CHARTER SCHOOLS GO TO HEAD OF THE CLASS.

Byline: WILLIAM E.B. SIART

Local View

IN late April, Superintendent David Brewer III released a scathing audit of the Los Angeles Unified School District, charging that lack of accountability and insufficient urgency are among the greatest problems hindering student performance at the mammoth district.

Buried deep in the report was a brief section on charter schools that might contain some of the answers.

The report stated: "Charter schools operate without the hindrances of many regulatory provisions and stand in a good position to be creative in many ways in contrast to traditional schooling. This creativity, as well as their smaller sizes, should enable these schools to extend approaches to schooling in broader ways, meeting student needs in ways that LAUSD schools might not be able to."

Translation: Charter schools are leaner, more agile and able to implement reforms much more quickly than the sprawling, 700,000-student district. Furthermore, in stark contrast to a district that is said to shun accountability, charter schools have a built-in mechanism to ensure that they are doing their jobs: Students and families can leave, removing critical funding, and charters are subject to renewal within three to five years of being granted.

Given the role charters can serve as a model for reforming the LAUSD, the following lessons might be in order:

Charters do more with less. Because they are not subject to the same regulations, bureaucracy and red tape as traditional district schools, charters are able to deliver similar or better service for less money. In fact, Los Angeles charter schools spend an average of $1,200 per pupil less than their LAUSD counterparts.

Charters are ahead of their peers in student achievement: Although the Academic Performance Index scores of L.A. charters are only modestly higher (708 vs. 700) than their LAUSD peers, it is worth noting that nearly half of these charters have been operating for two years or less. Studies have shown that charters post their strongest gains after three years or more. In fact, independent charters in L.A. Unified grew an average of 15 points on the API from 2005 to 2006, compared with only 11 points for other L.A. Unified schools.

Despite what charter school opponents may claim, charters do not "cherry-pick" students. Demographically, charter students in L.A. Unified are not that different from noncharter students. Students at independent charters are 17 percent African-American versus 11 percent in the rest of L.A. Unified, and 60 percent Latino versus 74 percent in L.A. Unified. At independent charters, 70 percent of students are eligible for the subsidized federal meal program, a measure of poverty, versus 78 percent in the LAUSD.

Teachers at charters report higher job satisfaction. There is less paperwork to detract attention from the primary job of teaching, and more autonomy and flexibility to construct classrooms to best fit students' needs. Charter schools are also smaller learning centers with an increased focus on security, so that student-discipline issues do not rule the classroom. A more positive working environment for teachers in turn produces better learning environments, and higher expectations, for our kids.

At a time when the LAUSD is searching for answers, and the superintendent is asking all the right questions, it might be worthwhile for the district's leadership to take a good, close look at some of the successes of the Los Angeles charter movement.