ROMER PLAN HEAVY ON LITERACY LAUSD BOSS AIMS TO GET STUDENTS UP TO PAR.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

Calling for a radical shift in resources and instruction in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Superintendent Roy Romer on Tuesday presented the Board of Education with his plan to bring student performance up to the national average within six years.

To accomplish this goal, Romer said every teacher in the district must be trained to teach students how to read and grasp complex concepts.

``Reading is the key skill by which students access knowledge, so every teacher of every discipline has to be enabled to teach reading in their classroom,'' Romer said.

``This is going to require a massive cultural change and a total focus on reading in this district at every level.'' The number of literacy and math coaches for teachers of kindergarten through eighth grade will increase this year from 297 to 800, Romer said, adding that training in literacy instruction will be provided for middle and high school teachers.

Sixth- and ninth-graders who are reading below grade level will also be identified for literacy tutoring during the first semester of the upcoming school year, Romer added.

Through this intense focus on literacy, Romer said he hoped elementary students would reach the 50th percentile national average on Stanford 9 reading tests by 2004, middle school students would reach that level by 2006 and high school students would reach the 50th percentile in reading by 2007.

Under Romer's plan, elementary students would reach the 50th percentile in math by 2002, middle school students would achieve that goal by 2005 and high school students would rise to national math averages by 2004.

While Romer repeatedly called the plan an aggressive one and said it would be extremely difficult to achieve, some board members said they thought the plan fell short.

Board member Genethia Hudley Hayes said she was disturbed that Romer did not address how to close the achievement gap between the highest-performing and lowest-performing students. Even if the district as a whole moves forward, she said, the achievement gap will remain unless the district takes specific steps to close it.

``There need to be clearly stated, concrete steps in place to get at changing the assumptions about people of color by those who deliver instruction,'' Hayes said. ``Children aren't low performers. They just don't receive opportunities for high-quality learning on a consistent basis.''

Romer said closing the achievement gap is embedded in his plan because it focuses on boosting test scores of the lowest-performing students.

``This strategic plan is aimed at all our students, but it's primarily aimed at helping teachers acquire the skills they need to teach those students without basic skills to succeed,'' he said.

In other news, United Teachers Los Angeles President Day Higuchi presented a new collective bargaining agreement on behalf of the district's 43,000 teachers.

After receiving a 15.3 percent pay raise in February, the teachers are now seeking a salary increase that will bring them into the top one-fourth of teachers' salaries in Los Angeles County. No specific increase was mentioned in the proposal.