And furthermore, The goose is good for the gander….if certain areas have lower achievers and the parents aren’t helping their children, it is not always the teachers faults. 

I was an art teacher for many years.  I began to see that the present generation is not instilling enough discipline in their children.  Creativity even requires discipline..someting that famous art teachers taught me once, when I too was a product of a family in East L.A. that neglected me.

As I got help from Chicano program to attend college even though my scores were low, I took it upon myself to finally get organized and study.  I had good enough teachers.  I didn’t expect them to hold my hand and sing sweet nothings. 

These groups and the Board of Education and the administration all know that blaming the teachers is just a scape goat for their true agendas…yes THEY WANT TO BRING IN CERTAIN AGENDAS….WE WILL VOTE YOU OUT JUST WAIT AND SEE YOU FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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* Animo Pat Brown Charter High School: 753 (again, this is the only Green Dot school that is not “failing,” by Parent Revolution’s standard. All the schools below on this list are “failing” by that standard.)
* Animo Venice Charter High School: 729
* Oscar de la Hoya Animo Charter High School: 710
* Animo Film and Theater Arts Charter High School: 707
* Animo Inglewood Charter High School: 703
* Animo South Los Angeles Charter High School: 692
* Animo Leadership Charter High School: 688
* Animo Jackie Robinson Charter High School: 634
* Animo Ralph Bunche Charter High School: 629
* Animo Locke Tech Charter High School: 588
* Animo Locke Charter High School #2: 572
* Animo Justice Charter High School: 556
* Animo Watts #2 Charter High School: 534
* Animo Locke Charter High School #2: 504
* Animo Locke Charter High School #1: 480

*For the uninitiated: The API is a compilation of the school’s state standardized test scores, on a 200-1000 scale, with 1000 being the highest. A score above 800 is considered excellent.

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Here are some numbers the recent APIs based on spring 2009 testing.

– Average API of all Green Dot’s schools (15 total, counting several small schools on one campus, Locke High in Watts): 632 (rounded up to the nearest whole)

– Average API of the “failing” schools Parent Revolution is targeting with parent trigger campaigns: 670 (rounded down to the nearest whole)

APIs for the schools Parent Revolution is targeting with parent trigger campaigns:

Garfield High School (parent trigger petition campaign successful): 594
Mark Twain Middle School (parent trigger petition campaign successful): 657
Emerson Middle School (petition campaign under way): 709
Mount Gleason Middle School (petition campaign under way): 744
Peary Middle School (petition campaign under way): 647

Well, as we can see, by Austin’s definition, an API of 744 or below constitutes a “failing” school. So that makes it a little eye-catching that only one Green Dot school, Animo Pat Brown Charter High School, achieved an API above 744 in 2009, at 753. By Parent Revolution’s own definition, Green Dot’s other 14 schools are “failing.”

* Of the schools targeted by Parent Revolution’s parent trigger campaigns, only Garfield High (API 594) has an API below Green Dot’s average (632). And six of Green Dot’s 15 schools have APIs lower than Garfield’s.

* Eight of Green Dot’s 15 schools have APIs lower than successfully targeted Mark Twain Middle School’s 657.

* Eight of Green Dot’s 15 schools have APIs lower than targeted Peary Middle School’s 647.

* Twelve of Green Dot’s 15 schools have APIs lower than targeted Emerson Middle School’s 709 (and of the three that outperform Emerson, one of them, Oscar de la Hoya Animo Charter High School, has only one point on Emerson, at 710).

* As noted, 14 of Green Dot’s 15 schools have APIs lower than targeted Mount Gleason Middle School (API 744).

I’ll share one other view Austin expressed when we discussed this by e-mail. He pointed out, in response to my citing APIs, that demographics impact test scores.

Well, yes, but that’s exactly the kind of disclaimer that education reform advocates disdain as “excuse-making” when it’s used about public schools. “No excuses” for the goose is “no excuses” for the gander.

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In Los Angeles, the astroturf (fake grassroots) organization Parent Revolution has been working to get petitions signed to dismantle five schools. (Parent Revolution is actually a group of charter operators.) Parent Revolution organizer Ben Austin (a paid employee) told me, in a private e-mail, that Parent Revolution was only targeting “failing schools.”

Well, by Parent Revolution’s definition, 14 out of 15 Green Dot Schools are failing.

Since I’m not sure if there’s a length limit on these posts, I’ll put test scores to back this up on the next post.

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And putting one in for the authorizers, inability to close failing schools is not an authorizer problem, it’s politically next to impossible to close even bad schools. Until the state has clear laws that require closure of charters and traditional public schools with similar schools ranks below a certain point (4 in my opinion), then we should stop blaming elected boards for not doing what the state legislature has not been able to do.

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