At first it seems puzzling, that educators from all over the United States and other countries admire, tout and study the Lennox School District. It is, after all, a district whose students consistently perform poorly on state standardized tests.
Then there is Lennox itself, which does not seem a magnet for visitors. A port of entry for immigrants, Lennox has become a textbook example of a community in the grip of poverty, gangs and crime. Most of the children in the school system come from one-parent families. Some live in converted garages; others live in cars.
So what are educators studying that cannot be seen in Lennox's test scores?
It's the district's success in teaching children--who enter kindergarten speaking no English--to speak, read and write in both English and Spanish by the eighth grade. It is largely for that accomplishment that Lennox Supt. Kenneth L. Moffett was chosen National Superintendent of the Year in January.
Of the district's entering students, 92% speak only Spanish.
"The research is very solid," Moffett said recently. "If the kids have a good foundation in Spanish then they can be successful. If they have poor tools in Spanish, then they develop poor tools in English, and the youngster is handicapped all the way through."
The Lennox School District can give the students a good foundation in Spanish because about 70% of the teachers are bilingual--a higher percentage than any other district in the South Bay and one of the highest in the state.
The emphasis on speaking Spanish affects every aspect of education in Lennox, Moffett said. Students see role models speaking English and Spanish fluently, and the message to children is that the knowledge they acquired in their first language is worthwhile and useful.
And he added, the high percentage of bilingual personnel enables Spanish-speaking parents to more easily approach the school district or to help with their child's homework.
Another step that transformed the district was the implementation of a strict program of discipline. Every classroom displays a set of rules, consequences for violations and rewards for good behavior. Fights are rare.
Before Moffett instituted the program, fights were common. Discipline was uneven. One teacher might punish a student for chewing gum while another teacher would not.
Some teachers might separate a fight and send offenders to class while others would send them to the principal's office--an inconsistency that infuriated parents. Now every infraction of the rules is treated the same way.
"I haven't had a call from a parent about a disciplinary problem in five years," Moffett said.
Lennox fourth-graders have some of the lowest test scores in the state. But average test scores for students who finish eighth grade are only about 5% lower than the state average.
The gap is made up, Moffett said, because English literacy is the most important goal in the district, and he has hired people who agree that it should be. Teachers, aides, secretaries, custodians--all are on a clearly defined mission.
When Moffett became superintendent 16 years ago, all Spanish-speaking students were taught by aides, and only three teachers in the district were bilingual.
Moffett accomplished the 70% level of Spanish-English bilingualism in the district with a rigorous training program for teachers and a requirement that all newly hired employees speak Spanish.
Teachers who were not bilingual were encouraged to learn Spanish, and bilingual aides were encouraged to become teachers. In the last five years, 35% of teachers hired were once teaching assistants.
In addition, the district made a deal with UCLA and Loyola Marymount: The universities prepared district aides and teachers for bilingual and teacher certification at no cost, and Lennox trained the universities' student teachers in district classrooms.
"We have worked very hard to make the language in the schools reflective of our clientele," said Moffett, who is one of the few district employees who is not bilingual.
Lennox lies just east of Los Angeles International Airport and north of Hawthorne. The 1990 Census put the city's population at 22,757--about 19,400 of whom are Latino and 1,433 are black. The city also has small Filipino, Tongan and Vietnamese populations.
The Tongan population is beginning to grow and the school district may have to offer more extensive bilingual services in the next few years.
The state requires that students with limited proficiency in English be taught major subjects such as science, math and social studies in their primary language.
"The whole aim is for them to learn English, but while they're taking the five to seven years it takes to think academically in a second language, they're still learning (other subjects)," said Norman Gold, manager for bilingual compliance for the state Department of Education.
"It's not that teaching in the primary language is always the best answer for every child, but it's always the best starting point."
