School & District Management

L.A. Proceeds With Plans to Open ‘Pilot Schools’ in Belmont Area

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo — August 08, 2006 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Los Angeles officials are hoping a school improvement model that has shown promise on the opposite coast will help turn around secondary education in the school system’s Belmont attendance area.

The 727,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District announced last month that it is working with the local teachers’ union and community groups on a plan to open as many as 10 secondary schools patterned after the Boston “pilot school” program. The model, in which schools have autonomy in hiring, spending, curriculum, and scheduling, has been linked to rising test scores and improvements on other measures.

“This is real education reform,” Superintendent Roy Romer said in a statement. In 2003, Mr. Romer led a delegation of union officials, school board members, and parents to Boston to learn more about the program. “It creates high-caliber schools for downtown students,” he said.

The Los Angeles district announced the agreement last month with United Teachers Los Angeles, an affiliate of both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, to begin work on establishing small college-preparatory high schools, which would be offered as an option for students eligible to attend Belmont High School.

Boston’s pilot-school program, which has grown to 19 schools since 1994—including several high schools—was set up through a partnership between the 145-school district and the Boston Teachers Union.

A study released in January found that students in the schools in the program outperformed their counterparts in the city’s regular public schools on several measures of student engagement and achievement, including state test scores in reading and mathematics, graduation rates, and the percentage of students going on to college.

The growth of the network, however, was stalled for several years in a dispute over overtime pay for the extra time teachers in the pilot schools work beyond what the union contract requires. After reaching a compromise earlier this year, the network is set to open as many as seven new schools over the next three years. (“Boston District and Union Agree on Adding ‘Pilot Schools’,” Feb. 22, 2006.)

A Signal for Progress?

After two years of discussion, Los Angeles officials hope to reach a final agreement and begin work on designing five to 10 such schools in time to open for the 2007-08 school year. UTLA has not committed to a time frame, but has agreed to enter into “meaningful dialogue” about the plan, according to President A.J. Duffy.

“There are a lot of aspects [of the model] that are very attractive to teachers: lower class sizes; teachers have a meaningful and central role in curriculum and professional-development decisions; and the creation of a model of an administrator that isn’t a top-down autocrat, but a bottom-up, collaborative consensus builder,” he said. “These are things that UTLA has fought for for years.”

The Belmont Education Collaborative, a group of more than three dozen community and business organizations, and universities, many of them serving the large Latino population in the Belmont attendance area, has also pushed for the new program.

The pilot schools often have longer school days and an extended school year. Principals control their budgeting decisions and choice of instructional programs. They can also choose teachers who agree to longer hours and extended planning and collaboration with colleagues.

Advocates say that adapting the Boston program to other cities will help promote the need for districts, unions, and communities to work together to foster more innovative school models.

“We have enough longitudinal data that suggests that when you grant urban public schools maximum autonomy over resources in exchange for accountability, it improves engagement and achievement outcomes for their students,” said Dan French, the executive director of the Center for Collaborative Education, a Boston-based group that promotes small schools. “Hopefully, having Los Angeles join will signal to districts and unions … that until [they] find ways to collaborate in the creation of dynamic public schools, we won’t make the progress we need.”

A version of this article appeared in the August 09, 2006 edition of Education Week as L.A. Proceeds With Plans to Open ‘Pilot Schools’ in Belmont Area

Events

School & District Management Webinar Fostering Productive Relationships Between Principals and Teachers
Strong principal-teacher relationships = happier teachers & thriving schools. Join our webinar for practical strategies.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment
3 Key Strategies for Prepping for State Tests & Building Long-Term Formative Practices
Boost state test success with data-driven strategies. Join our webinar for actionable steps, collaboration tips & funding insights.
Content provided by Instructure
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management How Principals Are Shaping Education Policy Through Advocacy
Principals share advice for advocating to state and federal lawmakers on behalf of schools.
6 min read
Elementary, middle, high school principals from Missouri met senior staffers at R-Rep. Eric Schmitt's office on March 12, 2025.
Principals from Missouri met senior staffers at Republican Rep. Eric Schmitt's office on March 12, 2025. School leaders say advocacy is an important part of their job.
Courtesy of Jenny Hayes
School & District Management What the Future Holds for Summer School as Federal Aid Dries Up
Summer programs have been a go-to strategy to catch kids up and accelerate their learning. Will districts keep them with no more relief aid?
5 min read
Photo of high school students walking into class.
E+
School & District Management Infographic 9 Charts That Show the Lasting Effects of COVID on Schools
Key data on some of the move consequential changes, five years later.
3 min read
Illustration of Covid-19 impacting 3 years of school
Vanessa Solis/Education Week and Getty Images
School & District Management Opinion I Wear a Suit to School Every Day. Here's Why
You can suit up, dress down, or mix it up—but remember that what you wear sends a powerful message.
2 min read
A man in a suit exudes confidence and authority.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva