Accountability at L.A. Schools

Re “Testing the Principals,” editorial, Dec. 21: Los Angeles school Supt. Ruben Zacarias has sent a very clear message to these school communities: School leadership will be held accountable for failure to perform. To meet these demands, school leaders must build strong coalitions of teachers, parents and school administrators to work together in creating site action plans to raise student achievement.

This is indeed the right path to elevate the performance of our neediest schools. It is also the blueprint that can and should be used by all our schools and will ensure that our school staffs are up to the task. All of our intelligence and experience tells us site action plans, collaborative teams and school site authority and accountability should be everyday realities in all our schools. Our children deserve and need this kind of school leadership.

MIKE ROOS

President, LEARN

* For a few months now, public educators have been taking it on the chin. Bad test scores. Kids can’t read, write, can’t compute, bad morals, violence. Name something bad, blame it on public education.

OK, there are some bad teachers, administrators and school board members. I’ve been teaching too long (eight years) to deny that. Yet the one thing missing in this accountability fervor is the role of parents. Do any of you accountability types believe that the public education system can work without the avid, dedicated involvement of parents? Not a chance.

I have students who thrive in my classroom. I have children who do very poorly. Why? Two things: When school ends A and B students put in three to four hours of homework. Kids who do poorly play video games. The parents of my A and B kids are actively participating in their children’s educations. My kids who do poorly have, for many reasons, limited parent involvement.

The education process is a triangle--student to parent to teacher. If any part of the triangle breaks down the process fails.

MARK ROBERTS

Tustin