LAUSD: The Best Way For Our Students to Thrive is in a Completely Non-Challenging Environment
As the second-largest public school district in the country, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has one of the worst reputations around in nearly every respect. There’s the dismal graduation rate (around 56%), poor academic performance, way-too-easy teacher tenure (most other school districts in California have a more comprehensive evaluation process) and an insane $19 billion construction bond program. That $19 billion (spread across several bond measures) has created some impressive architecture (like the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools that cost $578 million and looks like it belongs on the Las Vegas Strip or the Visual and Performing Arts School at a comparatively cheap $228 million) but little in the way of academics.
LAUSD proudly unveils its newest hotel...I'm sorry, I meant school
In fact, I’ve never seen a school district care so little about academics as LAUSD. They proved it again this week with their announcement that the Board will seek to lower graduation requirements in the number of credits required (from 230 to 170 units) and eliminate requirements to take elective courses. Some of the news was misreported, as their Facebook page points out. The current passing grade for college-prep courses at LAUSD is a ‘D’ and the proposal would raise the passing grade to a ‘C’ in 2017, which is well overdue as I seriously doubt the value of being a high school “graduate” with a GPA between 1.0 and 1.9. But under the new proposal, students could theoretically be done with all of their graduation requirements sometime around junior year. Unless we’re questioning the entire system and shortening high school by a year (which I have nothing against), this new proposal will solve little: it makes an already easy curriculum easier for the above average students, and it coddles the below average students who would benefit from better instruction and a focus on developing critical skills, like reading comprehension, critical thinking and maybe even some basic personal finance skills. As a product of a California public school myself, I can tell you one thing: it’s already way too easy. I graduated among the top 50 in my 900-student senior class, and I’m not that smart. To quote Joe Rogan, “I know I’m stupid, but yet I’m smarter than almost everybody I meet.”
California public schools mean well, they really do, but dumbing it down and lowering requirements will just send graduates into the real world or college completely unprepared for the normal rigor and pace of things. Take the CAHSEE (California’s high school exit exam) for example. It was implemented the year after I graduated so I never had to take it, but the thing is frighteningly simple. Parents have described it as being at the 6th-7th grade level. Let’s look at its description straight from the California Department of Education website:
Students first take this test in grade ten. If they do not pass the test in grade ten, they have more chances to take the test. In grade eleven, they can take the test two times. In grade twelve, they have up to five times to take the test.
Yes, you read that right. You can take the “exit exam” beginning your sophomore year and you can take it EIGHT TIMES to get a passing grade. Come on! It’s just another requirement that was implemented by the state that meant well but ended up becoming more bureaucratic nonsense. Hey everybody, here’s a high school exit exam that is neither timed to be an exit nor much of an exam because you can retake the same damn test seven more times to pass it. This goes to the heart of my love-hate relationship with California. California wants so desperately to give everyone an equal chance and I admire that because I want that too, but it doesn’t happen like this. You either give the test or you don’t. You either have graduation requirements or you don’t. Don’t water it down.
LAUSD is claiming the new classes will be more rigorous, but only time will tell. The district is a behemoth that serves 900,000 students, has 80,000 employees and more than 1,000 schools. It’s just too big and unwieldy to manage effectively. The Board is a huge power play and its members are career politicians. I want the best opportunities for these students and not just improved statistics. Smaller districts with more focused priorities would make a greater difference for the students. $19 billion is an awful lot to spend on a school district with a less than 60% graduation rate and plans to set the bar even lower for its students.
Yikes.. I wonder what the normal graduation rate is. I think like the vast majority of my graduation class graduated. Instead of doing things differently to do better, maybe they should just mimic school districts which are succeeding.
The US public school system is a mess. I never even realized it was so different from Canada’s until I watched “Waiting For Superman”. I have NO IDEA how the USA has some of the best universities in the world and some of the worst public schools.
Where I live, our public school system ranks 2nd only to Finland (the rest of Canada is ok too but grade inflation is becoming a big problem). I’m really proud of our education system, but they’re trying to make changes to cater to the below average students too, like getting rid of due dates on assignments and there’s even people wanting to scrap our standardized provincial exams (you take them in grades 3, 6, 9 and 12, and in 12th grade the mark you receive is worth 50% of your final grade for that class!).
I manage a few first-year classes at the main university in our city (which also ranks top 5 in the country and has a good world ranking as well), and frankly it pisses me off to deal with students that think they get unlimited chances to redo an assignment or can just hand things in whenever they want. They have NO concept of failure whatsoever, to the point that when I fail them in a class they will spend WEEKS trying to negotiate a pass AND THEN THEIR PARENTS WILL CALL ME. Why do parents think it’s appropriate to call their child’s university instructor?!?!?
gah! Ok I’m working myself up into a rage now I need to take some deep breaths…
The school system is in crisis and it’s hurting our best & brightest just to boost the self-esteem of underachievers. And helicopter parents are breathing down everyone’s throats to make sure little Johnny or Sally makes it to the next year.
Just another example of how today’s society caters to the complainers and underachievers. In the fight for ‘equality’ they diminish the experience for others.
I can see some of the intentions of those changes you mentioned though. Like making the schools nicer may seem like a waste, but hopefully it will encourage kids to take school more seriously and possibly attract better teachers. Making the graduation requirements a little easier may give some students the confidence to meet those requirements. I don’t think colleges will adapt their views to match the high school graduating requirements. It just gives some extra hope to those who may otherwise be discouraged.
Why does this blog have no byline, especially given that it’s written in the first person? Who are you anyway—and why should readers trust what you say if they see nothing to identify you by? The entire site is strangely anonymous, too, and the site’s name is so easily viewed as laughingly dubious (is it aimed at *furthering* debt or relieving it—hard to tell at first glance, especially in light of all the anonymity. Such a set up neither serves your interests nor those of readers. Would you care to “come clean?”
Hi Ajay, thanks for your comment. I guess I never thought I about what would happen if my blog grows, as I started this blog to anonymously keep track of my goal to pay off my personal consumer debt. There are a lot of us out there who blog anonymously about money…the truth is it’s still quite taboo to admit you have financial problems when you are of a certain socioeconomic status. So that’s why I’m anonymous, I certainly don’t want my employer finding out how I have for years struggled with the concept of living within my means and I have generally been irresponsible with money (though only my own). I write about LA a lot because this city fascinates me. I think that LAUSD has great intentions but it is a very large institution and managing such a diverse population of students will always be incredibly complex. But I’m not a politician or public figure, I’m just trying to figure out how the average American can improve their situation: and it seems to be in taking the initiative to educate ourselves and be involved in our community. Financially, we have to understand the power of advertising and mass culture can sway us to live in excess, with easy credit and instant gratification. This blog is really just my personal journey in figuring all that out, and I am always excited to see new readers. I hope that explains why I choose to remain anonymous. And PS- you don’t like the name?? American Debt Project is the project to get Americans out of silly consumer debt!
Thanks for the response. Your blog now makes sense—and it would have made sense all along if you posted a kind of disclaimer detailing what you just did in the About section of the site. As for the name, I don’t mean to quibble, but “Debt” means just that—mostly getting *into* debt rather than out of it. Your project could therefore just as well imply the opposite of what you obviously intend. Thanks again for being so forthright. I do wish you and your project well.
@Daisy: I think California’s graduation rate is in the 60th percentile, which is still lower than the US average!
@Bridget: Wow, thanks for the awesome comment/post
. Your provincial exams sound like what a lot of other countries have, and to be honest, that 50% weight is intimidating! But that would definitely motivate a student to study. I guess the question is what is the goal of the public education system? Is it to push students through with a piece of paper or to equip them with real skills and knowledge? Sometimes the administration/board members don’t know, while teachers certainly have a good grasp of where their students are weakest. Public education should be an opportunity available to all, but unfortunately not everyone will take advantage of that opportunity.
@ModestMoney: I think that the UC and CSU systems voiced concerns over LAUSD lowering some of their requirements, although the move up to a C passing grade is an improvement. Construction and improvement to school is definitely an important componenet, but I think LAUSD went pretty far overboard with some of their costs. Should a school cost half a billion to build? I don’t know, it’s an interesting question!
@Ajay, you’re right and you’re not the first person who has mentioned that to me. I am going to fix it up tonight. It is a bit vague as it stands now.
Wow!! The LA School District is messed up. The saddest part is they are actually hurting the students, not helping them. They aren’t preparing them for the real world. Once these kids get out of school, they are going to be in for a shock.
I read an article recently about how screwed up the state government in California is. They are basically driving the middle-class out of the state. The only ones that will be left are the super rich and the very poor. The state will become a welfare state.
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When it comes to class size smaller is better. With too many students there is less of that ‘one-to-one’ touch which isn’t really conducive to learning.