Small Schools

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.

Los Angeles Unified will eliminate a classroom breakfast program serving nearly 200,000 children, reject more school police, cut administrators and scale back new construction projects unless the school board votes to approve them, according to Supt. John Deasy. Heading into a fierce battle over funding priorities, Deasy said this week that he would give "maximum responsibility" to the board to decide between those programs and demands by United Teachers Los Angeles to restore jobs and increase pay. In an April 12 memo obtained by the Times on Friday, Deasy outlined eight items the district would not fund without explicit board approval, including a request for an additional $1.4 million for KLCS-TV public television, small schools that are underenrolled and other unspecified programs.

Fillmore 35, Frazier Mountain 0--Sophomore quarterback Phillip Zavala threw three touchdown passes, two to receiver Ryan Lemons in the third quarter, as the Flashes (1-1) overwhelmed the Falcons (0-2).

  It's pretty safe to say that Lauren Silberman won't become the first woman to play in the NFL. Not after her two kicks at the New York Jets' practice facility in Florham Park, N.J., traveled a combined 32 yards. Silberman said her struggles were due to a right quadriceps injury she suffered earlier in the week while preparing for the tryout. She winced during her first attempt, which went 19 yards, then grabbed her right leg. She managed a second attempt, which went 13 yards, before asking to see a trainer.

The city's Board of Education this week approved a resolution on small schools after hours of debate, pleas from advocates, well-organized demonstrations and numerous amendments. The motion became mostly a statement of principles -- after it was stripped of provisions that would have mandated schools no larger than 500 students across the entire district by 2020. Several board proponents, Yolie Flores Aguilar, Richard Vladovic and Monica Garcia, cited research favoring small schools as better at helping students stay on track.

Crossroads 18 Woodcrest Christian 2 There was little doubt that Santa Monica Crossroads was going to win Saturday at Blair Field in the Small Schools championship against Riverside Woodcrest Christian. It was only a question of how many runs the Roadrunners would score. The answer was 18 as Crossroads batted around in three straight innings to rout Woodcrest Christian, 18-2, and win its first Small Schools title. Crossroads lost in last year's title game to Newport Christian, 8-7.

THE TEAMS: Heritage Christian (4-6); Huntington Beach Claremont (2-6); Liberty Christian (5-2); St. Margaret's (2-6); Capistrano Valley Christian (4-5). THE LEAGUES: Academy: California Lutheran, the Huntington Beach school that won the eight-man small schools division title last year, has moved its campus to Wildomar, a Riverside County town southeast of Lake Elsinore.

If all goes as expected, Westchester and Woodland Hills El Camino Real will meet in a much-anticipated City Section Division I championship game in boys' basketball March 2 at Cal State Dominguez Hills. The playoff pairings were released Saturday, and Westchester (24-6) was seeded No. 1 and El Camino Real (25-2) No. 2. Crenshaw (16-8) is No. 3 and Palisades (20-8) is No. 4. The challenge for the 14 other teams in Division I is to find a way to prevent a Westchester-ECR final. Westchester has proven itself against the best in the Southern Section, losing close games to Torrance Bishop Montgomery, Long Beach Poly and Santa Ana Mater Dei. Westchester opens play Thursday at home against Fremont.

CIF State Regional Championship Bowl Games Friday's schedule Division I Clovis North (12-1) vs. Long Beach Poly (11-3) at Veterans Stadium, 7:30 p.m. (TWC HD 700): After conquering La Puente Bishop Amat, Mission Viejo, Bellflower St. John Bosco and Santa Ana Mater Dei to win the Pac-5 Division, Poly continues its remarkable turnaround with this Division I regional bowl game. The performance from the offensive and defensive lines has been an important reason for Poly's success.

Several Los Angeles schools, hit hard by budget cuts in recent years, are set to receive $1.7 million from two foundations in a major national initiative to expand learning time for disadvantaged students. The California Community Foundation is to announce Friday that it has received $1.5 million from the Ford Foundation to give children in impoverished communities the same enriched learning activities typically enjoyed outside school hours by their wealthier peers. The California foundation also contributed $200,000 to the efforts.

LANGSTON, Okla. — The words were vintage Mike Garrett, reminiscent of something he might have said to a gathering of USC boosters a decade ago, before all the trouble started. "The only thing I know is winning," the former longtime Trojans athletic director said Thursday in a place half a country and a world removed from Heritage Hall. Then he paused. "I hate losing," he continued, drawing out each word for emphasis. All that was missing was a cardinal-colored tie and a two-finger victory salute.

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 catch of small, schooling fish such as sardines and anchovies should be cut in half globally and the amount left in the ocean doubled to protect the ecologically vital species from collapse, scientists say in a new report. The silvery species known as forage fish are harvested in huge numbers worldwide and are easy for fishermen to round up because they form dense schools, or "bait balls. " But wide fluctuations in their numbers make them especially vulnerable to overfishing, according to the report released Sunday by the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force, a 13-member panel of scientists from around the world.

Former NBA guard Jason Hart, in his first season coaching high school basketball, has his Woodland Hills Taft team seeded No. 1 in the City Section Division I playoff pairings released Saturday. The Toreadors (24-3) will open at home Friday night against No. 16 West Adams. Fairfax (19-9) received the No. 2 seeding, followed by No. 3 Westchester (20-6), No. 4 Palisades (16-10) and No. 5 Crenshaw (22-4). "I'm using the knowledge I learned from many coaches," the 33-year-old Hart said.

College football seemed so easy for Robert Woods. The bigger players and harder hits, the roaring crowds, he sailed through all of that to become an instant star at USC, catching passes by the dozen as a freshman. It was another part of the game — a part fans don't see — that took him by surprise. It was the peanut butter and jelly. "You think, coming to USC, they'll have food whenever you want but it's really not like that," he said. "I've gone four days straight of just sandwiches.