Education Commons^™

Taken Over: The Story Of The Locke High School Takeover Through A Qualitative Study Of Student Voice, Joshua Michael Beardall

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

In Los Angeles, the charter movement has gained incredible momentum as Charter Management Organizations take over troubled public schools in working class neighborhoods and communities of color. In Watts, a Latino and African American working class neighborhood, Locke High School had long stood as a troubled school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. After decades of low test scores, violence, and astronomical dropout rates, Green Dot Public Schools took over the campus and, in 2008, opened Locke as a public charter school under its management. This study examined the perceptions, experiences, and stories of five 12th-grade students at Locke …