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When I was in high school, I couldn't have cared less about how my school rated in terms of academic excellence. I wanted my drama club, music and German classes, and that was about it — as far as things fit to print, anyway. Then again, 20 years ago, in the small, agricultural town in central California that I grew up in, there was only one public high school — I couldn't choose to transfer to another school or attend a magnet or charter school.
In Portland Public Schools, there are more than a dozen public high schools to choose from, and the ability make those choices is highly valued. One of the features of the new High School Redesign would elimate high school transfers between community schools.
Magnet and charter schools would still be available options, as long as there was room. The idea of getting rid of transfers is that all the high schools — Jefferson or Lincoln or any other — will offer the same advanced placement classes, college prep and other opportunities for student achievement. Of course, the devil is in the details, and there's a long way to go before any changes are actually made.
What's your neighborhood public high school like? If you or your child goes to a magnet, charter or private school, would you choose a neighborhood public school if it was higher quality? What would you change about the public high school you or your child attends? How important to you is having equality across all high schools in the district?
Special Note: Online Host David Miller and Senior Producer Allison Frost will be at the Jefferson High School campus from 8-10 a.m. to talk to students and principal Cynthia Harris on this first day of classes in Portland Public Schools.
GUESTS:
- John Wilhelmi: Co-leader of the PPS High School Design Team
- Steve Rawley: Editor and publisher of PPSEquity.org
- Cynthia Harris: Jefferson High School Principal
- Howard Yank: Curriculum Resource Coordinator for Vancouver Public Schools
Tagged as: high school · pps
Photo credit: Merelymel13 / Creative Commons
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I think the comment entry function on this page is broken.
At least it behaves in a confusing way: after poking "Accept", I saw the page with 0 comments again. A few minutes later, the original post and this one showed up. Surprising.
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Schools as they are need to be rethought, expanded, more varied opportunities given not go backward to forced attendance at your neighborhood school. People learn different ways, people have different interests and needs.
All the fancy language of those who control organized education in the city avoid the fact that all the information anyone could want is available on line. Teachers and schools are no longer the center of knowledge. In fact they are more about indoctrination, sports and a fund raising mechanism to perpetuate itself.
Kids are bored and there our options out there, that is why they are dropping out and/or following a passion. Even if that passion isn't valued by the system. Families/students are not going back to even more of an institulized shape of attendance at neighborhood school.
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I think the idea is to give more options to those who don't have the money or ability to go elsewhere, to allow those less well-off or supported to exceed and thrive just as much as those who are. Yes options and alternatives are great, but right now, with students being required to go to public schools that don't have advanced courses, there are NO options.
The concept is to raise the overall quality of public schools for the betterment of students, not to tear down the alternatives. The alternatives will still be there and hopefully with better offerings at all the schools there will be more chances for students to get into schools that do meet their educational desires/needs.
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The success of this reconiguration will all depend on the new boundaries drawn. The current boundaries are drawn along "Class" lines; if this does not change it will all be for nought. The attendance areas can and should be balanced by SES. I disagrre with the guess that separate but equal is "Better". If students from less affluent families are going to school with the more affluent students the inequities that now exist will be less likely to develop in the new configuration.
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Those who are able to transfer are going to areas where they "fit in" better now. Class lines are being segregated now just by who is able/encouraged to enroll elsewhere and who is not. Example: a poor black kid goes to poor school because they don't have a choice and are with other students like themselves. While his middle-class white neighbor goes to another school with more white kids that is well funded and has better course options. There are already class lines being drawn because there are choices only for some.
Yes, there should absolutely be a diverse population in schools. It increases the diversity of perspectives and provides for a much more aware and knowledgeable classroom. Hopefully requiring students to stay within their boundary will increase this diversity while providing a quality education to everyone.
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Students and parents don't choose other schools just because of the classes offered. Most of these decisions are based on the culture of the school, the size of the school and the perceived quality of the students. Making schools academically equal won't change these factors.
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P.S. As a gay kid, I remember I didn't want to go the high school in my area, which was actually a good school, but it was very large, and I perceived it to be populated with bullies and football players, so I sought out a smaller magnet school. I was glad I did, because I had a fairly pleasant high-school experience. A lot of decisions to switch schools are not about the programs offered, they are about the social experience, and where a student feels they will fit in best.
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One problem with a magnet program of any type is actual and real access. It takes time, awareness, and education level to apply to magnet programs. As a parent in the pps system I can tell you that the people taking advantage of the magnet program our mainly white, at least middle income level, and mostly with two parents many of those with one parent at home.
Joe
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Joe, Then why not make the magnet program have to be pursued by the student themselves? Kids, esp at the High School level, given the resources and opportunity could work to place themselves where they belonged. ok I know this won't work but still how can we let the learner drive their own learning. I mean they already do. You can't force learning. Oh yes, You can force people to sit in chairs and move between rooms. And - People are always learning, it's just a function of being alive.
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I dont think it is much of teachers and programs that we look at for our children, as an alumni of the Jefferson co-op program in 92-95, I saw the difference in the student body. I took my academic classes at Lincoln, with the exception of math which I took at Jeff as well as my dance classes. The difference of student disruption in my math class and disrespect the student gave an exceptional teacher who was a more than qualified teacher had to put up with!! I DO NOT want my children to have to go through that in order to obtain a basic education. I don't think the school district can correct what goes on in the classroom.
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I wonder if they have considered floating teachers for some of the more esoteric classes. That is, instead of moving students from school to school for classes, just have some of the teachers act sort of like the old traveling preachers, traveling to each school on a rotating schedule each week so that the kids can have the best teacher for that class.
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Ha, ha, ha you think there is a chance of the union permitting this? ha, ha, ha,
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Equality is a fine goal, but do not let striving for it trump all other goals.
A school system should provide pathways for budding physicians, scientists, musicians, carpenters, ... even lawyers.
Kids with a passion, those willing to soak up the resources, give much better return on investment than those who must be forced to attend.
A kid who wants to be a physician will probably take all the biology they can get, and use it in the future. The potential return to the community is huge.
You don't make things better for Jeff by cutting advanced classes at Lincoln or Grant. Open the path for ambitious kids to get to classes with their peers: other ambitious students. The whole group, however it is gathered, can "catch fire".
For any given kid, it is not a matter of color or wealth: you are who you are. Great teams (in sports, in music, in science) form when a critical mass of kids gets together.
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Why are you not looking at Corbett School system? Ranked in the top 10 in the United States! What are they doing that others are not.
From a Portland Tribune article:
"'Corbett, with 250 high school students, and the lowest funding in Multnomah County, has demonstrated that small high schools really can offer the most challenging of courses on a budget far below what most other schools spend both in Multnomah County as well as in the rest of the state of Oregon,' the district said."
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The article you link to is from the Gresham Outlook, not the Tribune.
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I'd like to see schools be smaller so that they are more of a community with everyone knowing each other and so more responsible to each other.
I don't like the business model of ever larger schools and classes for "efficiencies". I'd rather build better citizens than just turn out consuming workers, and that takes more personal attention in smaller classes and schools.
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I don't believe the case for abolishing the transfer system has been made adequately.
First - As a caller has already pointed out, it is impossible for every school to offer every opportunity. Attempting to provide "every opportunity at every school" will lead to situations where multiple schools each have a few students interested in a particular program but that program exists at none of them, where under the current system that could be provided at one school and those students could attend there.
Thinking a bit deeper, one sees the self-motivation behind the Education System's desire to end transfers and provide every opportunity at every school. Because we lose the comparative advantage of varied curriculae from school to school, the entire system loses efficiency. The resulting shortages will help to make a case for diverting more funding to Education.
Secondly - It is not difficult to make school funding work under a transfer system - even with the current system of funding. Even as this show's guest speaker talks about how the current system doesn't work, the truth is that no realistic attempt was ever made to make the transfer system work.
All that needs to be done is for more of each school's (proportional) funding to be fixed based on the facility size, meaning less money moves from one school to another when a student transfers.
This will have two benefits: First, this increases the per student funding at a school that has students moving away from it, thereby allowing the quality of programs to increase at that school. Similarly, the quality of programs at schools that become packed with students will decrease. An equilibrium is created from this shifting, and we will have achieved a natural equalization mechanism that is not subject to political manipulation by the ambitions of State Agencies. Secondly, the transfer between schools provides important, direct evidence of the relative quality of one or another school. This will force the very good schools to admit that they are overfunded. If we want equalization in education it means the nicest schools will have to get crappier, or more money will have to be injected into the system. There is no other alternative. Already I can hear the rich kids moaning. Only a quasi-market approach like what I have suggested here will overcome the politics.
Read more: www.foundationchange.blogspot.com
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I know I'm getting into this late but I just had to comment that after listening to today's show I don't have much respect for Jefferson being a very good school. The female student who was interviewed who talked about wanting to get a 4.0 this year couldn't pronounce "ballet" correctly, she pronounced the "t" at the end.
There must be a serious case of grade inflation at Jefferson if she's managed to get 3.8 GPAs up until now.
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fmr323 I heard a high paid pundit on television say Oregon (Or uh gone) over and over the other day. I am from Illinois and hear adults with PhD's say Illinoise still. I heard her say the T as well and my first thought was not that Jeff is a bad school or she is not a good student but that she must not have been exposed to this before and was simply reading it off the paper phonetically or she was NERVOUS being on the radio and said it wrong. I challenge you to rethink your first impression and remember what it is like to be in high school on the first day.
I would have called in today but think out loud only says the number to call in twice the whole program and I missed it all the first time and then it was ten minutes till the show ended before they repeated it again. I agree that boundary lines are going to need to be redrawn and that those lines will probably have to cross the river. I talk to so many parents that have no idea how segregated and inequitable PPS is. I heard a young woman from Roosevelt burst into tears talking to the school board about her schools bad reputation and that it simply wasn't true and how kids worked hard. You could just feel her heart breaking in that room and I thought to myself that is true school spirit. It is hard to hear people make blanket statements about opportunities being wasted on certain schools. Do people really think that? Have we sunk that low?
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Comments are now closed.
What a phenomenally bad idea.
If you eliminate all advanced classes, you eliminate opportunities for all.
Let there be focused programs which facilitate eager kids to learn a great deal, and make transfers as easy as can be to encourage kids to try to be their best.
It's not the case that all kids would bother, but don't cut off the opportunities for those who would.
Most or all of the schools should have some AP classes, but one/some should offer truly excellent opportunities in science, for example. Another might focus on health care, and another on music.
It is not the case that each school, or even any one school, would have the energy, in either students or staff, to be excellent across the board.