Locke High School opened last week under new management, and things look strikingly different.
Students are wearing uniforms. Private security guards have joined staff security aides to keep students on the Watts campus -- and gang members out. Lunch is courtesy of a private caterer. Freshly planted olive and pepper trees line the quad.
Even the teachers are mostly new.
For the first time in the Los Angeles Unified School District, a traditional school is being run by an outside organization, Green Dot Public Schools. The move is a seminal experiment in whether a charter operator can transform a large, troubled urban school, whether Green Dot can replicate what it has done in small schools nearby -- that is, raise scores, increase safety and graduate more students.
About 1 in 9 Locke students scores proficient or better in English on state tests. In math, it's fewer than 1 in 25. And more students drop out than graduate.
The stakes are high for students, but also for Green Dot and the charter-school movement. Locke represents a major expansion for Green Dot and its success -- or failure -- will be watched by education reformers around the country.
"Locke is a full test of the charter model because the agreement with Green Dot is they will take all children in that attendance area," said L.A. schools Supt. David L. Brewer. "We expect they're going to have the same kids we have had there before."
In trying to boost test scores and graduation rates, Green Dot will wield flexibility uncommon in L.A. Unified. Charters are independently run, publicly financed schools. They are exempt from district union contracts and from some rules that govern traditional schools.
Green Dot can hire and fire principals at will, without finding other jobs for them, as L.A. Unified does. Teachers also work with fewer job protections. Like many charter companies, Green Dot typically employs a younger, less experienced and less expensive staff than L.A. Unified, which allows Green Dot to pay young teachers more while also helping to keep class sizes smaller.
Locke also will benefit from extra state funding for low-achieving schools as well as private philanthropy. An actor made an anonymous donation of more than $200,000 for the new, mature trees, which instantly gave the well-worn 40-year-old campus a more tended, artful feeling. Donations are paying, too, for $400,000 in other physical improvements.
