Green Dot Public Schools

"Sometimes they don't see how things are." -- Handwritten student posting on a bulletin board at Locke High School, explaining why the media don't always tell the truth about inner-city schools It requires a second or even a third look at Locke High School to discern the changes this fall, one year after it was taken over by charter operator Green Dot Public Schools. The uniforms are still an ensemble of chinos and polo shirts. The teenagers still gather in the quad for lunch.

Students at Locke High School are faring better than their peers in nearby traditional schools, but achievement overall remains low at the charter-managed campus near Watts, according to a new study. Still, the Locke students were more likely to graduate and to have taken courses needed to apply to a four-year state college, according to the UCLA-based National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. The ongoing research has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Students at Locke High School are faring better than their peers in nearby traditional schools, but achievement overall remains low at the charter-managed campus near Watts, according to a new study. Still, the Locke students were more likely to graduate and to have taken courses needed to apply to a four-year state college, according to the UCLA-based National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. The ongoing research has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The two dozen or so men who gathered for breakfast at the Watts Coffee House fondly recalled their days as pioneers of a brand-new high school in a blossoming neighborhood some 40 years ago. They reminisced about their teachers and principals who were invested in building not just a school but a legacy and a point of pride in Watts in the wake of the 1965 riots. And they talked about the music and the politics that shaped them as they came of age as young black men in such a seminal time.

Over the last decade, a quiet revolution took root in the nation's second-largest school district. Fueled by money and emboldened by clout from some of the city's most powerful figures, charter schools began a period of explosive growth that has challenged the status quo in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Today, Los Angeles is home to more than 160 charter schools, far more than any other U.S. city. Charter enrollment is up nearly 19% this year from last, while enrollment in traditional L.A. public schools is down.

Green Dot Public Schools, a leading charter school operator, is shutting down a campus because of low enrollment, financial pressures and subpar performance, officials confirmed Monday. The action prompted a daylong student protest Monday at Animo Justice Charter High School, south of downtown Los Angeles. The closure marks a first for locally based and nationally recognized Green Dot, which has 19 area campuses and one in New York City. The nonprofit Green Dot opened five independently run, publicly funded charters, including Animo Justice, four years ago, near long-struggling Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles.

In the instant of a job change, Joshua Cook went from being one of the youngest teachers at Crenshaw High , a traditional school in Hyde Park, to nearly the oldest at Animo Justice , a charter school south of downtown Los Angeles. He was 32, with two years of teaching experience. Three years later, he had another distinction: He became one of the astonishingly large numbers of teachers who left a Los Angeles charter school. Around 50% of teachers in charter middle and high schools left their jobs each year over a six-year period studied by UC Berkeley researchers, who released their findings last week.

Professional boxer Oscar De La Hoya has agreed to donate $3.5 million to help fund a school named after him, as well as several other campuses, Green Dot Public Schools announced Wednesday. Green Dot is building the Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter High School near downtown. It is scheduled to be completed next year. The gift is the fifth-largest that the organization has received. -- Jason Song

Local charter school founder Steve Barr, a national figure in school reform, has repaid his organization more than $50,000 after an internal review determined that expenses he had charged were undocumented or unjustified. FOR THE RECORD: Green Dot: An article in Wednesday's Section A about Green Dot Public Schools founder Steve Barr repaying his charter school organization more than $50,000 in expenses said the issue had surfaced in a post by education blogger Alexander Russo.

Re "Shaping up -- no thanks to LAUSD," column, July 23 I am pleased to see Steve Lopez recognize Green Dot Public Schools for the positive work it's doing at Locke High School. I'd hoped that in sharing my teaching experiences with Lopez, I could highlight the changes in culture and expectations already sweeping through the campus. In doing so, though, I never meant to suggest that misbehaving students were "thugs." The label shifts responsibility away from Locke's old administration.

In the instant of a job change, Joshua Cook went from being one of the youngest teachers at Crenshaw High , a traditional school in Hyde Park, to nearly the oldest at Animo Justice , a charter school south of downtown Los Angeles. He was 32, with two years of teaching experience. Three years later, he had another distinction: He became one of the astonishingly large numbers of teachers who left a Los Angeles charter school. Around 50% of teachers in charter middle and high schools left their jobs each year over a six-year period studied by UC Berkeley researchers, who released their findings last week.

Three years ago, the last graduating class of the "old" Locke High School listened to a commencement speaker whose main thrust was that only a small number of students had made it to that point. Odd words at most graduation ceremonies, but appropriate at Locke. Under the management of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the number of graduates at this public school in Watts was regularly a fraction of the number of students who had started out as ninth-graders. The class of 2008 started with 1,451 freshmen, according to the state's education database . Only 595 made it to their sophomore year.

A hasty legal maneuver by top Los Angeles school officials will not fend off a legal challenge of their decision to turn over low-performing Clay Middle School to a charter-school organization, The Times has learned. To undermine a lawsuit filed last week, the Board of Education, at Tuesday's meeting, had voted to close Clay, which is located in South Los Angeles. The plan is to then open a new school, with the same students, on the Clay campus under the direction of Green Dot Public Schools.

Major charter-school organizations won the right Tuesday to operate at seven of 13 schools under a policy that allows bidders inside and outside the Los Angeles Unified School District to take control of new and academically struggling campuses. Charter schools got most of what they wanted by the end of a 51/2-hour meeting in which the Board of Education divvied up or relinquished 10 new campuses, including seven new high schools, and three low-performing schools. About 20,000 students will be attending those schools next year.

Ordinarily, we'd rail against a decision by the Los Angeles Unified School District to hand over a school to outside operators without a vote of the teachers, without consulting parents, without an open discussion or an opportunity for existing staff to offer a competing proposal. But Jordan High School's record isn't ordinary. The school performs so poorly that only 2% of its students are proficient in math; the picture for English isn't much better. According to school officials, Jordan will be split into three separate entities, each run by an outside group: Green Dot Public Schools, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.

Los Angeles school district leaders announced Wednesday that they will split low-performing Jordan High School into three small schools that will be run by outside groups. All current employees will have to reapply for their jobs or work elsewhere. It marks the second time the Los Angeles Unified School District has targeted a campus for such a forced makeover. Fremont High School, located in Florence south of downtown, was also "restructured" last year, a move that drew fierce criticism from the teachers union and resulted in the departure of most teachers.

Three years ago, the last graduating class of the "old" Locke High School listened to a commencement speaker whose main thrust was that only a small number of students had made it to that point. Odd words at most graduation ceremonies, but appropriate at Locke. Under the management of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the number of graduates at this public school in Watts was regularly a fraction of the number of students who had started out as ninth-graders. The class of 2008 started with 1,451 freshmen, according to the state's education database . Only 595 made it to their sophomore year.

The principal of one of Los Angeles' most troubled high schools lashed out at the city school system Thursday, saying the behemoth organization is resistant to dramatic reforms needed at his campus and other low-performing schools. "It is criminal to allow a school to continue on year after year, the way this one has," said Frank Wells, head of Locke High School in South Los Angeles. "I went to Locke thinking I could turn it around, but I ran into a brick wall."

The nation's second-largest school system is once again inviting bidders to take over poorly performing and new campuses, in a school-control process that is, once again, pitting teachers and their union against independently operated charter schools, most of which are nonunion. Teachers working for the Los Angeles Unified School District put in bids for every school. And charters are vying for all but one. At stake is the education of more than 35,000 students who will attend those schools.

The mayor of Los Angeles sided publicly with local charter schools Thursday in their latest bid to take over new and low-performing campuses, while sharply criticizing the L.A. schools superintendent, his onetime deputy. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke one week before a deadline for applicants to submit bids for nine new campuses and eight low-performing ones in the Los Angeles Unified School District. In the first round of the groundbreaking competition, groups of teachers in February defied early expectations to claim the vast majority of campuses.