Zacarias Gives Pep Talk on Better Schools

Extending in one hand a promise of help and in the other a demand for results, Los Angeles schools Supt. Ruben Zacarias assembled 100 principals Friday to kick-start his plan for improving the district’s poorest-scoring schools.

Principals leaving the three-hour, closed-door session said Zacarias offered some concrete aid, such as extra money to train inexperienced teachers and to hold class sessions after school and on Saturdays.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Zacarias confirmed those details, but continued to walk a tightrope on whether his goal of remaking the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 100 lowest-ranking schools would divert any resources from the rest of the district.

Zacarias made the “Focus on 100 Schools” a theme of his campaign earlier this year for the city’s top school post. In the two months since he was appointed by the Board of Education, speculation has focused on what measures he will use.

Pointing out that almost all the 100 schools receive federal anti-poverty funds, Zacarias said Friday that he will work with their principals to better focus the resources they already have.

He also said he will allocate extra funds for new textbooks, a promise he has made to all schools in the wake of a Times report documenting severe shortages.

Balancing his still-hazy offering of help was a clear expectation of school-by-school accountability.

“I am going to direct myself to the schools,” Zacarias said. “The local school site is the most important unit in the school district.”

Zacarias plans to meet personally with each principal by mid-October. He said he expects from each an analysis of why the scores are low, and a plan of action.

He said he wants them to examine test scores by classroom and even individual students to find out what is working and what isn’t.

“You have to be prescriptive,” he said, explaining that if one teacher’s performance is lower than others in the same grade level, he would demand to see that teacher’s annual performance reviews.

If they should turn out to consistently say the teacher “meets or exceeds” expectations, he said he would tell the principal, “I don’t blame the teacher. I blame you.”

Looking upbeat as they left the session at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, most of the principals said Zacarias’ opening pep talk had cleared the air of any feeling that they were being publicly humiliated for their schools’ low test scores.

“We’re going to improve,” said South Park Principal Karen Rose, whose school was ranked 77th among the worst. “They have a right to learn and we need to teach them. He’s going to help us and I’m happy.”

“It’s not punishment,” said another principal, who declined to give his name. “The focus is all on instruction, student achievement. We’re all in this together.”

The list of schools, which are predominantly in the city’s poorest neighborhoods, is based on a combination of student scores on national tests in English and Spanish.

Zacarias said he will work with those schools until they improve, and then go on to the next 100.

He declined, however, to set specific goals for the progress the schools should make on test scores.

He said Friday that he had an idea how much improvement he expects, but thought it would be unfair to publicly set a uniform goal for schools with differing problems.

“My point is that improvement in student achievement is priority,” he said.