On the other hand, LAUSD just OT’s those kids—meaning (on the off chance you’re not familiar with the term) forces them into “Opportunity Transfers,” which is how they basically get a kid out of any given school without having to expel him or her—the latter process requiring the district to, you know, follow certain legal guidelines or risk a lawsuit. With an OT, they get to toss ‘em out (ie. transfer them to another school, which often doesn’t know they’re coming and doesn’t want them either), without any legal muss or fuss.

(I may be rambling here, as I’m trying to answer this quickly.)

But good point. Likely, your question merits a post all it’s own, and some further research on my part.

I agree with you, however, that the real test will come after Green Dot starts operating a big comprehensive high school. I also agree that (with some exceptions — e.g., LAUSD’s highly-gifted magnet program, which is incredibly good) anything is better than what we have now.

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In 2006, Green Dot graduated 78 percent of its students, while the Los Angeles Unified School District graduated only 46 percent of its students.* Nearly three out of four Green Dot graduates were accepted to four-year universities. Four out of five Green Dot High Schools scored 700 or higher out of 1000 possible points on the Academic Performance Index, while comparable Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) schools in the same communities scored an average of 140 points lower.

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As I said, I’m taking this from their website, but in the past I’ve run the numbers from their raw data, just to make sure they weren’t….you know…pumping themselves up past what is warranted, and this seems about right. (Plus anyone can look at the state’s record of their standardized test scores, which I do every year, and again, they’re pretty accurate. They tend to perform around 100 points or more higher than neighboring schools.)

On the other hand, one isn’t comparing apples to apples exactly, as the Green Dot students self-select themselves into the schools. But, there are plenty of very at-risk kids in those schools. (Then again, the LAUSD scores include the high end high schools, like Pali and Taft, and the magnets.)

When and if Green Dot takes over a single big comprehensive high school like Locke, and has to take every kid rather than just the kids whose parents have it together enough to apply, it’s going to be a brand new challenge. But again, ABTWWG—Anything’s Better Than What We’ve Got.