By Sandy Banks
From the outside, Plummer Elementary doesn’t look much like a showcase school. The 60-year-old campus has drab green bungalows, a patchy lawn and graffiti scrawled on the “Please, No Honking” sign.
The California Distinguished School logo above the front gate, out of reach of taggers, is about the only indication that something special is happening inside.
The San Fernando Valley campus, in a working-class pocket of North Hills, was singled out by Los Angeles Unified Supt. John Deasy in a conversation we had last month about whether low-income, Latino students in this district are doomed to mediocrity.
Plummer — where 90% of the students are poor and two-thirds begin school not fluent in English — is one of the district’s highest-scoring elementary schools. Its Academic Performance Index score has risen by more than 200 points, to 862, in the last four years, outpacing schools around the state with similar demographics.
Whatever is going on there shouldn’t be a secret, so I paid a visit to poke around.
What I found was tough love, hard work and a laser focus on student achievement. Not rocket science, but not magic either.
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Amid all the jargon of school reform, everyone agrees that the fundamentals of an effective school are high expectations, a strong leader, engaged parents and competent teachers.
Angel Barrett would add one more key ingredient: student data. And educators who aren’t afraid to pay attention to it.
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Advocates for Malibu Public Schools 