Readers React: If we really care about teaching our kids, we need the truth about how they’re performing in school

To the editor: Thank you to education reporter Howard Blume for once again pointing out how the Los Angeles Unified School District administration has manipulated data and created shams like the credit recovery program that inflate the success of students only on paper. (“L.A. Unified transparency plan debated,” March 29)

Unless we honestly look at the results, we will never develop programs that educate our students to succeed. Of the cohort of students entering high school in LAUSD, only 12.25% actually graduate with either a two-year or four-year college degree in a total of six years. When looking at the percentage of kids who graduate with A’s, only 52% will graduate from a four-year college within six years. Looking at the last year that national comparisons were available, only 1,071 students (4.6%) were in the top quartile of the SAT/ACT.

The most accurate analysis our community should demand is to look at the continuous follow-up of students who entered kinder or middle school. Giving us that true non-manipulated data would be transparency.

Dr. Howard C. Mandel, Los Angeles

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