Zacarias Cracks the Whip : LAUSD chief is on the right path in demanding accountability

School Supt. Ruben Zacarias is getting tough on administrators and principals, demanding, as he promised when he sought this job, new accountability at the district’s 100 lowest-performing schools. Principals at these schools must improve their students’ test scores within two years or face demotion or dismissal, he said. These appropriate and overdue consequences have rarely been used in the public schools because of stifling union protections and a culture that discourages the termination of any employee.

The principals are being required to devise a prescription for progress by October. They don’t need to start from square one--their first step should be to look at nearby schools that scored higher in similar circumstances, often including transience, poverty and parental illiteracy. Their plans should borrow strategies and methods from the higher-ranking schools.

The superintendent also said he would require quarterly progress reports. Continued poor results could eventually lead to the drastic step of reconstitution, meaning the staff would be rebuilt from the bottom up after its members were moved. Before such a step, there might be intervention by teams of outstanding teachers and administrators who would coach principals and teachers to improve their schools. The unions and district are cooperating on these approaches, which have been used with success in other cities.

It is unfair to hold principals alone accountable without helping them improve teaching at their schools. An over-concentration of burned-out, inexperienced or substitute teachers burdens areas written off as combat zones. Zacarias and the district need to develop rewards so the best teachers will take on these challenges. The principals also need textbooks for every student in every subject, reading tutors, summer school for all marginal students, enrichment classes for all students and parent training. The superintendent will need help, from inside and outside the district, to develop these resources.

Mayor Richard Riordan can help. His education advisor, Ted Mitchell, a high-ranking UCLA administrator who formerly headed the Graduate School of Education, is ready to focus academic expertise on the LAUSD’s below-average test scores.

Once Zacarias has focused his and others’ help and support on the problem schools, he should act as tough as he is talking and accept no excuse for failure--at any school.