The sad story of an L.A. school labeled 'failing'

11-17-2010

Guest blog by L. Martha Infante/Washington Post

When the public middle school in which I work received news that we had not met our testing target, and in fact had dropped in our scores, we were not surprised. To the educators on campus, this outcome was a logical event based on the turmoil students and teachers had experienced with the laying off of 23 teachers in 2009, and another dozen in 2010. The social fabric of our school had frayed, there were lots of new faces on campus, and the economic lives of our students were not getting better in the midst of this recession. But being labeled a “failing” school, or “focus school” as is used down here in Los Angeles, was a label many of us were not accustomed to wearing. Our staff is quite accomplished, with several doctors of education, NBC [National Board Certified] teachers, and over two dozen gifted and talented education teachers with master certification in this area. Our students too, continued to try their hardest, but in today’s world of testing and sanctions, best efforts are irrelevant if scores do not increase at a fast enough rate. (more…)

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