EDITORIAL SIGN OF THE TIMES CHARTER SCHOOL IS LAUSD ACADEMIC DECATHLON CHAMPION.LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) school officials are sure not to see the larger significance in the fact that the district's Academic Decathlon decathlon (dĭkăth`lŏn), in modern Olympic games, a contest for men held over two days and composed of 10 track-and-field events. champion this year is not one of the usual Woodland Hills campuses. On Tuesday, the brainiacs at Granada Hills Charter School were named district champs. Fortunately, it's clear enough to everyone else that Granada Hills' academic ascension Ascension, in Christianity Ascension, name usually given to the departure of Jesus from earth as related in the Gospels according to Mark (16) and Luke (24) and in Acts 1.1–11. is a sign of the times A Sign of the Times was a 1966 single by Petula Clark. Written by Tony Hatch, the uptempo pop number juxtaposed Clark's driving vocals with a powerful brass section. She introduced the tune on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 27, 1966. for the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Unified School District's medieval bureaucracy. That a charter school -- one that was created despite enormous bureaucratic bu·reau·crat n. 1. An official of a bureaucracy. 2. An official who is rigidly devoted to the details of administrative procedure. bu opposition -- bested the district's reigning national champions at Taft High School says more about the LAUSD's educational future than even all the mayor's education-reform stump speeches Noun 1. stump speech - political oratory oratory - addressing an audience formally (usually a long and rhetorical address and often pompous); "he loved the sound of his own oratory" . While the vast district administration is strangling creativity and energy in most traditional schools, the charters are blossoming in their innovation, growing the next generation of L.A.'s scholars. Nor are LAUSD officials likely to see this as a reason to embrace real reform rather than resist it. Surely they will write this off as an aberration rather than a natural outgrowth of forcing students and parents who seek academic excellence to opt out of traditional schools and into private schools if they can afford them, charter schools if they cannot. It doesn't have to be this way. Charter schools are popular because the district's administration has become so bloated and self-serving that it has lost sight of its main mission of educating kids. From all appearances, it seems mainly concerned with self-propagation by building mega-schools whether or not they continue to make sense. Charter schools empower parents, students and teachers in smaller facilities and provide greater accountability and opportunity. And when they fail they have to change or they disappear. Perpetuation of failure has no place in the charter-school movement. Everyone who wants the LAUSD reformed should be cheering for Granada Hills Charter School to go all the way in the Academic Decathlon competition at the state and national levels. |
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