Local News in Brief : Poor Students Will Get High Priority

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Leonard Britton on Thursday told a group of elementary and junior high school principals in San Pedro that one of his top priorities for the coming school year will be to raise the performance of low-achieving students, particularly poor youngsters who speak little English.

Educators know what instructional approaches work for underprivileged youngsters, the superintendent said, and district staff will begin to develop concrete strategies.

An added impetus to focus on the problems of poor achievement in the district, he noted, is the pending settlement of the long-running NAACP desegregation lawsuit, filed more than 20 years ago, that charged the district with providing black students with an inferior education. A federal court has given the district and the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People until Nov. 21 to reach a settlement, which attorneys for both sides say will center on new programs to benefit minority pupils.