"We build schools for the kids, not the teachers"

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

I actually did know about sucktastic K-12 school that got shut down, but since I couldn't remember the name, it took me a while to find it: Locke High School, in Watts, CA.

• "...most of the time, if we weren't teaching ourselves, we weren't learning at all."
  --Locke High School student



• "... there were sets of gangs that ran the campus ... [gang-bangers did all kinds of things to students ] robbing them at gun point to, to knife point, to beating them up."
  --Dr. Wells, new LHS principal



• ".. if you got into it Dr Wells would take care of you when it first happened, he would nip it in the bud before it grew into a larger problem."
  --Locke High School student



• "There were a number of key things that appealed to me about the Greendot approach; there were safety nets, after school tutors, Saturday schools and things of that sort."
  
  "I began to require teachers to bring lesson plans to school every week, because I wanted to see their lesson. The teachers' union filed a grievance against me; tried to stop me from requiring teachers to come to school prepared to teach kids."
  --Dr. Wells, new LHS principal



• "I'll give up on a teacher faster than a 14-year-old kid ... We don't build the schools for the teachers."
  --Greendot charter school principal.



• "Plenty of Locke teachers [didn't] side with the union. Many joined with Wells and pushed for a first-of-it's kind reform. They wanted Locke to break free from the district and transform into a cluster of small Greendot schools. To do that they would need a majority of Locke teachers to sign on to the plan."
  --Drew Carey



• "Within 3 or 4 hours the teachers went and after school got the majority of teachers to sign this thing."
  --Greendot charter school principal.



• "Why not try it. When something's not working in your life and you're trying to do something a certain way, you always say stop, let me start over and do it [differently], try another approach."
  --LHS parent

Locke High School needed reform. It was getting it. Guess who blocked it, and got Wells fired?

• "When they was taking Dr. Wells off the campus, I started crying."
  --Locke High School student



• "[they] have a lot to lose because they would lose membership. Membership means you lose money, you lose money, you lose influence."
  --Dr. Wells, new LHS principal

Public employees unions: supporting teachers and principals who make a difference in the lives of impoverished minority students!

Not.

The rest of the story is at Reason TV: "Unlocked."

Locke High School was once rated no. 1 for school violence and student failure. In 2010 retention increased by over 50%, graduation rate was up 25%, and dropout rate was down by 80%. Test scores look good, too

Comments

[oronoda.livejournal.com]

My High School had a huge bullying problem... not from just students but teachers. There was a principal who came in who cleaned out. He took out a bunch of teachers and had a no tolerance rule for bullying (he actually helped me a lot in that area). He lasted a year. My mom ran into him asked him why he left and he said the union made him do it. The teacher firing made the union look bad.

Then in comes a principal who chased off the best teachers because he played union politics.

[jacobs-muse.livejournal.com]

Yup. LA Unified is a joke. I'm so glad I grew up in Orange Co., not LA. My mother taught in CA for around 30 years and hated being forced to be a part of the union.

[neemarita.livejournal.com]

I attended schools in LAUSD and education was a joke. I'm glad I ended up switching to Simi Valley USD and graduated from a magnet high school, which is now apparently TRASH, but... better than LAUSD...