The following letter was sent to the Los Angeles Times in response to the recent article titled "Smaller Schools Called Antidote to Alienation."

I was pleased to see the attention given Elizabeth Learning Center in the LA Times article, "Smaller Schools Called Antidote to Alienation," on May 19, 1999. Elizabeth Learning Center deserves praise for its efforts and should be viewed as a model for other schools forced to deal with the many difficulties of education in an urban setting.

However, it is also important to point out that Elizabeth Learning Center is a participant in the Urban Learning Centers design for comprehensive school reform with the assistance of the Urban Learning Centers project team. The design seeks significant changes in instruction, school management and in how schools and communities work together to address the needs of students and their families. The Urban Learning Centers design is a collaboration of the Los Angeles Educational Partnership, Los Angeles Unified School District, and United Teachers Los Angeles. It is this group of collaborators and their design for comprehensive school reform that was selected by the New American Schools Development Corporation in a nationwide competition. Urban Learning Centers is currently one of nine project teams working with over 1,500 schools across the United States on comprehensive school reform.

Elizabeth Learning Center has done the hard work of school reform and is making a difference for its students today. Nonetheless, it is important for the media and public to understand the complex process of school reform. The assistance provided schools by outside organizations, including the school district and teacher’s union, is not trivial to the process of improving education and in fact it may be essential for successful change to occur.

Sincerely,

Gregory Nicholson
Manager of Research and Publications
Los Angeles Educational Partnership