Locke charter high school students are improving. Why that may not be enough to stop closure

On Tuesday, the fate of a groundbreaking school reform effort will go before the Los Angeles County Board of Education and the decision of whether to shut down the Locke High charter school in Watts will hinge on two different interpretations of academic progress.In one version, Alain LeRoy Locke College Preparatory Academy is “chronically underperforming” so poorly that its 1,000 students would be better off if Locke High was returned to the control of the L.A.

Unified School District.In the other version, Locke High is helping students catch up academically and make significant gains — more than meeting the mark to remain in operation as a privately governed charter school.

The issue came to the county after the Los Angeles city school board in March voted 4 to 3 to remove the current operators of the school.Seventeen years ago, Locke marked the first time in L.A.

that an outside group took over a low-performing high school — continuing to take in all neighborhood students.Its fate now hinges on a last-ditch appeal to Los Angeles County education officials.The county education staff also is recommending closure.

But the charter school, operated by Green Dot Public Schools, has many community supporters.They say the data justify renewing the charter for a five-year term — if they can only get those in authority to look at it.Do test scores show low academic performance? Yes.

Last year, 28.1% of 11th graders tested as proficient in English language arts and 9.5% tested as proficient in math.The performance was significantly worse the last time L.A.

Unified was in control.In the 2007-08 school year, and on an easier state test, about 12% of Locke students tested as proficient in English language arts, and about 3% in math.

But even though scores are better, after 17 years, that’s not enough improvement, school district officials said, especially given that Locke’s test scores are lower than the state average, lower than at most other charter scho...