I was prepared for the dog-and-pony show — the choreographed “reveal” of a school makeover that’s been in the works for years.
I didn’t expect much beyond a grown-up version of show-and-tell. But I came anyway because I have a soft spot for Jordan High in Watts.
I’ve spent a decade tracking the school’s efforts to improve; watched reformers arrive with big plans and leave with broken dreams.
The school’s problems, they’d say, are too deep and expensive to fix; too intertwined with a neighborhood that will always be warped by dysfunction and poverty.
But on Wednesday, state schools Supt. Tom Torlakson visited the school with certificates announcing its improvement. Jordan’s 93-point jump on the state’s academic performance index was the biggest of any urban high school in California this year.