The Los Angeles Unified School District overflows with bad news. The second largest school district in the country has a graduation rate of a mere 72 percent, 8 percent lower than the state average. Thirty-two of the city’s worst performing schools were essentially auctioned off to rebuild as charters. The school board and teachers’ union voted to shorten the school year, cutting five days from this year.

A team of Neon Tommy reporters decided to visit campuses across Los Angeles to see how well the reports match what happens in classrooms on any given day.

Arlington Heights Elementary
Community Magnet
Hyde Park Elementary
Lincoln High School
Millikan Middle School
Nimitiz Middle School

It was 9:01 a.m. and on 59th Street and Vermont Avenue little minds were at work inside John Muir Middle School. On the second floor of the main building, the halls were empty. Open classroom doors spanned the long hallway parallel to Vermont Avenue only 50 yards away. Marble-textured blue and gray linoleum was littered throughout the largely white tiles. The dusty yellow lockers stretched across both sides. The glossy white paint could have used a new coat, but it was a warming sign of life seeing writing and handprints on the wall in an otherwise deserted corridor. A technicolor handrail displayed the names and initials of students brave enough to risk detention to become immortalized. And a low chatter could be heard from the hallway as students were learning in classrooms. “All right, one more minute,” a teacher said to her students in one of the classrooms.

Down below, as if in a basement, Principal Miranda L. Ra’oof worked feverishly on a grant for her school. She and her colleagues had just been given word that the grant was due by noon the next day. Under her direction, the school was applying for a $500,000 grant to conduct a summer intervention program. The deadline had been sprung on her that morning.

But the principal had calmly granted me access to the school for my reporting. She had even gone so far as announcing my arrival over the school speakers, I was told by teachers. She instructed them to welcome me and answer any questions.

***

¨Switch.”

It’s the only word Teresita Domineck needed to say to her students in the music and keyboarding class. According to the schedule, at 9:29 a.m., it breaks the library-like silence of the room neither a moment too soon nor a moment too late.

About 25 students rotated between the three stations in the room: theory, keyboards and computers. The switch happened rapidly; the students are always wearing their backpacks.

At the theory table, students sat quietly around a large circular table and studied history, style, performers, composers, music notation and instruments. At the keyboard stations, another circular table, a third of the students were to be practicing their performances. Wearing headphones, they play in solitary. And at the computer stations against the northern wall they surfed online for the music related sites.

Domineck was proud of her students and would volunteer them to perform for their unexpected guest. She assured me she picked the students at random.

“They learn to read music as well as play or improvise,” said Domineck.

All three grades mixed for this elective. The course was highly structured and students were expected to journal every class on how they met the “California standard” that day.

Every five weeks, students evaluate themselves and the course. They give themselves a grade and make suggestions for what they’d like to see in the next five weeks.

“It’s transparent,” said Domineck said about their self-evaluations. “They’re pretty honest.”

“You have to be flexible. You have to give them the ability to feel not stifled and that they can grow.” She added, “So I find I need to get their input.”

***

Tyson Evans’ physical science class just wrapped up a unit on chemical structures and getting ready to start the next unit on chemical reactions. But this day in Room 41 of the Diego Rivera Multimedia Center was a bit different. They spent the period learning astronomy instead.

What does astronomy have to do with chemistry to fit between the two chemistry units? Nothing. But in May students will be taking the California Standards Test, or CST, that reviews all the year’s lessons.

“Astronomy is one of those things where they have a little bit of knowledge but we don’t cover it until the very end of the year,” said Evans in an interview. “But they get tested on it in May. So we try and drop a video here and there or do a mini-lesson in between lessons.”

Evans presented an old film on the solar system from his laptop through a projector. He stopped the film often to expand on the video and keep students engaged. The students sat four to a table with their backpacks on as if ready to evacuate at a moments notice.

In class Evans announced that for the rest of the year, in addition to the normal course work, students would spend some time each day reviewing practice questions for the science CST.

In a “little honesty check” Evans asked students to respond to how diligently they answer the standardized tests.

“How many of you, halfway through, get tired of taking the test and just look at the first answer that looks right but don’t really think about it?” asked Evans.

Twenty-two of the 25 students raised their hands.

Evans asked more questions like this and students raised and lowered their hands indicating their experiences with the tests.

“This is the one year you guys need to take it seriously,” said Evans after he explained this was the first year the students’ CST would not only cover English and math, but science as well.

Many students admitted to having “crazy” advisory periods. An advisory period is a shorter period where student and teachers communicate administrative matters. The standardized tests are issued through students’ advisory sections.

The environment in advisory can have a lot to do with the test results, explained Evans. In an interview he recounted the story of a great student he had last year. “But she hated her advisory teacher,” and purposefully performed poorly on the exit exam. “She thought it was a great way to get back at them,” Evans said. “[The students] don’t realize it doesn’t do any damage to [the teachers].”

***

“You can spend a whole lot of time arguing with the child about not bringing supplies or you can teach them,” Title I coordinator Shelia Kaye Diaz said in an interview. “It’s much wiser to not argue over unimportant stuff.”

Seventy-six percent of the students are eligible for Title I funds, said Diaz.

Differing academic levels among students creates an added challenge for teachers and administrators. Muir Middle School has a 28.75 percent transiency rate meaning there is a constant flow of incoming and outgoing students every month. In 2004-05, it was 44 percent.

“It’s very high,” said English learners coordinator Silva Kilpatrich. “You would start the year with a class of 25 kids in one period and at the end of the year you would have a whole new class almost.”

***

Muir expects to lose more than 500 students to the Barack Obama Global Preparatory Academy (set to open next fall) and redistricting. That means it will lose personnel too. Ra’oof is working hard to make sure she is ready to guide the school with fewer resources and human capital. In addition to working on her Ph.D., Ra’oof is training for the changes next fall at California State University, Northridge.

To read the rest of this series, click here.

To reach Albert Sabaté, click here.