School Choice & Charters

LAUSD, Parents’ Group Reach Agreement After Two ‘Parent Trigger’ Attempts

By Sarah Tully — July 06, 2016 1 min read
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Los Angeles Unified School District officials and a parents’ group have reached an agreement for the district to partner with a nonprofit organization to operate an elementary school after two parent-trigger campaigns.

The district and Partnership for Los Angeles Schools signed a five-year agreement with plans to improve achievement at 20th Street Elementary School, the district announced this week. See the district’s announcement.

Partnership is a nonprofit that joins together the district, the City of Los Angeles and others that are working on transforming 17 schools.

The agreement comes after two efforts by the 20th Street Parents Union to use the parent-trigger law, which allows parents to collect signatures to attempt to take over schools that fail to meet test-score goals. Parent Revolution, a parent-advocacy group that has been a leader in the parent-trigger movement, coordinated the 20th Street campaign.

Last year, the district and the school’s parent group forged an agreement to make changes at the school. But when parents said the district reneged on its promises, they turned in another petition, which was rejected earlier this year.

“We are very excited to work with the Partnership organization, our school staff, and all parents at the school to work for the education our children deserve,” said Omar Calvillo, coordinator of the 20th Street Parents Union, in a statement released by Parent Revolution. “Now it is time for all of us—parents, teachers, and the Partnership team—to come together and work as one team on behalf of our children.”

Parent Revolution and district officials praised the agreement.

“With this collaborative new partnership, we can continue to strengthen the academic supports, social-emotional learning opportunities, and parent-engagement programs that are essential to this school community,” said Superintendent Michelle King in a statement.

California in 2010 was the first state to approve a parent-trigger law, and it’s the only place where a campaign has gone through. Other states seemed to embrace the concept shortly after. But now, just six states have such laws, and other attempts earlier this year fizzled.

See snapshots of all of the parent-trigger campaigns as of last year.

Related story: Parent-Trigger Efforts in California Hit Stumbling Blocks

A version of this news article first appeared in the K-12 Parents and the Public blog.