LOS ANGELES -- One of the most difficult decisions facing Los Angeles parents is a whole lot easier, thanks to a new Web-based school evaluation system.
Los Angeles Unified School District is one of the largest in the nation, and the range of options within its boundaries is tremendous.
What's not always obvious, however, is which schools are doing well and which are not. People moving to Los Angeles from other areas, for example, very often depend on their realtor to tell them if a house is in a good school district or not. But what does "good" mean? A computer for every student? High test scores? No shootings?
"It's nice to be able to access that information," said Jan Sandman, PTA office manager and parent of two teenagers. "Usually it's not easy to get, especially the bad things about a school. I would say that anything that gives parents more access to school information is a good thing."
Previously, statistics such as test scores, the number of credentialed teachers, and how much money is spent per student were difficult, if not impossible to find without wading through a morass of beauracracy. Los Angeles Unified's new online school performance meter makes it easy to research a particular school or to compare between two competing neighborhoods.
The University of California at Los Angeles Center for Research on Evaluation Standards and Student Testing put the system together after Mayor Richard Riordan promised parents a district-wide report card and directed several grants to the Center.
