Michelle King visits Luther Burbank Middle School.

LA Unified is wasting no time in getting students with poor or failing marks into its online credit recovery program at the start of the new school year.

A district communications representative confirmed that credit recovery began right away for any student who earned a D or F in a course now being offered through the program.

Last school year, the district did not begin offering the courses until October or November, depending on the local district, but this year it is enrolling students right away in the makeup courses. The program has proven successful in boosting the graduation rate, but the value of those diplomas has been questioned by some academic experts and editorial pages.

Last year, the district was facing a huge drop-off in its graduation rate due to the school board raising the bar for what is required. For the first time, seniors had to complete and pass all of their A though G courses, which are required for acceptance into California’s public universities. LA Unified allows students to earn D’s in the courses and still qualify to graduate, although C’s are required by the universities.

The district was ill-prepared for the new requirements and entered the 2015-16 school year with only 49 percent of its seniors on pace to graduate. But it was also the first year the district implemented a wide-scale online credit recovery program, which along with some other traditional programs was part of a $15 million effort to help seniors graduate on time. After enrolling thousands of students in the courses — which took place in classrooms in front of computers after school, during free periods, over summer school or during winter and spring break — LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King announced earlier this month the projected graduation rate for 2015-16 was 75 percent, a new record.

The district has yet to disclose how many seniors graduated due to at least one online credit recovery course, but some are saying the way the record was achieved is questionable. A recent Los Angeles Times editorial criticized the graduation rate as “not quite as remarkable as it appears” due to the apparent ease with which some students are able to complete the online courses.

Academics are also beginning to question the online courses and the high number of graduates they are helping produce. “It looks very fishy,” Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an editor of Education Next and research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, told LA School Report in February.

Still, LA Unified is marching forward with its online efforts, and another $15 million has been set aside by the school board this fiscal year for credit recovery. At total of $400,000 of that is going to a company called Edgenuity that provides online courses.

Last year, LA Unified’s Chief Academic Officer Frances Gipson said that California’s public universities had approved the online credit recovery courses provided by Edgenuity and others as acceptable for admission. University of California spokeswoman Claire Doan said recently that the university system has reviewed Edgenuity’s online credit recovery courses offered by LA Unified. She declined to say whether any changes have resulted from the review.

She said there will be no change to the admission status of the students who have been accepted to UC schools starting this fall.

For its fall 2015 class of freshmen, UC schools admitted 2,659 students who attended public high schools in Los Angeles. Those numbers do not include LA Unified high schools outside of Los Angeles, like Bell High School. It does include charter schools in Los Angeles.

In the fall of 2015, 1,504 students from Los Angeles public high schools enrolled in UC schools. Data is not available for this fall. You can search for your own school here.

“UC reviews California high school courses — classroom-based and online — according to ‘A-G’ course criteria determined by UC faculty,” Doan said in a statement. “UC only approves courses that meet those criteria. We rely on educators and administrators throughout the state to uphold the standards and rigor of those approved courses.”

Cal State University spokeswoman Toni Molle said CSU is not investigating Edgenuity courses. The university does “routinely monitor the Edgenuity site,” she said.

UC approves A-G course eligibility for both the UC and CSU systems.

Some LA Unified independent charter schools are also using credit recovery. One high school has alerted parents by automated phone calls that credit recovery will start at the campus Sept. 1, and any student who had earned a D or an F in an English, math or history class is eligible to take the online makeup courses. The classes are limited, it stated, and seniors would get first priority.

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”.

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

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.