First Harvard Article

Hey all, thanks for remaining so supportive and helpful! I can't believe I have my first college article under my belt... well, at least half of one. They ended up calling it the "Golden Laboratory", which I guess makes a lot of sense since it's about two Californian school districts (and one of them is in the wonderful city with the Golden Gate, and both are in the Golden State), but I still can't help but think about usurping their prerogatives as editors to choose our titles. I suppose I can get over it. But geez! The Golden Laboratory?! And also, it seems like an additional 10% of my words were cut off because of space restrictions, which is still OK, but I also feel that it is important to note that there is still a lot of controversy and disagreement within the San Francisco school district, and perhaps the impression from the article (after the editors' edited it) paints too rosy a picture. But that's okay, it's all for a great city.

The more detailed rough draft concerning SFUSD can be found here. Oh, and the official picture for the article's pretty bad too. It's supposed to be the San Andreas fault and it's supposed to represent... you know. Needless to say it wasn't my idea, so for my blog, I stole their cover art, which I was surprised to find was...... San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge!! (THAT was the pic that I wanted for the article. :sigh:, but wow, SF on the cover of the HPR).

Golden Laboratory

California’s experiments with education reform
BY AUDREY KIM AND JASON WONG

Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis famously noted in 1932 that thanks to America’s federalist system, “a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” The state of California has never been shy about taking Brandeis up on his offer. Most recently, California’s two iconic cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, have attempted to take leading roles in the effort to revitalize American schools, with each city taking a very different approach to the problem.

The City of Angels
The political power struggle over Los Angeles schools has just begun. Spurred to action by Los Angeles Unified School District’s astronomically high dropout rate, which exceeds 50 percent for black and Latino students, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently proposed state legislation that would transfer powers currently held by elected school board members to one superintendent appointed by the mayor. The reasoning behind this bill was identical to that which had been used previously in New York, Chicago and Boston: linking the mayor’s reputation to school district performance would create new accountability and produce real results.

Not surprisingly, the Los Angeles School Board bristled at the mayor’s foray into their jurisdiction, launching a campaign claiming that Villaraigosa was meddling in education for political purposes. These claims are probably not entirely unfounded: Villaraigosa is widely considered to be the frontrunner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2010. A big win on education could help him cement that status. On the other hand, the mayor’s defenders are right to point out that Villaragosa has plenty of other good reasons to care deeply about schools, notably his own experience as a high-school dropout.

Regardless of the mayor’s sincerity, though, the electoral stakes of school reform have politicized the process and left its progress uncertain. Lawsuits about the constitutionality of the mayor’s bill are still pending. The school board recently appointed retired Navy Vice Admiral David Brewer as its new superintendent without consulting Villaraigosa. At present, a four-month legislative battle has led only to increasing animosity between education-related interest groups in Los Angeles, with students left in the lurch.

An Educational Treat
A few hours’ drive up the 101, San Francisco and its divergent approach to education provide a useful comparison to Los Angeles’s experience. With solid test scores and a strong upward academic trend, the San Francisco Unified School District and its leaders have found their reforms studied throughout the nation. One of these lauded reforms is the so-called Weighted Student Formula, which allocates school funding based on the special needs of individual students.

The creation of WSF and other novel policies has been aided by San Francisco’s methods of school management. Unlike Los Angeles, district governance in San Francisco typically involves a high level of community participation that includes many different stakeholders. Each school supports a School Site Council that includes school administrators, teachers, faculty, parents, and even students. Without such inclusive decision-making, it is doubtful that the Unified School District could have undertaken its experimental new initiatives. With parental participation and community representation on a regular and voluntary basis, the school district received an added boost to its own efforts for school reform. The changes seem to be paying off, as districtwide test scores have gone up.

District councils and committees also help educate budding activists, volunteers, and politicians. One candidate for school board, Bayard Fong, who has served on a School Site Council, told the HPR in an interview: “It helped me to be in the culture of thinking about all of these key issues, and to make schools better in San Francisco.” Within a few years, his PTA has grown from involving only eight regular members to a current membership of 90.

Striking a Balance
At a time when school districts are finding themselves under increasingly strict supervision, San Francisco and Los Angeles have found ways to stand out among the crowd. Los Angeles’s approach has been much more dependent on mayoral leadership, which has bred some controversy, while San Francisco’s has emphasized consensus and community participation. But in their fundamentally different political environments, both cities have tried to strike the delicate balance between autonomy, community, and oversight that makes for a successful public school district.

Copyright Harvard Political Review, 2006. All rights reserved.