Jordan High School: AFTER GENERATIONS OF FAILURE, A SCHOOL AND ITS STUDENTS HEAD FOR SUCCESS + smf’s 2¢
Jordan has made big strides in academic performance. There is more to achieve, but its progress is plain to see.
BY SANDY BANKS, LA TIMES | HTTP://LAT.MS/TSPAH3
  Jordan High students Devin Perkins and Esmeralda Diaz are high-achieving seniors who are a part of the success at the campus. (Christina House / For the Los Angeles Times) |
December 7, 2012, 7:15 p.m. :: 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.
That's why Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa showed up after working "56 hours straight" on trade missions and labor deals. "No way