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Commentary: District must come up with a turnaround plan for under-performing schools

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On Nov. 4, the California Department of Education revealed its list of the state’s 1,000 worst-performing schools. Four schools in our Newport-Mesa district made the list, all of them in Costa Mesa. They are College Park, Rea, Whittier and Wilson.

According the Center for Parent Empowerment, four of our elementary schools, Wilson, Rea, Pomona and Whittier, qualify for takeover under California’s Parent Empowerment (Trigger) Act.

You won’t find that information on the district’s website because, just like the cheating scandal at Corona del Mar High School, the overheated classrooms last summer, and the excessive testing demanded of teachers, the school board and the district administrators would rather sweep bad news under the rug.

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In the roughly 15 years I have been covering education issues, the school district has never acknowledged that some local schools are failing, a term I do not care to use though it seems to be the only one that gets attention.

Low-performing schools are nothing new. Many districts have them, and given the proper leadership, they can be fixed. Unfortunately, our school district lacks the proper leadership.

The best example of this is the flurry of community forums held before the Nov. 4 election in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach to discuss the design of fences that officials had already decided we need, to explain a confusing new education program they’d already adopted, to talk about a solar-energy program they’d already approved, to hear the superintendent talk of how great things are, to plead with parents in the Estancia Zone to send their kids to the schools there, and more time wasters.

What district officials should have been doing instead is focusing on the weakest links and making a better effort to provide students in the four schools with a more-effective learning process. Most of the work has already been done, since those schools have good teachers and good facilities. What they lack is the will of the school board and the district administration.

Turning these schools around does not have to be a Herculean endeavor. Using the concept of best practices, the school district can reach out to other schools that have succeeded against the odds, learn what is working and apply those principles here. They need look no further than Santa Ana, where the El Sol Science and Arts Academy, a charter elementary school, has boosted API test scores 400 points in the past few years.

Charter schools are not a panacea. Some work and some don’t, and the charter school proposal that will be presented next year by motivated citizens would not even be considered if those in charge of the district had expressed some sort of turnaround plan for the four schools. But they have not, and something is better than nothing.

The school district can start the turnaround process by finding ways to reduce the amount of time teachers have to spend testing and reporting. And if that means we have to take this fight to Sacramento along with other school districts that complain of the same handicap, I will pay my own way to lead the charge.

Costa Mesa resident STEVE SMITH is a former candidate for school board.

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