Students give primer on system's woes - Teens research some of L.A.'s most troubled schools and report to the mayor's team.
Educators and politicians who fret about Los Angeles' high school dropout crisis might want to heed the advice of 15-year-old Carla Hernandez: Hire more teachers who care. Slash overcrowded classrooms. Stop sending failing students to the next grade.
Hernandez and nearly two dozen other teenagers spent part of the summer studying several of the city's most troubled high schools with the guidance of a UCLA research program. On Friday, they delivered their findings to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's education advisors at City Hall.
Much of what the students found mirrors data reported by professional researchers -- namely, that half or more students at some schools drop out before graduation.
But Hernandez and her friends were able to articulate the crisis in the most personal terms, explaining, for example, how students lose interest in school because they don't get a chance to learn about their own heritage. Or how even the best students struggle to learn in unruly and overcrowded classrooms. Or how others give up and disappear when they fall behind in credits.
The young researchers painted a grim picture of the downward spiral that often haunts dropouts: They said 80% of California's prison population did not graduate from high school, a statistic that has appeared elsewhere in published reports. "You're all sitting here listening to the research, but if you don't do anything about it, then you're part of the problem," Hernandez, who researched Crenshaw High in South Los Angeles, told Deputy Mayor Ramon Cortines and other members of Villaraigosa's education team, which pledged to incorporate the students' ideas into plans for partnering with schools.
Hernandez and the other students from Los Angeles-area high schools conducted their research through UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.
During the five-week program that included classes at UCLA, the teenage investigators conducted surveys and interviewed students, teachers and administrators at several Los Angeles schools, including Locke High near Watts and Wilson High in El Sereno. They also spoke to Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. David L. Brewer and school board President Monica Garcia.
Two of the groups explored Crenshaw High and Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights, two campuses now under consideration by Villaraigosa as he prepares to announce a partnership with the district later this month that will allow him to play a role in running some schools.
