A venerable, ailing school got the official word this week on a long-awaited cure to its high dropout rate and low test scores: Crenshaw High will fix itself.
That is the reform concept approved by parents and teachers at Crenshaw and also at Westchester High when they voted their schools into the new Innovation Division of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
For both schools, the elections, which took place last week, signify a watershed moment. Crenshaw, south of Leimert Park, was traditionally a successful flagship school for African Americans, but today its woes echo the struggles of the surrounding community. Westchester, near Los Angeles International Airport, hasn't slipped as far, but there has long been a sense of alienation between the school -- abandoned by most of the middle class -- and nearby neighborhoods. Both schools have sharply declining enrollments.
Plans call for the district bureaucracy to cede far-reaching control over budget and curriculum to each school's leadership team of administrators, teachers, parents, older students and community members. The Crenshaw effort is to be guided by the Urban League and the Bradley Foundation, two community-based nonprofit groups, and USC. Westchester is to join with Loyola Marymount University, which is nearby.
"We fully expect great things," said Supt. David L. Brewer, after a celebration rally at Westchester. "A major reform piece is coming into place."
For Brewer, in his second year on the job, the 7-month-old Innovation Division represents both a major reform thrust and an answer to critics who accuse him of accomplishing little.
Last month, six of seven other schools voted to join a similar reform partnership led by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Skeptics abound regarding this approach to improving schools.
"Innovation is good," said former school board member David Tokofsky, "but it might be less expensive and less time-consuming to duplicate and triplicate some of the great schools already in L.A. Unified." He specified, among others, the Open Charter Magnet School, north of LAX, and the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies.
Other critics have focused on a bumpy election process or the minimal parent turnout -- about 6% at Westchester, about 5% at Crenshaw. UCLA professor William Ouchi is among those who worry about diffuse lines of authority. He favors a New York City-style approach that invests local control in the principal, then holds that school leader accountable.
