Reporting on a Talk I Gave Some Months Ago, the Headline in "La Opinion," Los Angeles' Premier Spanish Language Newspaper, Declared the City's School System "en crisis permanente." No One Wrote in to Disagree. The Claremont Letter. Volume 3, Issue 1

Reporting on a talk the author gave some months ago, the headline in "La Opinion," Los Angeles' premier Spanish language newspaper, declared the city's school system "en crisis permanente." No one wrote in to disagree. Indeed, at the end of "Learning from L.A.: Institutional Change in American Public Education" (Harvard Education Press) the author and his colleagues invoke the words "permanent crisis" to describe the current political state of the country's second largest school system. But the underlying question is what study of Los Angeles implies for other cities and for the residents of the green leafy suburbs, where many Claremont Graduate University alumni live. The answer is, "plenty." At the end of "Learning from L.A.," they suggest five policy levers that those who would improve education in the city might want to pull: (1) Pass legislation that would allow groups of LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) schools to operate autonomously but still within the governance umbrella of the District; (2) Send money directly to the schools through a weighted student formula model of funding; (3) Create positive incentives; (4) Transform teaching and learning; and (5) Increase variety and choice in the system. (Contains 6 notes.)