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"It’s really historical because LAUSD doesn’t let community groups be part of doing research. So all through that study we had to really push and fight to have parents and students and teachers be part of that process. They really wanted to just do the study with LAUSD bureaucrats and university professors and that’s the way their research is often done — without the voices of the people who are being impacted."
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TCLA: CEJ achieved a big victory in the LAUSD board meeting. Please explain the greater implications of LAUSD’s decision?
Kirti Baranwal: This was a tremendous political victory in that we got the 2nd largest school district in the country to say that they don’t think it’s fair to attach diplomas to a racist test like the Exit Exam. They didn’t say that they’re going to boycott attaching the diplomas, but they said they don’t believe it’s fair to do so. This statement sends a real clear message to the state that LAUSD wants the state to vote in July against mandating that diplomas be attached to the High School Exit Exam. Since then, the president of the state school board, Reed Hastings, has said that there is a 95% chance that they are going to delay withholding diplomas of students who don’t pass the Exit Exam. They recognize how ridiculous it is to not give 70% of Black and Latino kids their diplomas (that’s how many failed the exam last year). All of this is the result of the organizing that is going on around the state, including our work and the work of Californians for Justice (CFJ). We have been building towards this victory for the past year and because of that, we were able to put effective pressure on the board and they were able to see that there is massive community opposition to this test.
School board member, Genethia Hudley-Hayes, who sponsored the motion with Jose Huizar, went so far as to say that if the state law is wrong, then we break it. She said, “Jim Crowe was wrong. We broke that law because it was wrong.” Even though LAUSD decided not to go forward with a boycott, it certainly opens a lot of space for our parents and teachers to continue organizing and putting increased pressure on the district and state to declare a moratorium on high-stakes tests and instead make real improvements in schools.
TCLA: How did CEJ organize on behalf of this board vote?
KB: On April 8th, we had 150 people at the LAUSD Board meeting wearing our blue CEJ shirts. Two months before that we had 250 people protesting on this same issue at the Board. Right before the board voted on April 8th, we had CEJ members like Dale Martin, a father from Washington Prep High School, Maria Jimenez, a mother from Miramonte Elementary School, Denny Lopez, and Kerlin Alvarado, students from Los Angeles High School, Edgar Sanchez, a teacher from Washington Prep High School and Ronni Solman, a teacher from Alessandro Elementary School, speak to the board. They spoke about the overcrowded classrooms that we experience every day and how we don’t have enough materials and supplies. Often times there is an inexperienced teacher or a substitute in the classroom who doesn’t have a lot of support. There is also a lot of violence on campuses because of the heavy police presence. Often times because of all of this, schools feel more like jails than schools. They also spoke about the lack of bilingual education to actually support young readers and writers and all the other inequalities that exist that don’t allow Black and Latino students to get an education. One of the Washington Prep students, Edgar, had said, “We should just get a diploma for surviving all that!”
Last May, we had 350 people out in front of the school board demanding that the board look at alternative assessments. At that time, Superintendent Romer was vehemently opposed to even looking at alternatives to high stakes tests. But through our organizing over the past year we got the board to pass a motion to create an Alternative Assessment Task Force and 12 out of 24 members of the Task Force agreed that the district needs to take a position against attaching diplomas to tests and that the board needs to look at improving conditions in schools as opposed to just test scores.
Rallying Against the High School Exit Exam, May 2003
It’s really historical because LAUSD doesn’t let community groups be part of doing research. So all through that study we had to really push and fight to have parents and students and teachers be part of that process. They really wanted to just do the study with LAUSD bureaucrats and university professors and that’s the way their research is often done — without the voices of the people who are being impacted.
However, what came out of this study was a brand new report that we took to the district on May 8th. So there were two reports that came out of that task force. One was the district’s report and the other was ours. LAUSD Board members supported the recommendations from our report. This has never happened in the history of LAUSD.
TCLA: Why does this victory matter to CEJ members?
KB: This statement by LAUSD is huge because this isn’t the mainstream political dialogue that’s going on about education reform. We’re fighting for real change and we want to see Black and Latino kids get the excellent education that they deserve. We’re talking about real lives. If 70% of Black and Latino students don’t get a diploma next year, what it means is that their option is to go into the US military to kill other people of color half way across the world and be killed themselves. The other option is to end up in jail or to get a low income or no income job. We know that our kids and communities deserve better than that.
High School Exit Exam Protest, May 2003
TCLA: What is CEJ working on now to insure that this board vote translates into new policy?
KB: We are working really closely with Californians for Justice (CFJ) to put statewide pressure on the state school board. The question now is not, “Will you delay the Exit Exam?” but “Will you delay it until you can fix all of the inequities in schools?” The State and the District need to address the racist conditions that exist in our schools. So, along with that statewide pressure we have schools working on different campaigns. There is a group addressing the lack of nutritious food at Toland Way Elementary School. In Northeast Los Angeles, we have parents and teachers working to get better transportation for the community. At Washington Prep High School we have teachers, students, and parents working to fight police brutality against students. There was an incident a couple of weeks ago where 60 riot police came on campus and began beating the kids with batons and macing them. At Los Angeles High School there is a campaign to get more teachers instead of ROTC recruiters, as well as to reduce class size. At Dorsey High they’re addressing the need for more required classes for graduation. At Crenshaw we have a campaign where students are working to challenge the No Child Left Behind Act and demanding that their names be taken off the military recruitment list. According to the federally mandated No Child Left Behind Act, every child’s name is on that list. They’re not going to Beverly Hills to recruit kids, they’re going to East LA and South LA and kids are saying we don’t want to fight your racist war. We have a group of parents in South LA who are fighting for more parent power and parent influence at schools. And in a school district that is 90% color and 70% working class, these are all fights that show that the public education system is a racist one. In our efforts we are looking at fighting the real conditions that we want to change because one part of it is that we don’t want working class Black and Latino students to be punished for these inequities, but the larger piece of that puzzle is that we need the conditions to change so that they have an opportunity to get an excellent education. So we’re going to keep fighting until we get that.
Kirti Baranwal can be contacted at kirtibaranwal@hotmail.com.
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