12/10/03 There have been improvements at the school sites towards academics, kids getting new books, school structure improvements, parent training at the district regarding advisory responsibilities for Parent Council, extra bathrooms at certain school sites, moderate amount of parental involvement, most of all, new people being hired who are very nice whether it be administrators, teachers, or staff. But their continues to be NO VOICE for any of the students, or a voice for the parents at the level of their complete rights to be involved in their childÕs education. Too much public information is not being shared with community members or parents. There is absolutely no Democracy at the school sites. Parents are still being used as participants at all councils for their signatures. To create future school improvements toward a better education for minorities and low-income communities schools need to allow students and parents to have a voice and be a part of a democratic system that believes in the constitution of the United States. - Maria Galvan, Parent-U-Turn 12/10/03 My concern is about the nurse at Lynwood High School. When sheÕs absent, if thereÕs an emergency, there is no one to help the students. My kids already went through this. My daughter had an accident and she needed pads and the office nurse was closed. We need someone in charge to take over when sheÕs not there. This has been happening for a long time and has to be changed. - Angelita Andrade, Parent-U-Turn 12/10/03 Equal to who? All students in Lynwood are lacking learning materials, and take home textbooks. The few good teachers take out of their pockets to make sure their students have something to work with. Other Elementary Schools are making the students bring their own crayons, pencils, paper, glue, scissors, etc. Even teachers are stressed because they are expected to improve studentsÕ academic success, but, yet, they have little support from the people in charge of issuing supplies. I myself work in the office and have problems with supplies, pen, pencils, and paper, not to mention my desk has broken doors that are stuck and wonÕt open. My principal told the health teacher to order a chair for me, but she never did, so I asked our secretary to do it and she did, but when it arrived, our principal confiscated it with other needed supplies, for example, paper clips, and in-boxes. - Valerie Mu–oz, Parent-U-Turn 12/10/03 At this time Lynwood Unified School District has a shortness of books for the classroom. LUSD is not using books, but dittoes and copies of books. The students that need math books for math problems that use colors canÕt do the problems because the ditto or copies are in black and white. There are a high percentage of uncredentialed teachers in LUSD that are teaching out of their college major. - Mary Johnson, Parent-U-Turn 12/03/03 Just looking aroud the neighborhood and you will see that already it is very different from suburban schools. It is clear that economically disadvantaged families have no other place to live but in neigborhoods that have higher crime rates and lower student achievements. I don't believe schools are given enough to truly inspire the children that we serve. As teachers we are at a disadvantage already because there is not enough new teacher support. We are not well prepared to step into the classroom with the behaviour problems and lack of family support that there is in our neigborhoods. I believe there is money in the school system but it is being spent on unneccesary things and very unqualfied people. I believe that we need quality staff developement that is monitored so that teachers are not wasting their time and getting paid for it. I do believe that if we are monitored for quality, we should be paid more and then more qualified teachers would implore the idea of working in urban schools. Ultimately it is the teacher that impacts the students. We need to make sure administrators are a held accountable for the teachers they hire. I feel before anyone gets a job they need to prove they are capable of handling teaching or administrating before they actually get hired. Only the most qualified, monitored, and tested teachers and staff should be hired on as teachers and then they should be paid much more than suburban schools. We need to be rewarded some way for truly working hard in neighborhoods that are clearly more in need of quality, caring teachers. - South Los Angeles Teacher 11/25/03 I believe that large classes particularly encourage failure among low income kids. I also believe that class size is absolutely the key to any reform in education. No matter what else is done, if classes get larger than 15-20, and if the overall secondary workload gets much past 60-70 students per teacher, teachers get overwhelmed and the resultant discouragement runs good teachers out of the profession. Once class size and workload are reduced, then we'll have to improve salaries to keep good teachers, and change the way teachers are evaluated. In my opinion, the only ones who can tell if a teacher is teaching well are the teacher's students. - Jim LeCuyer, Teachers4Change of San Francisco Due to the budget crisis our A.P. Physics and Honors English class did not have the textbooks for nearly half of the first semester. Education should not be compromised at any cost as it is supposed to be the equalizing factor. Equal opportunity is very much required in order to judge the potential of students. - Rangan Rangaraibharath, 12th Grade Student Fairfax HS Our schools, where the majority of the students are part of a minority group, are overcrowded, dirty, deteriorating. Teachers do not educate equally or [provide] quality education. It is very important because due to poor education minority students cannot compete at the same level that other students do in education and jobs. - Anonymous Parent, South Los Angeles I am concerned about inequalities in the area of school staffing both at the administrative and teaching levels. Many urban schools suffer not only from a lack of credentialed teachers but a lack of stable, effective administrators. The sum of weak leadership and inexperienced teachers is sure disaster. Our school does have a significant number of uncrendentialed teachers, but we’ve undergone major administrative instability as well. In seven years, we’ve had four principals and several periods during which we had no principal at all. I think the lack of stable administrators affects teachers in the same way a lack of a stable teacher affects students. We live and work in a cloud of uncertainty which inhibits us from developing a consistent practice, sense of school policy, and follow-through with site-based initiatives. The end result is a mix of chaos and inertia. - Cicely Bingener, Elementary School Teacher, Inglewood Unified II think our attention should be directed to our psychological state more so than our physical state. I believe many of our inequalities are psychologically embedded in our mentalities and are therefore ignored simply because we view it as normal; issues such as racism, sexism and self – hate. These inequalities are inseminated at birth, we grow to accept the conditions and environment in which we are placed; we are desensitized and immune to our poor living conditions. We are psychologically manipulated to believe certain distrusts about ourselves, to believe we belong in a certain career field as well as in a certain income bracket. The reality is that we are all individuals, and therefore should be treated as such; we should not be looked upon as our stereotypes predict, for our personalities differ. II believe equity in education would trigger or cause change in our personalities and in our mentalities, from a psychological vantage point. This treatment would cause us, as students to believe that we are capable of succeeding in education, which would translate to succeeding in life. To reiterate, this progress would improve our psyches and reestablish our confidence, we would be less fearful and insecure, we would not allow ourselves to be driven to desperation. - Alejandro Aldana, 12th Grade Student, Santa Monica High School