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September 29-October 5, 2000
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Updated 5:00 p.m. PDT
By HILARY E. MACGREGOR
After a year of testing and tutoring at nine of the northeast San
Fernando Valley's poorest elementary schools, the percentage of students
reading at or above grade level tripled to 33% last year, officials of a
public-private endeavor to send more children to college announced
Wednesday.
The percentage of sixth-graders reading at or above grade level
quadrupled at four middle schools in the same area--although it still
remains at a dismally low 16%.
Those announcements were the highlights of a one-year progress report
by the innovative Project GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) at
Skirball Center. It started last year with 15 Los Angeles Unified School
District schools and more than 25,000 students in the largely Latino
northeast Valley.
Despite the improvements, Cheryl Mabey, executive director of Project
GRAD Los Angeles, said, "It is very sobering when you look at the low
level of academic achievement," she said.
Officials emphasized that it is still far too early to predict
long-term effects of the program--which aims to boost reading and math
scores, reduce dropout rates and drastically increase the number of
students going to college. But they said they hoped that aspects of the
program will spread.
Of the 25,000 students in the 15 Project GRAD schools, all of which
feed into San Fernando High School, more than 93.2% are Latino and 3.8%
are African American. More than 60% of the students speak limited English
and more than 90.6% participate in free or reduced lunch programs.
More than 42% of the teachers in participating schools have emergency
credentials.
The Los Angeles program will cost $40 million for four years and is
funded by $14.5 million in federal money, as well as contributions from
the school district, Ford Foundation, private groups and businesses. It
cost $6.6 million in its first year.
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