why now” is because the job’s not done.

We will continue school by school, student by student, making sure that we improve access. And access defined as access to equitable solutions for students.

Could you describe the shift from funding specific programs to the focus on the “whole school” described in the report?

It’s one of the things we have learned about how successful charters have really developed their very strong school cultures. We know that if you simply impact programs, that it isn’t the whole answer. One new reading program or curriculum initiative or things that don’t work holistically within the ecosystem of the school culture and the school that is absolutely mission-driven and aligns its resources, both human and material, to ensure that that mission is accomplished and by mission being accomplished, I mean student success. And that’s something that really works and what’s exciting about this is we have an opportunity to extend that theory of action, if you will, into the district.

The school board took a vote denouncing the draft plan. What have you done to reach out to school board members regarding this plan and do you think they will support it?

I think that the school board’s record in the past few months has really pointed the way towards great forms of intersection here starting with the resolution they passed around increasing the reach of magnets and affording some resource allocation to that replication strategy is certainly a point of great alignment. And that resolution strategy in May to encourage partnerships and continued investments in doing more of what works is also a signal that we are all pulling in the same direction when it comes to our intersection points.

Tell us about your background and why you took this job to come to Los Angeles.

I love Los Angeles. I am absolutely in love with the city. I’ve been in and out since late 1999. And I have been a veteran of school reform efforts in Texas, here in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California since then. I think that the thing that’s really energizing to me about the work moving forward is that it really is an opportunity to continue to build on the lessons learned from prior generations of school reform efforts. Every opportunity that I’ve had to work in school reform only renews my commitment to keep the needs of kids and parents foremost in every effort. There’s a lot about what we’re doing about what we already know has proven successful. Elsewhere and also even within Los Angeles, a very robust charter sector really anchoring what we know is true of Los Angeles kids is that our kids can do better when given the right supports and the right school ecosystem to really make an impact in their lives, and I’m tremendously excited to initiate this work now with the district as a partner.

How long have you been in education and have you always been in the education reform movement?

Yes. My school reform experience started in west Texas, right on the border of Mexico and El Paso where as a doctoral student, I came to El Paso to do my dissertation research. I literally stumbled onto ed reform. Education was not the field I was in. I am trained as a cultural anthropologist but have always been deeply committed and intrigued by the question of how communities act politically and publicly to bring improvement to their surroundings and engage in the political process. I intersected with an emerging initiative in Texas what was called the Alliance Schools Initiative where we were looking at community organizing as a really critical tool for school reform. I was on the parent organizing side and fell in love with the work, and that work provided me with the real north star around how to keep really closely aligned to the hopes and aspirations and challenges of low-income families as they strive for a better future for their kids, and I’ve never looked back.

Is education reform moving past a focus solely on charter schools?

One of the things that was really a cornerstone lesson for me was how fast the work can change, the work of reform, when it’s not anchored in really authentic community work. And where there aren’t important safeguards of autonomy for the schools that are doing the work.

School reform efforts come and go with superintendents and district board elections and yet, what we see can have a really important and lasting impact is when we actually develop institutions. Sort of what I sometimes term as “within these four walls” strategy.
I really haven’t seen too much work that has endured when it’s done top down.

And so I think that one of the things that I hope to bring to this effort as well is a really strong commitment to ensuring that the work of staying engaged with community and ensuring the people on the ground doing the work have the resources and ability to really realize their vision that that’s ultimately what’s going to lead us to greater success.

I do believe that a very important part of the charter success story has to do with the autonomy and the accountability. As we expand into this new work, we also know that success can happen in many different forms. We have to ensure that the schools on the district side that will embark upon this journey, that their plans for growth and replication and sustainability really are anchored in sort of a deep commitment of leaders, school leaders and the teachers that work there and their ability to magnify the good work that they’re doing.

What have charters failed at? What have you learned from charters and what would you say charters’ weaknesses are?

I prefer not to talk about it as weaknesses, but rather as remaining opportunity. I definitely believe you can never do enough community engagement. The reality of it is I think that remains a challenge for everyone, for the district, for charter schools, for everyone.

It’s not just a question of making sure the parents have the right brochures or that parents have “choices.” Choice doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t come with access. The fact there’s a school that perfectly matches your needs that’s 20 miles away doesn’t mean anything if you’re a working, single mother and need to take two buses to work.

We’re going to be working heavily with community partners throughout the city to ensure that parents aren’t just “aware” of choices but that we build awareness and demand for quality outcomes for all schools, regardless of what sector they’re sitting in.

What will the rest of the nation learn from LA? What is the most significant thing they’re going to see?

Certainly I hope that one of the take-aways from the work in LA, and obviously we’ll be judged by our outcomes and whether we’re successful, is in changing this conversation about what is a zero-sum gain around the charter sector and the traditional school sector. I don’t think that there need to be winners and losers because it’s not really, to me, about one sector winning over the other, but in kids winning.

I do think that given the scale of the charter sector and the opportunities ahead for LAUSD, it’s going to be a very interesting and broad conversation about how is it that we can break away from the old way of thinking.

How were the four areas of focus in the plan — community outreach and engagement, teacher and leadership pipeline and support, facilities and school replication grants — chosen?

It could have been 10 more or it could have been just one, but the reality is as we talked to people across LA and these are the things that we know that are impacting them more significantly in terms of their ability to do good work.

With the economic downtown and coming out of the recession and the paucity of school funding, we know that in many ways we may have lost a generation of young and idealistic teachers that were just beginning their careers. We need to band together and make sure that we are making teaching an attractive and valued and valuable proposition for the next generation of young professionals.

We know that school replication and growth can’t work without the individuals. We also know that charters can’t continue to do their work if they don’t have the right places to seat their students, and that is a multi-pronged effort as well. Facilities is a very complicated question across Los Angeles. We also know that this work has to remain authentic and tethered to the needs and aspirations of community members.

Are there other areas where we could be doing work? Absolutely. And maybe some will emerge as we launch into the work. For now, we’re simply being responsive to what people are telling us are their most critical needs.

What is your response to critics who might say because of the lack of details in the plan that it is still about the expansion of charter schools?

If you build an organization and work on strong fundraising and work collaboratively and you set out a plan and people still don’t believe you, I think the only thing that is going to change people’s minds in the end is going to be our outcomes.

How much have you fundraised so far and what is your fundraising goal?

We are continuing with fundraising efforts that’s a continuing evolving figure. To be really honest, the fact that no matter what we say or do, we now formed a new organization, we now have a board, the press continues to quote the figure ($490 million) from the planning document. And so, whatever figure we put out there is going to be the one that cements in people’s heads and we don’t really want to go there.

Can you get to an end-game where the needs of all students are addressed?

The challenges that are ahead of us, they’re not going to be solved by a single solution or a single source of funding or a single initiative.

What we hope GPSN will do is to carve a path that can augment success across all public schools. We certainly have no intention of being a silver bullet. And frankly, it will probably open up other opportunities, different avenues for other folks to do their own work. I think that it’s very important to have a clear sense of the challenge, but I also think it’s unrealistic for us to think we are going to be the single-source solution for every single problem that arises.

GPSN says it will fund the expansion and replication of successful schools in 10 high-needs neighborhoods, including charter schools, magnet schools, pilot schools and Partnership for Los Angeles Schools — and not solely charters, as a controversial early draft plan stated.

Reaction has come in across a wide range of viewpoints. Alex Caputo-Pearl, the president of the LA teachers union, offered up the harshest criticism of the new plan so far.

Here are reactions from some key education leaders in California and Los Angeles:

“This new plan is a public relations move meant to distract from the original proposal, which was greeted with widespread condemnation. It’s clear by the group’s new pro-charter board of directors that the goal remains the same—to rapidly expand unregulated charter schools at the expense of neighborhood schools. It is deeply irresponsible for this group to continue to pursue its agenda in light of the recent report that showed the unchecked growth of charter schools is having a devastating impact on funding for the schools that most LA students attend. We can’t let the majority of our schools starve so that a few privately run schools can do well.

“Instead of defunding and deregulating our neighborhood schools, we must invest in sustainable community schools that support student learning and address issues of access and equity. UTLA is working with parents and community members to fight for investment in schools. Our recent contract agreement makes significant strides for our students and our classrooms, sets a foundation for more improvements to public education in Los Angeles, and addresses equity for our highest-needs students.” — Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of UTLA 

 “As a product of the Los Angeles Public Schools, I was able to get a strong college preparatory education, attend college at 16 and graduate in four years. Today, with a college education more important than ever, every Los Angeles student deserves the same opportunity that I had. But not every school gives students the preparation they need for college admission and graduation that affords them the opportunities that a college education provides. That is why UNCF (the United Negro College Fund) supports Great Public Schools Now’s commitment to finding what works in public education and ensuring that college is attainable for every child in every neighborhood—not just some children in some neighborhoods. Because, as we say at UNCF, ‘A mind is a terrible thing to waste.’” — Michael Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund

“My take is that if it’s sincere, if they’re genuine about this collaboration, it’s definitely a step forward. I think the real question is going to be how it’s presented to the district, in the spirit of collaboration with the district rather than done to the district…. (Facilities is) where it gets really delicate because LA Unified has the buildings. What we need is a way to reasonably and equitably share facilities. Again, that requires a lot of sensitivity to how that’s done on both parts, both on the district’s part and whoever is leading this effort. Right now we have underutilized schools in many communities and charters in inadequate facilities.” — Pedro Noguera, professor of education at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies

“I don’t think that this is the plan. I think that it’s sort of a scaffolding and design. And I think that’s fine. I guess it’s reasonable for folks to kind of pull back and take time to develop a plan — what it will actually be and what it will actually look like. So I don’t feel that I can react to what was released today as if it were really a plan. I don’t think is. There was a moment in which I thought that this project really might be or could be kind of an all kids project or an all students project in Los Angeles. The scaffolding that was released today doesn’t have those indicators. And while it is not a charter exclusive plan, it raises a lot of concern about who will be included and who will be left out.” — LA Unified school board President Steve Zimmer 

“Inspiring opportunity to increase achievement, opportunity and learning for students and the adults who build support and services for them. Accelerating achievement is a goal very much aligned with LAUSD families and leadership. I very much appreciate GPSN leadership and experience in serving youth and transforming systems. GPSN is strengthened by champions for children and high commitment individuals who have been partners in the work of LA for several decades. Lastly, when talent, resources and urgency comes to assist LAUSD in addressing unmet need in extremely challenging environments, I am grateful that Superintendent King and so many leaders are embracing the opportunity to build the bridges towards success that lift our students out of poverty, marginalization and into their rightful place in creating solutions for our communities. The quest for educational justice has been a challenge since Mendez vs. Westminster in 1947. We have much work to do.” — LA Unified school board member Monica Garcia

“United Way of Greater LA looks forward to reading the full GPSN plan and identifying areas of alignment that grow successful education models within LAUSD. We believe external resources are vital to ameliorate the fiscal challenges facing the District and we continue to advocate for the equitable distribution of internal and external resources.” — Elmer Roldan, director of Education Programs and Policy at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

“I appreciated the plan’s recognition of the value of teachers and principals and the recognition that enrollment in teacher preparation programs is ‘rapidly declining.’ As I attended graduations over the last two weeks, I was struck by the hundreds of students crossing the stage due to their hard work and dedication and the hard work and dedication of their teachers and school staff. Teachers, principals, and school staff dedicate their professional lives to making the dreams of our youth a reality. They educate our children so that our children can live their dreams as writers, artists, doctors, nurses, engineers, scientists, etc. But something is clearly going wrong when people no longer want to be teachers and ’50 percent of new principals are not retained beyond their third year of leading.’

“I hope that GPSN’s efforts will focus not only on teacher and principal preparation but also getting our society to recognize the value of teachers and principals professionally and economically.

“As the School Board representative for both Pacoima and Panorama City, I welcome any efforts to truly acknowledge and assist the schools, students, parents, and communities in those areas. I suggest that GPSN transparently and openly reach out to the Neighborhood Councils and many highly active CBO’s in the areas and get to know what the community really wants via open and widely-publicized public forums.” — LA Unified school board member Monica Ratliff

“The charter community wants one thing above all else: high quality public schools. We support any effort to identify great schools, whether they are charter, magnet, pilot or any other type of public school, and help them flourish and expand in the neighborhoods that need them most.” — California Charter Schools Association

“Well, as your article noted, it has a dearth of details. Reading it from a philanthropic perspective, however, they telegraph pretty clearly who’ll be receiving funds. I gather that will be officially revealed on Thursday. I wish they’d shared what portion would likely go to each of their four categories. Any of the four could easily absorb the entire budget.

“I also hope that the open invitation to LAUSD by GPSN to collaborate isn’t met with a cold shoulder, because that’s not what would be best for children.” — Jim Blew, director of StudentsFirst California

Map of 10 neighborhoods where Great Public Schools Now will focus its efforts. (image taken from plan)

*UPDATED

A plan unveiled today by Great Public Schools Now identifies 10 low-income neighborhoods where the nonprofit will focus its efforts on expanding access to high-performing schools for kids close to where they live.

The neighborhoods were chosen after examining the performance of all LA Unified schools and independent public charter schools in the city and levels of poverty. Performance metrics for schools included 2013 API scores, last year’s Smarter Balanced Assessments and drop-out rates, according to the plan.

Poverty was measured based on the percentage of students who receive free and reduced-price meals as well as income levels of area residents, the plan states.

“The neighborhoods were selected because we looked at the areas of Los Angeles where there were some intersections of both a tremendous amount of need, both in terms of economic impact, but also the paucity of strong performing choices in those neighborhoods and looking at the opportunity we had to really make an impact there,” said GPSN Executive Director Myrna Castrejon.

In its analysis of data, GPSN identified “more than 160,000 low-income students and English language learners who are enrolled in schools whose performance is so dismal that 80 percent of students are learning below grade level.”

“It’s clear there are some very good schools in very low-income neighborhoods, which is our focus,” said Bill Siart, GPSN chairman. “We said, ‘How can we best help the communities in having more quality options.’

“We want to replicate good schools that have already proven to be good schools,” he added.

Siart said most people he hears from base their opinion of a “good school” on whether their students will graduate from high school and will be able to attend a four-year college.

LA School Report used data provided by GPSN of the schools in the 10 identified neighborhoods and compared 2014-15 graduation rate data reported to the California Department of Education for each high school within the identified neighborhood clusters. Below are some findings.

The 10 identified areas, which are actually clusters of neighborhoods in most cases and do not include all portions of the communities, but are rather “pockets of low opportunity” identified by GPSN, are also broken down into categories of need based on the number of students in public schools with a 2013 API of less than 750, which is a benchmark used by LA Unified to measure performance.

Category I: 20,000 to 30,000 students in schools that have an API of less than 750

Neighborhood: Boyle Heights/East LA
Total enrollment: 39,062
69 public schools, including 15 charter schools
20 high schools: 3 charters and 3 schools with “magnet” in their names
Graduation rates: Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School had the lowest graduation rate in the cluster at 71.8 percent, below the district’s average of 72.2 (287 graduated out of a cohort of 400 students), while all 77 seniors who attended the Math, Science & Technology Magnet Academy on the same campus of Roosevelt High graduated last year for a 100 percent graduation rate.

Neighborhood: South Gate
Total enrollment: 53,506
70 schools, including 13 charter schools
19 high schools, including 3 charter high schools
0 schools contain “magnet” in the name
Area includes portions of: Bell, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate and Walnut Park.
Graduation rates: Charter school Alliance Collins Family College-Ready High School in Huntington Park had the highest graduation rate in the cluster at 99.4 percent. Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics at Legacy High School Complex in South Gate had the lowest graduation rate in the cluster at 61.8 percent.

Neighborhood: Vermont Slauson
Total enrollment: 35,875
57 public schools, including 15 charter schools
17 high schools including 4 charter high schools
1 school with “magnet” in its name, a high school
Graduation rates: Five schools’ graduation rates were below the LA Unified average of 72.2. Augustus F. Hawkins High C Responsible Indigenous Social Entrepreneurship had the lowest graduation rate in the cluster at 58.3. The highest graduation rate was at View Park Preparatory Accelerated High, a charter school, at 95.4.

Neighborhood: Watts-Westmont
Total enrollment: 29,931
55 public schools, including 18 charters
15 high schools, including 8 charter high schools
0 schools with “magnet” in the name
Graduation rates: Middle College High had the highest graduation rate in the cluster at 99 percent: 96 of its 97 cohort students graduated. Alain Leroy Locke College Preparatory Academy, a charter school, had a low graduation rate of 61.6. Dorothy V. Johnson Community Day School had the lowest graduation rate in the cluster at 2.7 percent.

Category II: 15,000 to 19,999 students in schools that have an API of less than 750

Neighborhood: Pacoima
Total enrollment: 42,488
61 schools, including 14 charters
20 high schools, including 6 charters
1 school with “magnet” in its name
Area includes portions of: North Hollywood, Sun Valley, San Fernando, Sylmar and Pacoima.
Graduation rates: This cluster has high-performing charter schools in Partnerships to Uplift Communities high schools on the same campus in Sylmar. PUC Lakeview Charter High had a 97.6 graduation rate, and PUC Triumph Charter High had a 91.5 graduation rate. Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, a K-12 charter school in San Fernando, had a 91.5 graduation rate. Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academies Social Justice Humanitas Academy, a district-run Small Learning Communities high school in San Fernando, had a graduation rate of 90.4. Sun Valley High School had the lowest graduation rate in the cluster at 60.8.

Neighborhood: South L.A.
Total enrollment: 33,342
56 public schools, including 19 charters
18 high schools, including 9 charter high schools
0 schools with “magnet” in the name
Graduation rates: Alliance Patti and Peter Neuwirth Leadership Academy had the highest graduation rate in the cluster at 96.9. Early College Academy at LA Trade Tech had the lowest graduation rate at 38.9 percent, as 35 of 90 cohort students graduated from the program.

Neighborhood: Vermont Square
Total enrollment: 23,499
50 public schools, 20 charters
10 high schools, including 4 charters, one called California Collegiate Charter is opening this August
1 elementary school with “magnet” in its name
Graduation rates: In this cluster, two high school were high performing in terms of the rate of which their students graduated: Crenshaw Arts-Technology Charter High (97.3) and Foshay Learning Center, a K-12 school, (95.7). One school was above average, Manual Arts Senior High (78.6), and two schools were below average, Susan Miller Dorsey Senior High (69.6) and Marlton, a K-12 school, (40).

Neighborhood: Westlake-Pico Union
Total enrollment: 34,945
71 public schools, including 20 charters
23 high schools, including 7 charters
1 elementary school with “magnet” in its name
Graduation rates: Two schools with the highest graduation rates in the cluster were Central City Value (96) and Camino Nuevo High No. 2 (96.6), both charter schools. And two charters had the lowest graduation rates in the cluster, New Village Girls Academy (40.9) and Los Angeles Academy of Arts & Enterprise Charter (56.1).

Category III: less than 15,000 students who attend schools with an API of less than 750

Neighborhood: El Sereno
Total enrollment: 18,447
43 public schools, including 8 charter schools
11 high schools, including 4 charters
1 high school contains “magnet” in its name
Graduation rates: The high school with the highest graduation rate in the area was Alliance Marc & Eva Stern Math and Science, a charter school that ranked #599 in U.S. News and World Report national rankings and #100 in California high schools. Los Angeles Leadership Academy, an independent charter, had the lowest graduation rate in the area; 35 of 52 seniors graduated last year, a rate of 67.3.

Neighborhood: Panorama City
Total enrollment: 30,376
44 public schools, including 9 charters
9 high schools, 2 charter high schools
1 school contains “magnet” in its name
Area includes portions of: Arleta, Van Nuys, North Hills, Panorama City.
Graduation rates: CHAMPS Charter High School of the Arts-Multimedia and Performing had the highest graduation rate at 91.2. Van Nuys Senior High had a graduation rate of 85.7. No high school in the cluster had a graduation rate below the district’s average.

*This article has been updated to show that the neighborhood clusters identified by GPSN include portions of communities, not entire communities, and to add some additional graduation rates for schools.

A massive undertaking to increase access to high-quality education for tens of thousands of low-income students in Los Angeles was revealed today in a long-awaited plan by Great Public Schools Now, a well-funded nonprofit organization formed last year.

The goal is to expand access for 160,000 students GPSN has identified as attending failing schools in 10 low-income Los Angeles neighborhoods to successful schools it wants to help replicate or expand.

The neighborhoods are in South LA, East LA and the northeast San Fernando Valley, chosen because they have “chronically underperforming schools and few high-quality school choices for struggling families,” the plan states.

GPSN says it will provide funding and support to high-performing schools no matter what type of school — charter, traditional, pilot, magnet or partnership — so they can be replicated and expanded. It will also support proposed schools with the potential to be high quality.

The widening focus is a shift from an early plan leaked last year that was developed by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to expand charter schools in LA.

“This is a different kind of initiative, very different than has been attempted in Los Angeles before,” said Myrna Castrejon, GPSN’s executive director. “I am particularly excited about the opportunity to really work across sectors to really strengthen all of public education.”

The other notable change from the draft plan is the dearth of details. The new plan does not list a specific dollar amount the organization aims at raising, it does not give a timeframe for getting the 160,000 students at the struggling schools enrolled in successful ones, it does not list potential donors, and it does not name any specific school — charter, magnet or otherwise — as a model it wants to replicate.

Yolie Flores, a GPSN board member and former member of the LA Unified school board, said some more details will be released during a news conference on Thursday where several grant winners will be announced. But she also said the board is newly formed and still ironing out the details.

“I think you are going to hear some details on Thursday about the work,” she said. “Part of it is the board just came together. We have a lot of work to do to shape the plan. We want an opportunity to shape that plan.”

The strategy to fund the “whole school” rather than a specific program also represents a shift in education reform efforts in LA, so that all resources, and not just one program, within a school are aligned with the mission of student success.

Castrejon calls it the “within these four walls” strategy.

Myrna Castrejon, executive director of Great Public Schools Now

It “comes down to really healthy and robust school cultures that have the ability to envision what the work for kids will be, and have the sufficient, if you will, autonomy and responsibility and accountability to each other and to their community to be able to execute on that,” she said.

While the GPSN plan differs from last summer’s charter-focused plan, the success of independent charter schools in LA laid the foundation for the latest evolution of education reform in the city, several board members said.

Bill Siart, GPSN’s chairman, said the track record that some schools have had over the last decade in improving outcomes for students in low-income neighborhoods means that replicating success is now possible in a way that wasn’t before.

“The real key is this is different than most of the reform efforts that I’ve actually been involved with and seen,” said Siart, who is also chairman of ExED, a nonprofit that provides business and support services to charter schools. “Fortunately we have had enough time with a number of schools that we have really well performing schools in poor areas. Historically, frankly there wasn’t enough examples of that. But now it’s clearly possible and it’s not just one or two — it’s dozens.”

Castrejon said it is one lesson learned from charter schools that have developed strong school cultures where all resources within the school are aligned to a mission of student success. “What’s exciting about this is we have an opportunity to extend that theory of action, if you will, into the district,” she said. “I think that’s a major, major difference of how school reform efforts have taken shape in Los Angeles and something that will, hopefully, be able to orient our work to great impact at an accelerated pace.”

And there is a demand from parents for successful schools. In its report, GPSN said there are more than 40,000 students who are on waiting lists for charter schools and “thousands more” attempt to enroll in the district’s popular magnet school programs.

LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King said in a statement, “As I have said from the beginning, we are always looking for solutions that address the needs of all students. Any plan that looks to replicate high-quality public schools, including district schools, is one we look forward to hearing more about. In fact, the board recently voted to explore ways to create more high-quality district schools and to look for outside resources in doing so. This initiative seems consistent with that directive.”

Castrejon said she has already met with King two or three times and plans on more meetings this summer and fall to hash out the details of their work as it relates to district schools. She estimated the first results of some of the implementation will be seen in about a year.

GPSN also is revealing today the makeup of its seven-person board, all of whom boast decades of experience in education. In addition to Siart and Flores, who is also a senior fellow at the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, the board members are Gregory McGinity, executive director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation; Maria Casillas, founder of Families in Schools; Virgil Roberts, chairman of the board of Families in Schools; Marc Sternberg, K-12 education program director for the Walton Family Foundation, and Allison Keller, senior vice president and chief financial officer and executive director of the W.M. Keck Foundation.

LA School Report received a copy of the official plan in advance under the stipulation that it not share or discuss it. (Come back today for reactions to the plan from key players in Los Angeles education.)

Last summer’s early plan, published in the Los Angeles Times in August, outlined a bold initiative to fund a massive expansion of independent charter schools. It was very specific in its goal, which was to enroll half of all LA Unified’s students into charter schools within eight years by raising close to half a billion dollars. It listed specific donors it wanted to court and also listed specific charter organizations it held up as models to expand, including several large charter management organizations in LA Unified such as KIPP Public Charter Schools, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools and Green Dot Public Schools.

That plan was heavily criticized by UTLA, the LA teachers union, and several board members, including President Steve Zimmer and Scott Schmerelson, who characterized it as a plan that could bankrupt the district and wipe out the union due to the massive per-pupil funding the district could lose. The board also passed a unanimous resolution in January stating its opposition to the plan.

Independent charters are publicly financed but privately run schools that receive their funding directly, so every time a student leaves a traditional LA Unified school, state and federal funding follows the student. LA Unified already has 101,000 out of its roughly 650,000 students enrolled in independent charters, the most of any district in the country, and is facing major budget shortfalls in the coming years, in part due to a continued loss of enrollment to charters.

“This is not an all-kids plan or an all-kids strategy,” Zimmer told LA School Report in September. “It’s very explicitly a some-kids strategy, a strategy that some kids will have a better education at a publicly funded school that assumes that other kids will be injured by that opportunity.”

At the time of the early plan’s publication in the Times — several GPSN board member characterized its publication as a leak — it was still connected with the Broad Foundation, a major funder of charter schools in Los Angeles. Since then, GPSN was formed and took over the plan from the Broad Foundation and has been working to distance itself from the draft plan ever since. In November, GPSN announced its funding would not just be for charters, but also for district-run schools. Siart and several other board members also told LA School Report that no new members of the board had anything to do with the draft plan.

With the board made up of people connected to several major funders of charter schools, such as the Walton Family Foundation and the W.M. Keck Foundation, and the current plan not being detailed about how much money will go to charters vs. district schools, it is not clear if the official plan today will curb the criticism and skepticism last year’s draft received.

Siart and other board members repeatedly stressed that last year’s draft did not reflect GPSN’s current intentions. Siart also said members of GPSN had met with Superintendent King and she expressed support.

“We sat down with the new superintendent and conceptually talked about what we were trying to do, and about how this is better schools for kids, which she is supportive of. I don’t know how she couldn’t be supportive. And we said it’s not just for charters, which is what the other plan was focused on. It could be for magnets or traditional schools.”

King was promoted to superintendent in January after serving as deputy to the previous two superintendents, John Deasy and Ramon Cortines. In March, when asked at a town hall meeting about the district’s perceived bias toward charter schools, she said, “It is unfortunate we have labels, saying that this one is better than that one. It’s not us versus them.”

“I definitely think the fact that you’re hearing similar things from both of us is quite intentional,” Castrejon said. “It does represent a new way for the district to pursue amplifying the impact of what they’re doing. My conversation with the superintendent has been focused on talking generally about how do we see this playing out. Certainly the district’s interest in expanding the reach of magnets and other innovative programs that are delivering results for kids, we’re very much aligned in that.”

Although it wasn’t included in today’s released plan, Roberts said GPSN may also fund schools in the LA area that are not part of LA Unified, including Compton Unified and Inglewood Unified. Roberts also stressed that the plan is about funding all kinds of schools that are successful.

“We are taking a different approach now and saying our goal is to create schools for kids who have been underserved. And we will create those schools wherever we find them and whoever wants to make them work. So it’s not about expanding charter schools. The focus is on kids,” Roberts said.

The money for the schools the organization wants to replicate will fund four areas: community outreach and engagement, teacher preparation programs, securing adequate facilities and school replication grants.

Siart said GPSN is waiting until the fall when a possible accountability plan is released by the state, which will help GPSN define what the bar is for a successful school the group wants to help expand or replicate. He also explained that in order to receive grants, a school must have a proven track record of helping poor students achieve academic success and have a desire to expand or replicate its operations.

“The people running the charter or the magnet would have to want to replicate. If they are happy and satisfied with what they are doing we are very excited about that, but that’s not something we would fund,” Siart said.

The plan released today does not address the potential impact its expansion of quality schools may have on nearby traditional schools that are struggling. The plan calls on replicating good schools, not improving failing ones, but if those struggling schools lose enrollment to the expanded GPSN-funded schools, it seems a logical conclusion those schools could close or have to lay off staff, which would cost LA Unified budget money.

“That’s not an easy decision to make [about closing schools], and it’s premature to make right now,” Flores said. “Nobody deserves to be in a failing school. Not a teacher, not a principal, not a child, not a parent. So we ought to be proud that we are going to phase out failing schools and move into a quality school environment for every single student at LA Unified. And be thoughtful about what that means.

“We need to be very conscious of what does this mean for the infrastructure, what does this mean for the finalizing of the district and what does that mean for peoples’ jobs and livelihood? These are important questions that I’m not going to skirt under the table. I think we all have to do this together, but we should not condemn kids to falling schools because we care about those other things. We should care about those other things, but not at the expense of what children need to have a good education.”

Disclosure: LA School Report is the West Coast bureau of The74Million.org, which is funded in part by the Walton Family Foundation.

*Updated to correct Gregory McGinity’s title and to clarify that no new board members were involved in the draft plan. 

As part of demonstrations taking place at schools around LA Unified and in cities across the country, a group of roughly 100 protesters made up of parents, students, district leaders and politicians gathered outside Hamilton High School Wednesday morning to rally in support of public education.

“Every day at this school I’m exposed to someone with different experiences,” said senior class president Brittany Pedrosa. “The cultural diversity makes it so beautiful.”

Pedrosa’s fellow students talked about being at Hamilton with special needs, or in special programs like music, arts or Arabic language, with teachers and counselors who help them even after hours. They also talked about having class sizes of more than 40 students and not having enough resources. One student talked about coming over from Mexico at 6 years old with her sister.

Alex Caputo-Pearl

“I remember coming home from school with my sister surrounded by my uncles helping me with English homework. Those were the hardest years of my life,” said Jessica Garcia. “Now I will be the first in my family to go to college.”

Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the LA teachers union, UTLA, said that 40 cities throughout the country and 170 schools at LAUSD alone were participating in the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools demonstrations.

“I just got off the phone with the people in Chicago and this is happening all over the country where we are highlighting great programs in sustainable neighborhood community schools,” Caputo-Pearl said. “If billionaires want to be involved, they should not undermine programs, they should contribute their fair share in taxes.”

Caputo-Pearl was talking about the non-profit Great Public Schools Now program, which was started by the Broad Foundation and has announced a plan to expand the number of charter schools at LA Unified. Megan Baaske, representing Great Public Schools Now, was at Hamilton observing the event and handing media a statement saying, “Great Public Schools Now is an effort dedicated to expanding high-quality public schools, not privatizing them. We hope to work constructively with any group that shares our deep desire to improve education in Los Angeles, and we support all communities who are rallying for better schools.”

The statement added, “While we know that creating meaningful change for kids can be difficult, even controversial, we feel the urgency of bringing successful schools to neighborhoods still in need of better options. To accomplish that, we are looking forward to funding teachers and leaders to replicate what works and to support communities to demand that all schools move towards excellence. We are eager to have a thoughtful discussion about the future of education in Los Angeles without impugning the motives of those who disagree with us or resorting to ad hominem attacks.”

Pumping her first in the air and shouting, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said she was angry because “I heard people say that public education is failing. If I sound angry it is because I am fighting for solving the problems. Every school in America should have the resources and create the climate for what we have on these stairs right now.”

LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King, who worked for a decade at Hamilton, stood in the background of all the activity. Although she was mentioned during the speeches, she did not speak herself.

“I’m here to celebrate Hamilton and the great work going on here. I’m here to see the kids and the faculty,” King told LA School Report.

After the walk-in King went to greet the school’s band teacher, Stephen McDonough, and also gave a hug to the only female drummer in the marching band. King told her, “You stick in there, girl. I’m proud of you.”

Councilman Paul Koretz went to school at Hamilton

Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz spoke at the rally and said a long-retired teacher at the school, Wayne Johnson, was responsible for sparking his interest in politics.

“If it wasn’t for what he taught me, I wouldn’t be in office now,” Koretz said. “But having over 40 kids in a classroom is a little difficult and it could be made better.”

LA Unified school board President Steve Zimmer led the procession into the school with a marching band and the charge: “We walk in!” School board member George McKenna and Juan Flecha, president of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, were also among those walking in at Hamilton.

“We walk in for the future of public education and we know that any plan, any strategy to change public education must be about all students, not some students,” Zimmer said.

He added, “We walk against the hate we see spewed in the debates and the rhetoric about the children you just heard about our schools, about our teachers, we can overcome this by linking arms together like we are about to do and seeing great things that are happening in our public schools. Their dreams are our dreams. Their schools are our schools. Their future is our future.”

With that, the marching band, teachers, parents and students walked into the foyer of the school and gathered around a marble life-sized statue of Alexander Hamilton, for whom the school is named.

Zimmer told LA School Report afterward, “It was great to see the students speak for themselves about what they are getting out of this school, and the programs they are involved in, but also the improvements they can make. I was very proud of them.”

Shirley Ford

By Shirley Ford

I realized there was a problem as early as elementary school. I always knew that my boys were smart – they started reading me the newspaper in the evening when they were 6 years old – but they were clearly bored and not being challenged in school. Like so many young African-American boys, they were quickly labeled with alleged “learning disabilities” when they starting committing normal, minor infractions in class. At a young age, they started to become disengaged and apathetic about school.

I quickly started to become desperate. I knew that my sons needed a great education if they were going to be successful, and I realized it was my job to make that happen – nobody else was going to do it for me.

So over the next few years, I tried everything I could to get them into a better public school. When that didn’t work, I applied for financial aid at a local private school, but was denied.

As my sons started to make their way through middle school, falling further and further behind, I began to feel angry and hopeless. I began to blame myself – was I a bad mother? In my worst moments, I began to blame them. As high school began to approach, I was terrified of what would come next for them.

One day, I came home to find a flyer on my door that said something about a new “charter school” opening in our community. I had no idea what a charter school was, but I was out of good options, so I decided to go check out their upcoming meeting.

It was that standing room only meeting in the basement of a nearby church that changed my life and the lives of my sons forever. What we heard that night gave us new hope. The leaders of Green Dot Public Schools shared their vision for a school in our community that would help all children succeed and be prepared for college. They believed that with a great school, all kids could succeed, regardless of their income, race, or zip code. And they were going to prove it to us by opening a new high school for the kids in our community.

Over the next four years, I saw firsthand that Green Dot was serious about delivering on their promises. The way our high school supported my sons was the exact opposite of my prior experiences – our new school refused to let them fail. Every single one of their teachers believed in them – some teachers even came to my house and sat at our dining room table to help tutor my sons. College preparatory classes were the expectation for all students, rather than a privilege reserved for a select few. Parents were welcomed into the school to help solve problems rather than pushed away as a nuisance.

Eight years later, when I saw my oldest son walk across the stage and become the first in our family to graduate from college, I knew that the promises made in that church basement had been kept. That high school, Animo Inglewood, is now a California Distinguished School and has been featured twice on the US News and World Report list of Best High Schools in America.

As the conversation continues about the need for more quality schools here in Los Angeles and around the country, I think back often to that night in the church basement. Until a good charter school option came along, I was completely stuck, out of options for my sons. Wealthier families could afford private schools – we couldn’t. Wealthier families had the money to buy expensive houses in neighborhoods with better schools – we didn’t.

Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of the conversation around new quality options and the new Great Public Schools Now organization is completely disconnected from the reality faced by families in communities like mine. I cannot understand why some people are so dedicated to denying families like mine the simple ability to have a real choice between different public schools.

For the last 10 years, I’ve been working to support other families in their struggles for better schools. I co-founded the organization Parent Revolution and have worked here in Los Angeles and all over the country to improve schools by empowering families. There are still so many children being failed by low-performing schools that it makes me wonder whether black lives and brown lives really matter in our country. Many of the same schools that were failing kids in my neighborhood 20 years ago are still failing yet another generation of children today.

Fifteen years ago, I was blessed when a school flyer randomly landed at my door, but the educational destinies of children like mine shouldn’t depend on luck. To end that unjust status quo, we need two things. The first is a dramatic increase in quality options for families in low-income communities and communities of color. The second is to help all families have a greater awareness about their options and remove many of the barriers that currently prevent some families from accessing school choice.  That is why we at Parent Revolution recently launched our new Choice4LA campaign, aimed at supporting families in LA’s most underserved communities to understand all their options (traditional district, magnet and charter schools) and select the right school for their child.

And that is why we are supporting the families of 20th Street Elementary School as they use the Parent Empowerment law to finally win the major school improvements they have been fighting for over the past two years.

The lesson of my story is not that charter schools are right for every family, or that charter schools are always better than district schools. The point is that all families deserve to have good options for their kids – no matter the size of their bank account or the color of their skin. Families in low-income communities are desperate for better schools – we should be doing everything we can to get them better options rather than playing politics with the future of their children.

Shirley Ford is the co-founder and director of community partnerships for Parent Revolution

If members of the LA Unified school board agree on anything, it’s the financial threat posed by declining enrollment. The latest evidence: a 7-0 vote last week to oppose the Great Public Schools Now charter expansion plan.

But what to do about enrollment, which is falling about three percent a year, is another matter, the difficulties of which were revealed hours later when the members debated what to do with the long-closed Highlander campus in the western San Fernando Valley. The choices: approve a proposal from El Camino Charter Alliance to build a charter school to serve 525 students, as district staff was recommending, or spend upwards of $30 million in public funds to build a district school, as board member Scott Schmerelson was promoting.

With looming deficits and limited construction bond funds, Schmerelson’s vocal support for a traditional school sparked a vigorous debate that became a vivid illustration of how competing interests often spur conflicting approaches to problem solving. It also raised questions among the members about how to pay for such a large capital project: Some said they liked the idea as long as it doesn’t drain money from their board district, while others were willing to give up money from their district for the greater good of LA Unified.

After a lengthy discussion, a split board voted 4-3 to give the superintendent’s office a month to explain how a new school would be paid for, including what projects would be cancelled as a result.

The Highlander campus, along with three other closed schools in the western Valley, has been vacant for decades. El Camino’s leaders have been working on plans for three of the closed sites — and to pay for them without any money from LA Unified other than bond money specifically set aside for charter schools. The board in November denied El Camino’s request to develop one of the sites, Oso.

After working with El Camino as the preferred Highlander developer for nearly two years, the sudden push to keep the site as a district campus reflected how much the tone regarding charter schools has changed in a short period of time, largely in the face of the Great Public Schools Now plan to expand charters in the district.

The district has roughly $7.8 billion in available construction bond money but still needs $40 billion to repair or modernize existing campuses, with no active plans to build any new schools. The district has also already earmarked all available bond money for approved projects, LA Unified Chief Facilities Executive Mark Hovatter told the board, explaining that if the board were to move to build the new school it will need cancel other projects.

“Not from District 6, you’re not,” board member Mónica Ratliff said when interrupting him, referring to her own eastern Valley district.

Board member Mónica García threw her support behind building the school — as long as it didn’t drain anything from her District 2 in the East LA area.

“If you tell me this is District 3 money, you got no issue,” she said.

Complicating the issue is that Highlander is located in one of the district’s more affluent areas, while Garcia, Ratliff and other board members represent areas with neighborhoods far more economically challenged.

Board member Richard Vladovic represents Distict 7 in the San Pedro and Watts areas, which has some of the district’s  historically troubled high schools, including Fremont High and Jordan High. Still, Vladovic said if the project is good for LAUSD overall then it has his support.

“I believe in the whole district, and if I have to give up my money to increase enrollment, then I will give it up. The only way we re going to save LAUSD is to increase enrollment,” Vladovic said. “We’ve all agreed if we do not increase attendance, bad things are going to happen. We’re gong to go bankrupt or we’re going to break up the district. I’m convinced of that.”

Later, he added, “I’m just disappointed that everybody keeps saying ‘my district.’ So why don’t we just have seven separate districts and not have a unified district?”

George McKenna of District 1 in South LA and Ref Rodriguez of District 5’s Northeast LA also expressed a willingness to offer bond money earmarked for their districts to help get the new school built.

‘We have a responsibility to assist each other,” McKenna said. “We can’t be, ‘This is my money. Leave my money alone.'”

Even with postponing the measure, specific language in the resolution would not have yet allowed the Highlander campus to be developed by El Camino, as the lease details would need to be negotiated and approved later.

Board president Steve Zimmer stayed out of the larger debate of “local interests versus the greater good” but voted along with Schmerelson and McKenna not to postpone the Highlander vote.

“Just because [El Camino] won an RFP, that’s only step one in a five step process. It’s totally legitimate for us to deny this charter because the world has changed since they won the RFP,” Zimmer told LA School Report. “There isn’t a budget crisis; there’s new leadership at every level. That’s the world they’re entering at this particular point.”

UTLA members protest Great Public Schools Now’s charter expansion plan

The new executive director of Great Public Schools Now says a hostile LA Unified board resolution, angry union leaders or public opinion will not threaten the group’s goal to create successful schools, whoever’s in charge of them.

If anything, said Myrna Castrejón, the widespread opposition to her organization, its plans and founder, Eli Broad, are providing her a megaphone to “change the conversation” about public education in Los Angeles.

“Business as usual is not an option for anybody, charter schools included,” she told LA School Report, referring to district efforts to address the needs of under-performing schools. “It doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. We want to define success as students define success, through one successful school at a time.”

Castrejón, a former lobbyist for the California Charter Schools Association, comes to GPS Now at a time of heightened scrutiny, skepticism and outright animus from district officials and parents growing fearful of the financial impact of more charter schools in the district. They’re also not too crazy about any connection to Broad, a philanthropist who has investing heavily in education reform.

Officials of the teachers union, UTLA, have accused the group of attempting to “dismantle” public education in Los Angeles, and just this week, the school board went on record opposing the GPS Now plan, of which few details are actually known. Most criticism is directed toward an early draft, which said it wants to spend $490 million to open 260 new charter schools in the district. 

UTLA has been especially critical among the district’s labor partners, pointing to the number of jobs and programs that could be lost with every new independent charter within the district.

Castrejón said much of the early draft no longer reflects the organization’s goals, which, themselves, are a work in progress.

For one thing, she said, the group is not focusing solely on the creation of more charter schools, pointing out, “This is not a charter-only effort. We’re interested in replicating what works, replicating what’s successful in LAUSD.”

She also said one of her first priorities will be to meet with board members, the new superintendent, Michelle King, and the UTLA president, Alex Caputo-Pearl, to discuss ways the new group could be helpful to the district.

Shannon Haber, the district spokeswoman, said King “is open” to meeting with Castrejón.

“The opportunities to coalesce are there,” Castrejón said. “We are certainly planning to extend our goodwill to listen carefully and craft a path forward together. In the end, we’re all measured by our success, and if it’s a tough conversation, I’m fine with that, but I’m energized by the opportunity.”

In the weeks ahead, Castrejón said the focus of the group will be to create a board of a dozen or so beyond the current members — chairman Bill Siart and a seat reserved for a representative of the Broad Foundation — to finalize a mission statement and to start raising money.

As far as dealing with critics, the plan is to engage them as much as possible to the degree she can.

“I don’t worry about detractors or what people say can’t be done,” she said. “I’ve never organized my life that way, and this is no exception.”

Myrna Castrejón

Great Public Schools Now, the Broad foundation spinoff organization with plans expands charter schools in Los Angeles Unified, today named Myrna Castrejón as its first executive director.

Most recently a senior lobbyist and political strategist for the California Charter Schools Association, Castrejón will led the new group’s investment in “high-quality public schools” to reduce the number of children attending under-performing schools.

“I am excited to be part of Great Public Schools Now, and help shape its plans to ensure that every student has the option of a high-quality public school in his or her neighborhood,” Castrejón said in a statement. “I look forward to building a strong working relationship with our new Superintendent Michelle King at LAUSD, as we seek to improve education for all students throughout the District.”

Bill Siart, Chairman of Great Public Schools Now, said, “Myrna brings decades of experience in education to Great Public Schools Now, especially the ways that charter schools have helped to improve educational outcomes for students in need. She shares our sense of urgency in bringing more and better educational options to Los Angeles.”

The announcement of Castrejón’s hiring comes just two days after the LA Unified board passed a resolution denouncing the Great Public Schools Now plans to add more charter schools to a district that already has more than any other in the nation.

The expansion plan, first revealed six months by Eli Broad, has endured withering criticism from charter school opponents, including several members of the LA Unified board and union leaders, who fear additional charter schools would drive the district closer to bankruptcy by pulling away students from traditional district schools.

Most of a school district’s revenue derives from per-pupil spending from state and federal agencies.

As its mission was first revealed by Broad, Great Public Schools Now intended to open 260 new charter schools within eight years, the result of $490 million in planned investments.

Later, the mission was revised to investing in a variety of schools, including traditional district schools, to help improve academic performance across the district.

But no details have been announced. Nor has the group revealed progress in its fund-raising efforts.

Castrejón served with CCSA in various key leadership roles since its founding in late 2003, working on issues such as local advocacy, school development and achievement and performance management. Earlier, she worked for school reform efforts in El Paso and in Los Angeles as a consultant to the state-funded Urban Education Partnership/LAUSD where she helped to develop eight innovative early education service centers in high-need neighborhoods.

She also served as Vice President of School and Family Networks for the Los Angeles Alliance for Student  Achievement and the director for family engagement for the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project.

Scott Schmerelson

The LA Unified board today put itself on record as opposing a proposal that originated with the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to expand the number of charter schools in the district in the years ahead.

By a 7-0 vote, the board made it clear that it would do what it could to discourage the effort by the Broad-affiliated group, Great Public Schools Now, to grow what is already the largest charter school population of any school district in the country. At the same time, the board vowed to intensify efforts toward improving educational opportunities within traditional district schools as a way to discourage more students from moving into charters.

“We have thrown down the gauntlet to big business to be very careful with how they deal with LAUSD,” said Scott Schmerelson, whose resolution was also supported by all the district’s labor partners as well as many parents. “They will not take over our district.”

The vote followed a lengthy and sometimes passionate debate in which the board’s vice president, George McKenna, emerged as a surprise supporter of charter schools as an option to traditional schools. Rarely has any member, apart from Mónica García, expressed such unvarnished support for the role charters play in LA Unified.

It was McKenna who introduced the idea in debate that any school that educates a child is a valuable asset, saying, “I don’t care who saves my kids. Just save my kids.”

McKenna also had a kind word for Broad, saying he doesn’t consider the billionaire philanthropist “a villain.”

“We have not as a district admitted our culpability and our own ineffectiveness in dealing with our children,” McKenna said, adding, “What are we committed to, more than ‘Go. away, go away.’ I don’t believe in bogeymen.”

Underlying the board’s discomfort over the charter plan is the district’s slowly declining enrollment, a trend exacerbated by the appeal of charters to many parents. Even now, tens of thousands of LA Unified students are on charter school waitings lists. For months, the district has been struggling to develop ideas on how to stem the outflow.

In expressing support for Schmerelson’s measure, McKenna said, “I’m not anti-charter; I’m not for charters, either. I want to make our schools work, first, to make them competitive so we can compete on our terms.”

A spokesman for Great Public Schools Now said the group would have no response to passage of the resolution.

A major point within the debate was whether to keep the language general or to specify Broad as the originator of the plan that has roiled the district since it was introduced last summer. It was revised late last year to include support for some district schools as well as charters, in part as a response to harsh public reaction.

Mónica Ratliff wanted to insert Broad’s name but settled on the name of the plan. She said, “Eli Broad must know the impact on the district in the long run if that plan was to go forward. This plan was not created to strengthen LA Unified. I want that to be on the record.”

She added, “He’s a smart guy, that Eli Broad. He did not come up with this willy-nilly. There is public consternation with the plan, and it’s become a softer gentler plan and that did not happen without pubic speaking out in a lot of different areas.”

Ultimately, the board discussed various options and concluded to leave the wording that the board would “stand opposed to internal and external initiatives that seek to reduce public education in Los Angeles to an educational marketplace and our children to market shares, while not investing in district-wide programs and strategies that benefit every student whom we are sworn to serve.”

Prior to the debate, a parade of supporters and detractors made their sentiments known to the board members. A group of charter school employees expressed support during a morning meeting, and opponents, including the district’s labor partners, criticized the plan later in the day.

Richard Vladovic raised concerns about the ramifications of declining enrollment that the Broad plan would create. He had originally thought he was going to talk about how the district is too big and recommend making the district smaller, but said privately, “I didn’t think the board would be unified in this resolution.”

Board President Steve Zimmer said he appreciated the board’s coming together to give “a statement that fully recognizes the spectrum of lenses we have on this board.” He said, “I want to call to my own and all of our own higher angels today and moving forward.”

Zimmer said the board “needs to look at the models for of excellent schools across all sectors that have been identified and invest in all schools and if there’s philanthropic investment to make them excellent then why wouldn’t we encourage that?”

Earlier in the day, the board unanimously passed a Ratliff-sponsored resolution that called for making charter schools as transparent in providing information to parents as traditional schools are required.

Sarah Angel of the California Charter Schools Association said although she wasn’t thrilled with Ratliff’s resolution, there was more cooperation in working with Ratliff to refine her resolution than there had been with Schmerelson, who did not meet with the association in crafting his measure.

“These two resolutions are a contrast of public policy,” Angel told the board. She said Ratliff’s resolution “although not perfect, is not draining time and resources away from charter students. On the other hand, we had a different experience with Mr. Schmerelson. Myths and charter rhetoric made its way into the resolution and continues polarization and politics.”

After the vote, Angel added, “There is the sense right now that the school board is more open than before to seeking genuine solutions and common ground, hopefully without sacrificing urgency on behalf of families that need better schools. We’re hopeful that the loudest and most extreme voices on all sides will quiet down and give way to authentic, results-focused collaboration for students. Education should never be an ‘us versus them’ situation, and we all have the opportunity right now to find a third way.”

After three revisions, a resolution aimed at curtailing future charter school expansion in LA Unified is finally coming before the school board for a vote on Tuesday.

While the measure is largely symbolic in that it cannot change policy regarding charter growth — that is a state matter — it’s a way to open a “difficult conversation that is long overdue,” said its only sponsor, Scott Schmerelson.

General in scope, the resolution is an obvious response to the Broad Foundation-inspired plan, Great Public Schools Now, that is proposing a dramatic increase in the number of LA Unified charters over the next eight years. Schmerelson and other board members have characterized the plan as dangerous to the district’s traditional schools.

“As a retired, life-long LAUSD educator, I believe that I have a moral obligation to raise awareness and understanding of externally driven strategies that support the uncontrolled proliferation of charter schools at the expense of the District’s ability to adequately provide for the needs of all students, especially the most disadvantaged students who rely on public education,” Schmerelson told LA School Report.

As impassioned as the resolution may be, it’s effectively toothless in terms of changing how the district deals with charter applications and renewal requests that come before the board. State law creates the rules for charters, and it only provides for denials in the cases of questionable finances or managerial weakness.

In his review of the resolution, LA Unified’s chief legal counsel, David Holmquist, said as much: “It should be noted that any analysis done by the district on any charter school proposal needs to be in accordance with the provisions of the Education Code.” He added, “The Board should be cautioned against using any fiscal impact to the district and potential decrease in revenues as bases for denying a charter.”

That’s part of the problem, Schmerelson said, pointing to state regulations that restrict how the school board monitors, controls and approves charter schools. “We need to change state law and clarify ambiguous state and district guidelines that hamper our ability to act as responsible charter authorizers and exercise diligent oversight of existing charter schools,” he said.

Anita Landecker, interim executive director of Great Public Schools Now, said the resolution won’t impact the organization’s plan to press ahead.

“We remain focused on our goal of ensuring high quality educational options for children in underserved neighborhoods,” she said in an email to LA School Report. “Our plan will simply provide a roadmap for doing that. Our effort will not be materially impacted by motions like this, as the true work will be done by hard working educators who are simply trying to grow and expand their high quality schools.”

She added, “We look forward to working collaboratively with LAUSD, including the new superintendent, to achieve that goal.”

Schmerelson first introduced his “Excellent Public Education for Every Student” measure in November, and it was rewritten three times. Ultimately, he removed language that specifically asked the board to “oppose” the Broad plan, changing it to say the board “stands opposed to external initiatives that seek to reduce public education in Los Angeles to an educational marketplace and our children to market shares.”

He also re-inserted a request that the superintendent “analyze external proposals targeting LAUSD for their impact in terms of enrollment, fiscal viability and LAUSD’s ability to provide an outstanding public education” — a heady challenge to a new superintendent who could be named as early as next week.

Schmerelson also criticized the district for ignoring the issues posed by the Great Public Schools Now initiative.

“For too long,” he said, “the leadership of LAUSD has failed to acknowledge the collateral damage to the majority of our students when systematic, external agendas are being developed and well financed to weaken, and eventually destroy, LAUSD’s ability to provide a quality education for students who rely on our neighborhood schools and a wide range of district innovative programs and critical services.”

The resolution is up for a vote now after Schmerelson agreed to delay it at the request of board President Steve Zimmer, who has been pressing the board to concentrate on picking a new superintendent. In the meantime, charter advocacy groups declared the Schmerelson resolution unlawful and requested changes resulting in minor rewording such as “unregulated” charter schools to “under-regulated.”

The resolution, as now written, outlines nine points for the district with the goal to improve public education and to keep students in traditional schools. Those points include ensuring equitably-funded arts and music education, helping young students who “endure the disadvantages of poverty” and encouraging parent involvement in student achievement.

The only potential budget impact, according to LAUSD staff, could be the cost of the extra analysis that this resolution will lay on the new superintendent. Also, the budget could be impacted by “any litigation resulting from denying a petition on a basis that is not clearly based in law.”

Schmerelson said the conversation is something he wanted to have with fellow board members since he was elected last year.

“The purpose of my resolution is to begin to address the threat to the district’s ability to effectively serve all students in LAUSD,” he said. “I see my resolution as the beginning of a difficult conversation, that is long overdue, about the future viability of our mission and commitment to all students.”

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Applications for six new charter schools will come before the LA Unified school board at its meeting tomorrow, the biggest wave of requests since the Broad Foundation proposed a plan to expand the number of charter schools in LAUSD.

In addition, eight other charters are seeking renewals.

While the board will not vote on the new applications for at least another month, any public discussion on the requests could provide valuable insights into the board’s latest sentiments on charter expansion by an outside group and on more charters, in general. LA Unified is already home to more independent charter schools than any school district in the country.

The plan for rapid expansion in LA Unified is now in the hands of a Broad offshoot, Great Public Schools Now, which intends to raise $400 million to invest in new charters and high-performing public schools that serve low-income students.

The new charter requests come as opposition to the plan is building. The teacher’s union, UTLA, is asking members to protest at the meeting, and two anti-charter resolutions are under consideration, although in deference to the board’s need to spend more time on other issues while the superintendent search continues, they were postponed until the board’s January meeting. One seeks to oppose efforts to open charters at the expense of traditional district schools, an obvious response to GPSN; the other would create greater scrutiny of charters.

“I have no idea how the board will act,” said Caprice Young, CEO of Magnolia Public Schools, which has eight schools already in the district and is having a public hearing tomorrow to open three more. “I have kept my head down during this Broad plan so we’re not really involved in that.”

Young, who served on the school board, noted that it’s part of the responsibilities of the elected officials to make sure that new schools proposed in the district meet educational requirements. It’s also important that the rules are met evenly.

“It’s a good thing that the board looks closely when they are creating a school, and that scrutiny should be the same for all schools,” Young said, adding, “I am hoping that it will not mean that these applications will take more time. It always costs the charter schools more money the more time it takes.”

By board rules, as many as 12 public speakers can address each of the new applications. That could make for a long afternoon. But it also could open the door to telling remarks — critical or otherwise — from board members who will be facing even more applications in the years ahead if GPSN fulfills its mission.

Magnolia’s requests for for schools in the East and West San Fernando Valley and the West Adams area near downtown to supplement existing schools they have nearby. the others for Arts in Action Community Middle School and Center for Advanced Learning Middle School in south Los Angeles, a PUC International Preparatory Academy in Northeast Los Angeles and a WISH Academy High School in Westchester.

Among the schools seeking new charter petitions are two from LA’s Promise that are recommended for denial: LA’s Promise Charter High School and LA’s Promise Charter Middle School. The district’s charter school division said the proposals for the new schools had “met the needs of all students.”

* Clarifies number of schools applying for new charters. Also adds that two resolutions regarding charters were postponed until January.

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Bill Siart, chairman Great Public Schools Now
photo: CSU-Santa Barbara

Great Public Schools Now, the outside group seeking to expand the number of LA Unified schools serving students in high-poverty neighborhoods, has released a list of district schools — most of them charters — that represents “the kinds of schools” the organization intends to replicate in the years ahead.

The new group, an outgrowth of a plan from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, has identified 16 charters, 8 magnets and 4 traditional schools within the district that have more than 75 percent of students qualifying for free and reduced-price meals and more than 60 percent of students who meet or exceed standards for English Language Arts.

“These schools deliver the kind of high-quality education that Great Public Schools Now will seek to help replicate,” Bill Siart, chairman of Great Public Schools Now, said in a press release today. “It’s critical that we identify what is working in our education system, and seek to expand those successes. Through our effort, we will be targeting our resources to grow these kinds of proven models in specific areas of need.”

The plans of Great Public Schools Now, first revealed by the Broad foundation over the summer, has roiled LA Unified as few issues have before. It has left the community sharply divided between supporters of charter schools as a better option for students and charter opponents, who see the plan as a major threat for its potential to drain students and resources from an already financially-challenged district of more than 600,000 students.

The group is seeking to raise nearly half billion dollars in an effort that was originally aimed at creating 230 charter schools to serve half the district’s student population. Once the plan was formalized under the new organization, its leaders said the effort might not reach 203 schools but would include financial support for high-performing traditional schools in low-income areas.

At its monthly meeting tomorrow, the LA Unified board is scheduled to vote on a resolution from member Scott Schmerelson that would put the board on record as opposing “external initiatives” that serve anything less than the entire district.

In terms of deciding the criteria for whether a school has or could become high-quality, the group said it would base decisions on “multiple measures such as state assessments, graduation rates, and other metrics.”

The 28 schools cited as examples include several common elements, GPSN said in its release. They include evidence that the schools have demonstrated an ability to “provide all students with a high-quality education” and that because “multiple models” have succeeded, “Great Public Schools Now is considering how to invest in multiple types of public schools to expand the number of high-quality options for students throughout Greater Los Angeles.

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