Patch: Ref Rodriguez and PUC's abject 50% CSU proficiency

First published on Echo Park Patch on February 4, 2015

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PUC's 50% CSU proficiency. These are Ref Rodriguez's best results with cherry picked students and extra funding?

Rather than running for school board Ref Rodriguez and his corporate charter cronies should be more focused on their own schools, which despite their marketing claims of “college ready”, are doing far worse than LAUSD public schools as a whole. For example, in 2013 students from Rodriguez’s Early College Academy for Leaders and Scholars (ECALS) took the California State University (CSU) entrance exams. Half of those taking the test FAILED to test proficient in either mathematics or English. That fifty percent that failed had to take remedial high school classes. If that’s the best that so-called “high performing” chains like PUC can do, then we need to revisit this whole handing public money over to private entities. Fifty percent remediation rates isn’t about “lifting kids out of poverty”, it’s taking advantage of students so that charter executives can grow their bank accounts.