Open Letter To LEUSD: Consider Breaking Away From 'No Child Left Behind'

An open letter to Lake Elsinore Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Frank Passarella et al regarding a May 14 article posted on Patch titled ...

Dear Dr. Frank Passarella

After reading this article and its proposals I couldn't help but relate to a story that I had heard about on Monday.

Look up "Race to the Top" and see the story of a high school that previously had a graduation-to-college rate of 4 percent, then turned that around after four years to increase that rate to 70 percent. 

The school was Booker T. Washington High School in Southern Memphis, Tennessee, where the average income is approximately $10,000 per family. 

Because this school was statistically and academically the best turnaround story in the nation, they were honored with a very special speaker at their graduation ceremony last Monday.  

President Obama had made a promise years earlier to the winner of his challenge: To the top turnaround school in the nation, along with monetary awards, he promised to give the commencement address.

He kept that promise on May 16.

And with tears of joy the Booker T. Washington students went on to graduate and 70 percent of them were headed to college, having been accepted.

Does anyone in this district have the courage to even consider throwing out the past "No Child Left Behind" policies and doing what Booker T. did?

Dr. Passarella, how can you not just take a look at this story and be inspired by the potential it represents? It can't hurt just to look can it?  Please, I beg you!

I know you are concerned and doing all you can with the enormous fiscal challenges that we face, but I hope you will hear this mother's plea.  

I am asking you to hear this true story out of Tennessee and consider doing a courageous thing. I am asking you to consider breaking with the past and looking to the future. The old form of top-down management that you propose in this article will not achieve the turnaround that all our schools so desperately need. 

It is more of the same and we really don't have the resources for it. We need an entirely new concept and approach. The story that I am conveying to you is one of profound achievement in the most limited and challenged of circumstances. 

We are making no attempt to capture what we have and to make it work to our advantage: A child's enthusiasm, excitement, and energy coupled with great educators, mentors and community and parental support is a terrible thing to waste. 

In these very difficult times, we need all of that and more. 

We need everyone and every level of government to rally support, services, and time around our kids. Our businesses and our community needs them and they need mentors and all the support that is required as happened for this one school in the most economically challenged of districts. 

Sincerely,
Lake Elsinore resident Diana Hansen, R.N.,
Wife and mother of three boys with ADD and ADHD in grammar, middle and high school. All are struggling in our current system despite our efforts and all the efforts of their teachers, administrators and counselors.