Locke Highs grand charter school experiment faces shutdown as LAUSD moves to take back campus

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A major education experiment lasting a generation is on the brink of a controversial ending as Los Angeles school district officials intend to shut down Alain Leroy Locke College Preparatory Academy and take back the Watts campus from its private operators.Green Dot Public Schools, the charter group that has managed Locke for nearly two decades, is mounting a last-ditch appeal of the L.A.

Unified decision before the board of the county Office of Education, whose staff has also recommended closure.At issue is whether about 1,000 students would fare better academically if Locke were run instead by the school district.

L.A.Unified officials have concluded that Locke is “chronically underperforming.”They point, essentially, to test scores that are lower than the state average, lower than other charters and lower than nearby district-operated “comparison” schools.

The district defends its approach in evaluating charters as consistent and fair and based on rules set out by the state and district policy.But Locke and its community supporters — including an array of elected officials and Tanya Ortiz Franklin, the L.A.school board member for that area — are pushing back.

They say much has improved since Green Dot took over the beleaguered campus in 2008, an unprecedented move for the nation’s second-largest school system: It was the first time that L.A.Unified turned over a high school and all its students to an outside organization.

California The company, which has succeeded on much smaller campuses, will try to transform a large, deeply troubled school by raising scores, increasing safety and graduating more students.It also was the first time that a local charter organization accepted the mission of a neighborhood public school — taking in every student who showed up.For district critics, families in the core of urban L.A.suddenly had an education lifeline.

But for...