Parents “Trigger” Reform in California

Lindsey Burke / December 08, 2010

Since last January, every parent in California of a child in a failing public school has had the legal right to petition and invoke one of four turnaround models. Yesterday, in a revolutionary move, parents at McKinley Elementary School, part of the Compton Unified School District, did just that, becoming the first in the nation to use the “parent trigger” to convert the failing school into a charter school.

The parent trigger enables parents to reform a failing public school in one of four ways: (1) They can convert the poor-performing public school into a charter; (2) they can opt for a district turnaround, replacing half the staff and bringing in new leadership; (3) they can invoke a transformation in which the district replaces the principal; or (4) they can increase their parental bargaining power to make school-wide changes. While all of the turnaround options are meaningful, parents in Compton have chosen the most innovative. (more…)