If you were a Hispanic teenager, would you want to go to Oscar de la Hoya High School?

If I were a Hispanic teenager, I think I'd get a kick out of going to Oscar de le Hoya High School. De la Hoya worked with Green Dot Public Schools and Taylor Fierce Architects to convert de la Hoya's gym in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, into a charter high school.

The architects describe their work:
"The charter school movement is generating schools that are smaller, more "urban" in design, and more closely linked with their neighborhoods. This particular project is the result of a collaboration between the boxer Oscar de la Hoya and Green Dot Public Schools. Located in Boyle Heights on the difficult 36,000 sf site of Oscar's original gym, the 45,000 sf program combines a charter high school with a boxing center open to the neighborhood, and has 40 parkling spaces on grade. Sun control for the Western facing classrooms was also a primary design issue."

More about principal Frank Wells

Locke High School, near Watts in Los Angles, California

Here's what Joanne Jacobs (joannejacob.com on May 4, 2007) had to say about Los Angeles principal Frank Wells before he was dismissed:

"Frank Wells, principal of a very bad Los Angeles high school, said he doesn’t need more money, reports the LA Times. (Repent of your sins! The end time is near!) On a visit to a Green Dot charter school, Frank Wells bitterly criticized the district bureaucracy for blocking real change at Locke High, near Watts. He called it “criminal to allow a school to continue on year after year, the way this one has.”

"“The more you fail, the more money they throw at you,” he said. “We’re filthy rich; I don’t want any more of your money. Send me quality teachers.”

"Wells was brought in to turn around Locke but says he’s run into a “brick wall.” "

[I agree with the following comment by Larry Strauss regarding Joanne Jacobs' post.]

"This is an example of where the ability of a principal to pay incentives to get quality teachers would probably have an impact.

"I don’t know too many teachers who would volunteer to transfer to Locke. My school is one of the alternatives to Locke — and Washington and Fremont — but our enrollment is only 360 (one reason our school has a graduation rate about 60% higher than Locke). One of our foreign language teachers began her career at Locke and has no desire to return there. Former Supt. Romer wanted to be able to force teachers to teach wherever he saw fit to assign them, which wouldn’t be terribly good for morale or retention….

"So Principal Wells has all this money… He can buy mountains of new text books but without enough “quality teachers” what good are those book? He can equip his classrooms with state of the art technology but without enough quality teachers the equipment is likely to go to waste.

"There isn’t a level playing field when it comes to hiring quality teachers. Geography, neighborhood safety, reputation, and challenging students make schools like Locke less desirable to most teachers. Offering incentive pay could level the playing field.

"One more thing: it is important to consider, when discussing a school such as Locke, that there are already quality teachers there. I know some myself. They might be in the minority which makes them even more outstanding. They put up with a lot of crap every day in their classrooms, in the hallways, and then they get dumped on along with the rest of the school by the press, the public, and the politicians…."

Union and District work to get rid of reform-minded principal

A. J. Duffy, President of United Teachers of Los Angeles


Green Dot Hero-Principal Frank Wells has been dismissed from Los Angeles Unified School District.

Steve Barr's Green Dot Public Schools were the subject of a New York Times article by Sam Dillon 07/24/2007:

"...Clint Bolick, a lawyer who has represented many charter schools, said: “If union bosses start patrolling their hallways, that’ll be the death knell of charters, as it has been for public schools. There has to be a genuine perestroika for Green Dot’s approach to work.”

"Tactics aside, the chain has had promising results. An early high school that Green Dot founded, Ànimo Inglewood, has raised the percent of students proficient in math by 40 points since 2003, and 79 percent of its students from the class of 2006 went on to college. Green Dot keeps enrollment in its high schools below 525. Incoming freshmen who need it remedial tutoring get it, and thereafter pursue a college-prep curriculum.

"Three years ago, Mr. Barr negotiated with district officials about overhauling Jefferson High School, a dropout factory in downtown Los Angeles. When the talks bogged down, Mr. Barr concluded he needed clout.

"Green Dot organized a parents union, and its members, buttonholing neighbors in supermarkets and churches, collected 10,000 signatures endorsing Jefferson’s division into several smaller charter schools.


Green Dot founder Steve Barr

"Mr. Barr marched from Jefferson High with nearly 1,000 parents to deliver the petition to district headquarters. The authorities refused to relinquish Jefferson, but the school board approved five new charters, which Green Dot inaugurated last fall, all near Jefferson and drawing students from it.

"Green Dot’s recent organizing suggests that many teachers are as frustrated as parents.

"Locke, designated a failing school for much of a decade, is awaiting its fourth principal in five years. This spring, Mr. Barr drew up a charter plan and began meeting with teachers to explain it. He envisioned using the Locke campus for smaller schools that emphasize college prep and give teachers more decision-making authority.

"He invited Frank Wells, Locke’s principal, to tour a Green Dot charter in May, a day on which Education Secretary Margaret Spellings would be visiting. Before parents, teachers and the secretary, Mr. Wells denounced the district as using Locke as a dumping ground for incompetent teachers.

"“I went to Locke thinking I could turn it around, but I ran into a brick wall,” Mr. Wells said.

"On May 7, teachers began circulating a petition endorsing Green Dot’s plan for Locke, and more than half of Locke’s 73-member tenured staff members signed. Bruce Smith, an English teacher who gathered signatures, said most young teachers were eager to sign; older teachers were reluctant.

"“Among the people who opposed us, nobody said, ‘The district is doing a great job here,’ ” Mr. Smith recalled. “It was mostly, ‘What about our job security?’ ”

"The district authorities accused Mr. Wells of fomenting the revolt, dispatched guards to escort him from the building, and dismissed him, Mr. Wells said. Binti Harvey, a district spokeswoman, declined to discuss Mr. Wells.

"A decision by Locke’s teachers to break with the district would be an embarrassment for the school district and the teachers union. Both began lobbying the teachers. Last month, the district rejected Green Dot’s petition, saying 17 teachers had withdrawn their endorsement, leaving it without the majority necessary to comply with a charter conversion law.

"But a newly elected board of education is to reconsider the petition in August."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/us/24charter.html?pagewanted=print