Ms. García and Ms. Martinez presented their Board “Resolution to Examine Increasing Choice and Removing Boundaries for Neighborhood Schools.”  I am glad that LAUSD is looking at enrollment.  We’ve long advocated that the LAUSD school choice processes are too complex and thus inaccessible to many families.  What is not readily clear from the resolution is if it was written with an awareness of the existing school choice options.  Also absent from the resolution is any mention of families in which the child is the one seeking a choice and the parents, for whatever reason, are not driving the discussion. I like the idea of having a wide discussion about school choice in LAUSD, best stated here.  I look forward to the reading the Superintendent’s report in 90 days which should recommend actionable steps.  I’m curious who is going to be tasked with researching and writing the report?

 

For those of you unfamiliar with Board resolutions they start with a series of “Whereas” clauses stating the need for action, and are followed with a series of “Resolved” actionable steps.  

Full resolution:
4. Ms. García, Ms. Martinez – Resolution to Examine Increasing Choice and Removing Boundaries for Neighborhood Schools (Noticed January 10, 2012)

Whereas, The Governing Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District is responsible for ensuring that children educated in the District have the opportunity to receive a quality education; to earn a meaningful, college preparatory high school diploma; and to graduate college-prepared and career-ready;

• LAUSD has some very popular choice programs with Magnets, SAS, and Open Enrollment.   Magnet schools are the most desired schools but expensive and even though Dr. Deasy would like to add more, it just isn’t happening.  SAS programs are expanding, but only service gifted students and will not bring back other families.  Open Enrollment is a great option but poorly publicized.  Open Enrollment also experiences some funny math, many schools report only 1 opening in a school of 1,500.  I am eager to see the results of this motion and I hope it will result in better access to choice.

2.  The pending LAUSD Board resolution on removing traditional school boundaries is being called “Open Enrollment.”  There are two traditional camps supporting “Open Enrollment,” and my reading of the news coverage suggests that this resolution is trying to take a 3rd view of “Open Enrollment”.  A civil rights view says that children should be able to attend the best school in their community regardless of residence.  A free market view sees the value of school choice as a means to improving schools because schools will need to compete for students to stay open.  The new LAUSD view of Open Enrollment takes the free market view one step further and believes that school competition causes improvements, which will draw parents back to these schools.  In other words Martinez/ Garcia at LAUSD believe that getting rid of neighborhood boundaries will increase enrollment and quality.

• The Martinez/ Garcia resolution leaves me with a lot of questions and based on comments on local news sites, many other parents have lots of questions.  I personally follow the civil rights view of school choice.  In school districts that view open enrollment with a free market approach there is no data to show that it improves schools.  If you do follow the civil rights view about open enrollment, then the very first tenant is quality public schools for all children.  To ensure quality public schools for all children the district cannot take a laise faire approach that free-markets imply, the district must work to support every school being the best.  I’ll hold off on final judgement until see I the actual proposal, but I have strong reservations that open enrollment will improve education overall.

 

If you don't get in

If you are on a wait list, don’t give up.  Many families wait until the first day of school to actually choose the school they are going to send their child to.  Contact each office of the school you are wait-listed for and let them know you are stil interested. Some schools have sunset provision when you are bumped off the wait list and other schools will keep you on wait list forever.  You need to check with each school on their policy.

What choices are left to apply to?

To the LAUSD Board,

LAUSD is considering removing neighborhood school assignments and moving to a total open market.  For the Bureaucracy of LAUSD, this is fantastic and will streamline offices.  For most everyone else, this will result in more negatives than positives.  As the director of Hope Change Choices, my work over the past 3 years has been to increase the number of parents participating in school choice programs offered through LAUSD.  I’ve studied other school choice options in other large cities.  No city has gotten school choice to work for everyone, and what I’ve learned is that total open markets tend to result in increased confusions and no changes in school performance.  LAUSD can and should do better than rehash plans that are not effective in other cities.

In theory the idea that everyone gets to rank their schools and then get assigned to a school they choose sounds great.  Parents should use their knowledge of what is best for their child and send their kid to that type of school.  Schools should alter their programs to align with what parents are seeking.  While I have my reservations about the theory, I’m even more concerned having already seen these systems falter in other cities.

What happens if things work the way they are supposed to?

• LAUSD will quickly see a rise in applications to a few select schools.  LAUSD has done minimal work with their school report card to make it possible for parents to compare schools.  Parents will seek the same halo schools, just like parents do in other cities with open enrollment plans. Schools don’t scale easily and after a school is filled parents who have been rejected will still take their children elsewhere.  In Boston, New York and San Francisco where variations on wider open enrollment policies exist, reports show that parents flock to the halo schools and leave only a couple of realistic schools at the bottom of their preference sheet.  Instead of parents getting to make a choice, they gone through a long process to end up where they would have started at in the first place. (references below)
• LAUSD schools are not set up to compete.  LAUSD does not have a PR office for every school.  Some CMO charter schools spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce glossy advertisements, is that what schools should be focusing on?
• As much as parents will compete, schools will too.  Schools will need to focus on high achievers to stay competitive and schools will have to shift their focus from educating all students to attracting the highest performers.  District schools and charter schools will only become more adversarial and not collaborative.

What would work better.

1. Make school comparisons possible.  Before you can have an open market you need equitable access to making informed decisions, otherwise the market is left ripe for abuse.
2. Look at Denver and make existing choices more accessible.  Though Denver is not as complex as LAUSD, they do have a more accessible choice system.
3. Capitalize on LAUSD’s unique position of offering many different types of choices. Magnets and Charters are clearly popular ways for parents to find another school.  How much does LAUSD promote the Romero Transfer Act, Open Enrollment, SAS, PWT and PSC options.
4. Create a common application like Denver and create a general enrollment and late enrollment dates.  There are 4 different LAUSD application forms for  6 different choice options and hundreds of different charter school applications, lets have just one form.

I am glad that LAUSD is looking to make choices more accessible, but LAUSD can and should do better than a total open enrollment policy.  A simple bold directive will not create the meaningful change families deserve.  I would rather see LAUSD look at its existing choice system and make targeted improvements.

Sincerely, Rustum Jacob

1. 1. http://plaza.ufl.edu/umutozek/research_files/Equal%20Treatment%20as%20a%20Means%20of%20Evaluating%20Public%20School%20Assignment%20Mechanisms.pdf
   2. http://bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/school-choice-in-san-francisco-is-it-working/
   3. http://www.newdeal20.org/2012/01/04/intra-district-school-choice-where-futures-are-determined-by-formula-68455/
   4. kuznets.harvard.edu/~aroth/papers/bostonAEAPP.pdf
   5. www.wallis.rochester.edu/miniconf03/Games_at_Boston1.pdf

Denver is not the same as LAUSD, but much of what Denver is doing could be tweaked and scaled to LAUSD.

Where it works right away. Magnet, Charter and Romero Transfer enrollment options all require the same information.  There is really little to negotiate between Charter schools and LAUSD.  LAUSD and charter operators could easily create a uniform application for collecting family information and selecting schools.  In Denver there is a single deadline that all stake holders agreed to, January 31.  LAUSD can and should move to a single primary application deadline for all choice options while providing the district with enough time to correct budgets.   One major gripe about the Magnet, Romero, and some Charters is that the deadlines for applying to the 2012-13 school year is in December 2011, this not intuitive to many parents.  A choice system that is confusing to parents because of multiple forms and dates creates a de facto screening system for motivated parents, that is not fair in public education.   Another confusing system for school choice is the Magnet point system, even the director over magnet schools does not like it, but just talking about change brings the ire of parents who’ve been accumulating points.  Denver doesn’t use points, parents rank there top 5 choices.*  With a full choice system overhaul, LAUSD has a chance to replace the points system and do a better job of meeting parent’s interests.

Where is doesn’t work, yet. LAUSD offers more choices than Denver, in the form of Open Enrollment, SAS and Highly Gifted magnets.  In the case of SAS and Highly Gifted schools a universal choice application needs space for attachments.  Open Enrollment needs the same information as a universal application, but occurs in late May.   The common app needs a late option for parents, they can see which schools remain that they might not have chosen initially.  Other school choices would also benefit from a second deadline; new schools, SAS programs, new magnets and other options might not be available for the initial application phase.

Obstacles:
Universally accessible: Making the application accessible for parents is the number one challenge.  The Magnet application as well as several Charter applications are primarily online and require in person pick-up of paper forms.  To make the system universally accessible a paper application should be mailed out to all district residents in addition to the online application.  Parents also need better tools to discover and explore their choices.  At some point LAUSD or an outside entity will need to provide parents tools for comparing schools.

Recap:
LAUSD adopts a Common Application for all schools
The application is both paper and online
There is a ranking system for picking schools
There is a primary deadline in January
There is a second late deadline

*The Boston problem:  Boston public schools has an impressive choice system where every parent must rank their top 5 schools.  The problem with the ranking system is if everyone picks the same schools then parents really aren’t getting to choose because they will default to their neighborhood school.