Belmont learning from here

ByJessica M. Smith/ Staff Writer
Thursday, August 24, 2006

They're 3,000 miles apart, but West Roxbury and the Belmont neighborhood in Los Angeles will soon share similar education systems.

Come 2007, Belmont will implement the pilot school model that is used in Boston. It will be the first time that Boston's approach to pilot schools will be put into action outside of the commonwealth.

A pilot school is a school that does not have to comply with rules established by public school systems and teachers' unions. Pilot schools are democratically governed by parents, students, staff and community members. Being a pilot allows the staff at a school to make its own decisions regarding teachers and budgeting.

In the Parkway, the most notable pilot school is the Patrick Lyndon School in West Roxbury. Although the Lyndon teaches kindergarteners though eight-graders, the schools created out west will be high schools. There are about 20 pilot schools in Boston.

According to Dan French, executive director of Boston's Center for Collaborative Education, Boston's model was chosen because it serves a similar population of students, but does it much better.

"What they've seen is a group of schools, that on the whole, with the same per pupil budget and the same demographic, is outperforming [the LA schools]. There's higher student attendance, lower suspension, higher graduation and higher college going rates," said French of the virtues of how things are done in Boston.

Jessica Smith can be reached at jsmith@cnc.com.