An inside view of Locke high school

Regarding the Locke high school in LA (I've sent around many emails recently about this school, where teachers voted to have Green Dot charter schools take over), a friend who's very familiar with the school wrote:

The prospect of inviting Steve Barr's Green Dot to Locke is an exciting one but I hesitate to believe that we will see drastic improvement unless some serious structural challenges are confronted.  Steve Barr has opened small charter high schools that use their scale and teaching force to create change.  Sub-dividing Locke with the same staff under different names happened before under the small schools initiative.  At the end of the first year there was one semi-successful school that had attracted the best teachers while the other six small schools floundered. 

 

For Barr to transform Locke he needs the human capital and leadership to reverse eight or more years of poor education in one year, 9th grade.  The percentage of "devoted" and effective teachers at Locke is no higher than their graduation rate (between 20-40%).  The remaining majority has helped the school to tank for a long time.  Most anything would be better than the strict LAUSD bureaucracy but accounting for these obstacles will be important as many in LA and the nation will look to see the outcome of this charter school "experiment."