18
Push for Change
Due to outside forces that may be stronger than any cultural awareness assembly
or volunteer intervention, students at Dorsey may have to come together sooner than
imagined. In 2010, the campus was placed on the Public School Choice Program list. The
program was created by the Los Angeles Unified School District and selects the district’s
low performing schools based largely on state test scores and graduation rates. Charter
school corporations as well as the school’s present administration and faculty are then
allowed to bid for control of restructuring the school.
There are several criteria for placing schools on the list, with testing being one of
the high priorities. Those schools that score less than 600 on the Academic Performance
Index and show less than 100 points of improvement over the course of five years are
subject. In 2010, Dorsey’s API score was 571, which was an improvement from its 2005
score of 501. Though numbers have steadily increased since that time, they have not met
the 100-point improvement mark.
Dorsey faculty and many parents are opposed to the notion of a charter school
takeover. Charter schools credit themselves with improving test scores and graduation
rates. Critics say that is often a result of cherry-picking the highest performing students
and the exclusion of Special Education and English as Second Language programs. Some
worry that some students in the community would be left out in the cold.
“I think our students would be forced to change schools to find a public school
that serves their needs,” said Lorena Santos an English as Second Language instructor at
Dorsey.