Green Dot Public Schools

Southern California schools have been shut out of a high-profile federal grant competition, according to results announced Tuesday. The one regional finalist for the latest round of Race to the Top grants was a charter school organization, Green Dot Public Schools, that could have received $30 million. But its bid fell just short. The charter's proposal included expanding student wellness centers to provide social, physical and mental health services in support of academics; purchasing new technology, including tablet computers; and instituting a system to track and support high school graduates in college.

Southern California schools have been shut out of a high-profile federal grant competition, according to results announced Tuesday. The one regional finalist for the latest round of Race to the Top grants was a charter school organization, Green Dot Public Schools, that could have received $30 million. But its bid fell just short. The charter's proposal included expanding student wellness centers to provide social, physical and mental health services in support of academics; purchasing new technology, including tablet computers; and instituting a system to track and support high school graduates in college.

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.

A teacher at the center of a dispute at a well-known charter school has launched a novel defense to save his job and that of a fired colleague: They're too good to be dismissed based on their students' standardized test scores. Biology teacher Mark Friedman has been suspended, and history teacher Sonia Del Pino has been dismissed from Animo Leadership Charter High School in Inglewood, which is operated by Green Dot Public Schools. Friedman was suspended because of allegations by one or two co-workers that he bullied colleagues, negligently supervised students and inappropriately involved them in personnel decisions, and created a "negative and hostile work environment," according to a letter sent to him this month.

"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.

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.

Re "District blunts Locke High's revolt," June 2 It is no surprise that the Los Angeles Unified School District has been trying to find ways to stifle the voices of the teachers at Locke High School. Misinformation is a staple of the LAUSD's management style. There is a simple solution to the back-and-forth claims. Hold an independently conducted election among the teachers, with all sides -- the LAUSD, Green Dot Public Schools, United Teachers Los Angeles and the California Teachers Assn.

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.

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.

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.

Joanne Weiss on Tuesday was named the leader of the nearly $4.4-billion "Race to the Top" fund, a federal effort to reform the nation's schools. The announcement was made by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in remarks delivered via videoconference at the annual NewSchools Venture Fund Summit. Weiss is a partner in and chief operating officer of the NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit that invests in efforts to turn around underperforming schools. Weiss, who has a degree in biochemistry from Princeton University, is also on the board of directors of Green Dot Public Schools, which operates 10 charter schools in Southern California and this year took over Locke High, which it divided into several small schools.

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.