Charter Elementary Success in Watts: Recipe for Acheivement

December 30, 2005

Via Joanne Jacobs, we learn of a success story in Los Angeles. The Watts Learning Center (WLC), a K-5 charter school serving "nearly all African American and low income" students, has dramatically raised the achievement of its students. For the Pacific Research Institute, Lance T. Izumi writes:

In the Pacific Research Institute’s recent book, Free to Learn: Lessons from Model Charter Schools, high-performing charter schools were found to have a number of common characteristics. These schools featured good management, high expectations for students and staff, and a rigorous curriculum based on state academic standards. They also used test results as diagnostic tools to address student weaknesses and chose teaching methods based on what really improved student performance. One finds all these critical characteristics at WLC.

Emphasis ours. Let's parse the list of characteristics (which doesn't include "increased funding" as conventional wisdom would have you believe):

Good Management: You'll rarely find a high-performing school without a strong principal. Charter schools usually have their own board of trustees, so these must support the principal as well. Even though the principal probably doesn't teach a single class, she sets up the school environment so that the teachers can be at their best. When excellent teachers are backed up by their administrators, it forms an unbeatable team.

High Expectations for Students and Staff: Students are like clay in the hands of an artist. The most effective teachers know that holding students to high expectations is necessary for achievement (whereas less effective teachers think that high expectations only lead to more failure). But staff members must also pass muster with high standards, led by the principal.

Rigorous Curriculum based on State Academic Standards: The key word here is rigorous. Elementary schools don't have the handy excuse for failure that middle schools and high schools have: "they came to our school unprepared." So when an elementary school fails to teach children basic skills, it is usually due to fuzzy curriculum and standards. Push students hard, and they'll reward your effort by meeting your expectations.

Using Test Results as Diagnostic Tools: But tests are supposed to be evil, right? Actually, the best performing schools (most especially those serving "at-risk" populations) use tests as their allies. If students do poorly on standardized tests, less effective schools look for excuses, while more effective schools look at the breakdown of scores. They call it "disaggregating the data" and it just means using the test results as a road map for more focussed teaching.

Choosing Teaching Methods based on What Really Works: Surprisingly, few big public school districts are interested in "what really works" because their curriculum specialists are too busy trying to pick from a dozen new-fangled programs which are supposed to really work. These new programs have lots of colorful support materials, and glossy brochures describing how wonderful they are, yet often these new programs simply haven't had real-world success. It's not hard to find programs that really work (like the Open Court reading program which WLC uses), all you have to do is look towards schools which are currently enjoying success "despite the odds" and simply ask them what they're using. You don't need an overpaid curriculum specialist to tell you that.


Mr. Izumi writes, "WLC could not have achieved its success had it not been a charter school. Charters are deregulated public schools that trade freedom from rules for a guarantee of better student performance."

He's right, but why? Isn't it a sad state of affairs when public schools are so strangled by their own rules that they can't follow the five straightforward characteristics above? There's no reason why any public school or district couldn't learn from real-world success, especially success where nay-sayers say none is possible without more funding.

Success is possible anywhere with the right plan and the right people. Charter schools like WLC can show us the way.