Compton High Shows Some Signs of Progress

When I visited Compton High School last January, I saw classrooms without books. Rainwater covered the floors and graffiti stained the walls. Toilets were filthy. Some exit doors were chained and locked, useless in case of fire.

The decay was the result of years of political patronage and corruption, which had all but destroyed the poor, predominantly Latino and African American Compton Unified School District. The neglect and mismanagement I saw at Compton High also infected the city’s other schools, as documented in a story by my colleague Jeff Leeds.

The district was in such bad shape that the state had taken it over. But three years of state supervision had changed little.

Thursday, with this season’s first substantial rain still falling, seemed like a perfect time to revisit the high school.

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I parked near the campus and headed directly to two of the worst classroom buildings I had seen on my January tour.

Things had improved. The floors were dry. The leaky roofs had been repaired. In one building, two workers were patching a ceiling. Ceiling lights, which had been open to the rain, had been replaced and the gaping holes around them covered.

But the buildings still looked dingy and badly in need of paint. The halls were littered with refuse from lunch. There were no chains on the doors, but I saw a couple of side doors without fittings, and I wondered how they could be opened in case of fire. Outside, graffiti marred the walls of several buildings. A school worker told me the bathrooms were unsupervised and marked with graffiti.

Still, I could see definite signs of progress in an old building that housed the administration office, the library, classrooms and the auditorium. The magnificent auditorium, which was a mess in January, was being renovated. Two new baby grand pianos, once left carelessly backstage, had been removed to storage during the rehabilitation, a staff member told me. The library was being rebuilt and would be stocked with books. Classrooms were under construction. An elevator was being installed.

Each classroom now has a set of books. Students were also given books, but they and their parents had to sign contracts pledging to return them: No book means no promotion, no graduation, no grade. Teachers have to enforce the tough rule.

I was impressed, but puzzled. How could Compton, long a symbol of public education poverty, afford such improvements to this and other schools? I found the answer a few blocks away in district headquarters, where I talked to Randolph E. Ward, the state administrator, and Assistant Supt. Michael Bishop.

The two men, African Americans, came up the hard way, and don’t think much of those who lack their commitment to work, discipline and the pursuit of excellence.

Ward, who has a master’s degree from Harvard and earned his doctorate at USC, was an area superintendent for the Long Beach district when the state tapped him to run Compton last November. Two previous state administrators had failed to improve conditions.

I told him I had just come from Compton High. “Compton High School is one of our worst sites,” he said. Other schools have made much stronger comebacks. He said he had told the Compton administration to stop covering up for lazy and absentee friends on the staff. If the campus isn’t cleaned up, Ward warned, supervisors would be fired and “your friends won’t feed your family.”

Bishop, in charge of business affairs, has spent months untangling the finances. Amid the waste, he found $8.5 million in unused construction funds, money the district made available for roof repairs and other work.

The administrative staff was drastically reduced. For example, the number of supervisors in charge of federal aid for poor children was cut from 20 to four. That permitted a 20% to 30% increase in money spent on students.

Ward forced every district administrator to take qualification tests. Most of those who failed were fired, retired or returned to teaching jobs.

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The Compton story is far from finished--and it’s far from being an unqualified success.

Once Ward, Bishop and their team have put the district on its feet, state trusteeship will end. That could be in two years, possibly more.

In that comparatively short time, Ward must change the culture of a district long wedded to doling out patronage to adults at the expense of the students’ education.

To do that, he’ll need the help of reform-minded parents mobilized to defend their children against Compton’s old political hacks.