DESPITE?:

Annual test scores rise in L.A. Unified schools: State scores are up too. Local gains are tallied at schools under district control and in Green Dot and Villaraigosa schools (Howard Blume, 8/17/10, Los Angeles Times)

Despite thousands of teacher layoffs and shrinking school budgets, Los Angeles Unified, the state's largest school system, posted gains on annual standardized tests. Schools statewide also posted overall gains in results released Monday.

The rising scores brought generally good news concerning various reform efforts underway in L.A. Unified, including at Locke High School and at 12 schools overseen by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Schools still under direct district control also showed gains, some of them larger than the higher-profile efforts touted as superior to what the district could accomplish. [...]

Locke High, on the edge of Watts, became the first traditional Los Angeles school handed over to an outside organization when Green Dot Public Schools took over in July 2008. First-year scores remained virtually unchanged and exceptionally low. This year, the percentage of students proficient in English rose modestly from 13.7% to 14.9%; in math, from 4% to 6.7%.

"There is so much focus on test scores that people miss the bigger picture of what a turnaround is about," said Green Dot chief executive Marco Petruzzi. "The first thing you need to do is keep kids enrolled."

Enrollment and attendance rates surged, even as enrollment has declined elsewhere.

Locke began last year with about 250 more students than in its final year under L.A. Unified. And Green Dot asserts that 95% remain enrolled; independent state figures are unavailable.

Among ninth-graders who started under Green Dot two years ago, figures show 73% are still at Locke after 10th grade. That compares to 44% of students who remained after 10th grade in the class of 2008, under L.A. Unified. (The L.A. Unified percentage is worse in part because its ninth-grade number included students repeating ninth grade.)

More Locke students are taking exams in courses required for admission to state four-year colleges. Last year, 785 more students took math tests, 894 more took science tests and 603 more took history tests. Also, Locke's passing rate is up for the mandatory high school exit exam.