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GUEST: Leonard Isenberg, public school teacher

THIS IS A RE-BROADCAST

Despite already lagging test scores, this year, data showed that LA Unified High School students scored even lower in the past year, dropping 20 points below compared to the previous year. The new LAUSD superintendent David Brewer III said that high-school scores are attributed to a stubborn gap between white and minority students. The data released by the California Department of Education, revealed that although some progress had been made on math and english skills tests, overall scores were still well below state-wide averages. A spokesperson for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whose administration has made education reform its top priority, said that the lagging scores simply affirm the need for change. The Los Angeles Unified School District is one of the richest school districts in the country, whose budget outweighs that of the entire city of Los Angeles. Despite this, the school district has been rattled with problems such as low performing students, high drop-out rates, and a bloated bureaucracy.

Today we spend the hour with Leonard Isenberg, a teacher who was himself schooled in the public school system in LA, and today teaches within LAUSD. Leonard shared some of his ideas for improving LAUSD schools with me over email. Many of his ideas were commonsense, and some were learned from teaching experiences in other parts of the world. So I invited him to share them on the air with us.

If you would like to contact Leonard directly, send us an email at mail@uprisingradio.org.

THIS IS A RE-BROADCAST