Community Corner

Commentary: Checking In With Luther Burbank's Progress

The school's new approaches are paying off with higher test scores.

The California Department of Analysis, Measurement and Accountability released its 2012 Academic Performance Index (API) report, and Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch was remiss in not reporting the results to you.

If I might offer an excuse: I was briefly out of state for my wedding at the time, so I missed the story while it was still hot. However, some of the results are too encouraging to pass over without comment, especially those of Luther Burbank Middle School.

When we launched our site in December of 2010, Luther Burbank had an API score of 663, well below the average score of 696 among schools of similar size and demographics

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As a result, in April of 2011 the school was designated for reconstitution. Through the process, Luther Burbank's curriculum was rebuilt from the ground up, 80-percent of its teaching staff was replaced and Principal Arturo Valdez was brought in.

Two years later, Luther Burbank has earned an API score of 794. That's a 101-point improvement over 2011, and 56 points higher than similar schools in LAUSD.

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Last year, I visited Lurther Burbank to see how things were going in Valdez's first year as principal. During my tour of the school, Valdez talked to me about new educational approaches that Luther Burbank was embracing, including a cooperative learning technique in math that pushed students to tackle concepts outside of their comfort zone.

If Luther Burbank was going to thrive, Valdez told me then, it would be through fostering a sense of pride in the classroom that would inspire change throughout the rest of the building.

"What happens in the classroom permeates all areas," Valdez said last summer.

Valdez gave the lion's share of the credit to the school's new teaching staff, who have embraced new pedagogical approaches, and to parents, who have supported them along the way. 

"It had a lot to do with the professionals we have on board, who are doing an exemplary job," Students have responded and met every standard and expectation we had this year and parents have supported this 110-percent."

The success in the classroom, he said, has led to positive changes in subjective areas, as well, such as cleanliness and discipline.

"Everything stems from the classroom," Valdez reiterated on Tuesday afternoon.  "Students say, 'hey, wow this classroom is really clean.' That stems from having pride in the classroom. discipline problem has dwindled quite a lot because of success in the classroom. When students succeed in classroom, they see new possibilities."

Valdez's administration was met, at first, with some concern by community members and teachers who worried that reconstitution wouldn't address Luther Burbank's academic woes.

But, Valdez told me that the API scores have served more as motivation than validation.

"It's always fear of the unknown, but it's a challenge we gladly took on and had some great results," he said. "The one thing I'm noticing, there's always a pressure to advance and continue to grow. I felt that pressure when I got here and I don't feel any less pressure now. We don't feel that we've reached the highest point possible. i think we have people who are motivated to go in the right direction."


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