A Challenge for Principals

With a combination of cheerleading and chiding, Los Angeles Schools Supt. Ruben Zacarias focused on a fundamental skill in education--reading at an early age--in a speech to district principals Monday. Acknowledging that reading scores in the third grade, a key turning point for such skills, were not improving, Zacarias called on elementary school principals to put reading first.

Zacarias’ worthy goal faces some big hurdles. For instance, strong teachers are needed in the primary grades. But union rules say principals can’t assign teachers to specific classes--they can only try to persuade successful instructors to choose the lower grades. And in order to meet class-size reduction goals, the district has hired thousands of new teachers, many without full credentials, concentrated in the primary grades.

Inexperienced teachers need mentoring, intensive classroom work and on-the-job training to develop their ability to teach reading with a phonics-based approach supported by varied literature. Reading instruction should also improve if the superintendent prevails in limiting to three the reading programs used by the district, with just one program used in each geographic cluster of schools. Unfortunately, this policy was developed after the district bought new primary textbooks, so a school may be using up to three different reading programs. At this point, schools can only try to return new books or trade with other campuses. The benefit of the policy would be that in the highly transient Los Angeles Unified School District, children who move several blocks could still learn with the same book.

The changes makes sense, and principals should be evaluated on how well they carry through.