Endorsement: Tanya Ortiz Franklin for L.A. Unified school board

A woman points with left hand in a classroom with other standing adults and sitting children.

Jan. 22, 2024 5 AM PT

The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District has shown less division and more cooperation during the last few years than a decade ago, when charter-backed candidates were often sharply at odds with those supported by the teachers union.

Perhaps the shift was brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, which called for an all-hands-on-deck approach. It’s helped Supt. Alberto Carvalho solidify his office’s control over the district, with the board playing a more muted role — but that could change, depending on the outcome of this year’s election. We have long believed that the board should set broad policy and leave it to the superintendent to carry out those policies.

Only two candidates are on the March ballot to represent board District 7, which stretches from South L.A. to San Pedro: incumbent Tanya Ortiz Franklin, who seeks a second term; and perennial challenger Lydia Gutierrez, a Long Beach elementary school teacher. Franklin, a former L.A. Unified teacher and administrator for the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, is the better choice.

She has helped make the board a calm, well-run group that operates through collaboration and common sense rather than ideology. Though her campaign is backed by the charter/reform movement, she talks enthusiastically about how much she has learned from fellow board member Jackie Goldberg, who is associated with United Teachers Los Angeles.

Franklin wanted to create a new policy to grade students based on their mastery of the class material, not whether they completed all the homework or behaved well in class. Perhaps for a science class, a student might make a presentation rather than write a paper. With Goldberg’s support and advice, she said, she rewrote her proposal as an option for teachers, not a mandate. That would help empower teachers rather than force them to do something that might not work for them or the subjects they taught. The resolution passed.

This approach will do far more for the district than, for example, its poorly thought-out requirement that all students pass college-prep courses in order to graduate, which has contributed to grade inflation.

Of course, not everything at L.A. Unified is on track. Carvalho wanted to move away from the successful Primary Promise program, which provides intensive tutoring to very young students in reading and math, and toward a less intensive approach but at more grade levels. Primary Promise, started by the previous superintendent, is one of the few L.A. Unified initiatives to make a measurable difference in student learning. It remains to be seen whether Carvalho’s approach will work. Grade inflation continues to plague the district; a Times analysis showed that the vast majority of students get A’s, Bs and Cs, though only a fraction have mastered the state’s standards.

But the new emphasis on community schools that offer a wide range of services to students, families and neighborhoods is a bright spot for the district. So were decisions to direct resources where they’re most needed, such as the Black Student Achievement Plan. The district is far more responsive to the needs of underserved students and families than it was a decade or so ago.

If she wins a second term, Franklin will have more senior standing on the board. She should use that to tackle grade inflation with mastery grading. If kids haven’t mastered the material, both they and their parents have a right to know based on their grades. She should keep a close eye on whether this shift from Primary Promise is working for students, and not hesitate to call for reversing course if it’s not.

There is plenty of urgent work ahead for L.A. Unified. Franklin is the right candidate to tackle that work.