High School Reform in San Diego, CA

An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip — May 21-24, 2003

This visit was organized to allow participants to better understand issues relating to high school reform efforts in San Diego designed to increase student achievement, reduce dropout rates, and better prepare students for postsecondary education and careers. The trip allowed participants to see a range of secondary learning options for students, including comprehensive high schools, an alternative high school, and public charter schools. Participants also learned about the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grants to San Diego supporting the high school reform efforts, as well as the Gates Foundation support of High Tech High, an innovative charter school.

To provide a context for high school reform in California, Patrick Ainsworth, Director, High School Leadership Division, CA Department of Education, described the challenges faced by CA high schools and some of the state strategies and policies designed to improve student learning. A few statistics help define the challenge: there are 1.73 million high school students in CA, 46 percent of whom are eligible for free and reduced price school lunches; almost 20 percent of ninth graders are English language learners (ELLs); 571 high schools in CA have more than 1,500 students, with 50 schools having more than 5,000 students; 65 percent of high schools are either under- or low-performing; and the statewide dropout rate from ninth to twelfth grades is approximately 40 percent, although it is higher in large urban school districts.

To help address these challenges, the state has adopted a number of strategies, focusing on increasing expectations for performance, creating smaller schools and groupings of students, improving adolescent literacy, encouraging greater community-district-school collaboration for redesign, and changing adult behaviors and mind-sets about students and their expected levels of achievement. Specific funding interventions support:

• creating smaller learning communities, especially reducing the size of ninth grade classes;

• improving college outreach and access by partnering with the University of California and California State University systems and by creating early and middle college high school programs;

• raising the levels of adolescent literacy;

• providing high school learning options that build on career and technical education and applied learning, such as specialized secondary career programs, career academies, and Tech Prep;

• instituting a continuous improvement process (based on the Malcolm Baldrige Award for Education); and

• supporting charter schools to provide more choices to high school students.

The cornerstone of CA’s accountability system is the Academic Performance Index (API) which reflects a school’s performance on standardized tests and end-of-course exams, disaggregated by subgroups. Scores range from 200 to 1000, with the state setting a target of 800. Schools are placed in comparison groups according to their size. State law also requires students to pass the CA High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) which measures competency in English language arts and mathematics, in order to receive a high school diploma. (This requirement will become effective for the graduating class of 2006.) Lastly, the University of California system has made its entrance requirements, commonly known as the “A-G” requirements, available to all schools, and most high schools are adapting their curriculum to ensure that all students meet the A-G requirements, which include four years of English, three years of math, two years of a lab science, history or social science, and a foreign language, and electives.

These reforms, both well-targeted and comprehensive, are being compromised by the state’s budget deficit, which is preventing the state from implementing the reforms fully. However, while Ainsworth said that declining funding is a problem, it is not the only item standing in the way of improved student outcomes. He said that a large part of what is needed is to “change the way adults think about their expectations for all high school students. It’s a problem with adults who think these students aren’t capable; it’s not a problem with the kids.”

Garfield High School

Our first visit in San Diego was to Garfield High School, a continuation (or alternative) high school for students who have very few credits or no plans to graduate from a regular high school. Garfield opened in 1921 as the first continuation school in the U.S. and is now one of six alternative school settings in San Diego. Garfield is housed in a five-year old building directly across the street from San Diego City College (SDCC), the city’s community college. SDCC owns the land on which Garfield is sited, but Garfield has a long-term lease on the land, and the school district owns the building. Both institutions share an attached parking garage, which allows easy access for both high school and college students. The school is located close to the downtown business area and to public transportation.

Enrollment at Garfield is under 600, the average age is 17, and the average reading level is fifth grade. The student body is 50 percent Hispanic, and 25 percent each white and African American students. Students come from throughout the city, with students responsible for their own transportation. Students arrive at Garfield with many issues and challenges in their lives: some are victims of child abuse, homeless, or teen parents. Others have very low test scores and very few credits.

Joan Zeno, Principal, said that the school’s guiding principle is that every student can succeed. Staff and teachers believe that every student, given the necessary support and a nurturing environment, can be successful and improve attendance, get better grades, take more college-level courses, graduate, and be prepared for postsecondary education. The school is adequately staffed so that staff and students get to know each other, and the student-counselor ratio is a low 15:1. The 34 teachers work as a team; there is no hierarchy and interdisciplinary courses are encouraged.

The school’s program starts with a three-week orientation, during which students are assessed on math, literacy, and study skills, and personal behavior. In three weeks, they learn the rules and culture of the school and following this orientation, most students, even those with discipline problems, comply and appreciate the safe environment. The few students that are not ready to follow the rules are placed in other alternative programs run by the school district. Students also have a great deal of flexibility to enter and leave the program; students are able to return to their home high school at any time.

Garfield offers several programs with either extended day or regular classes. Over the years, Garfield staff considered organizing the school around a single purpose, but decided that offering multiple programs is a strategy to attract students and keep them engaged in their schooling. Trip participants learned about several of these program options, including the middle college high school program, the Oracle program, the Pregnant Minor program, and the culinary arts program.

Ron Manzoni, Vice President of Instruction, San Diego City College, described the middle college high school program that exists between the college and Garfield. It is a blend of secondary and postsecondary experience, which challenges students to realize goals and responsibilities they may not have been aware of before. High school students spend two weeks in an orientation program, six weeks in college classes, and two weeks as “interns” with business organizations in San Diego. The internship allows close observation of highly skilled workers in an industrial or commercial environment and also involves mock interviews and a mentorship component. The ten-week program is focused on at-risk students and operates with funding from the state. SDCC waives the $10/class fee for Garfield students, and funding from the school district provides opportunities for the high school and college faculty to develop the program and curriculum. Manzoni was honest in saying that at first the college faculty thought they were going to be dealing with “losers.” But Manzoni went on to say that the high school students have been very successful, and many are going on to four-year colleges. He attributed their success largely to the mentorship part of the program. Because of the success of the program, the middle college program has now become a school of choice for many students and teachers.

The middle college program at SDCC is unique in that it focuses on students at higher risk of not completing high school. While many traditional middle college high school programs have focused on higher ability students, Garfield is demonstrating that credit-deficient students can succeed in this type of program as well. However, for students to be successful in the City Middle College program, they need a higher level of reading than many of them have. Thus, they work a great deal on their literacy skills at first, and students begin by taking classes that are preparatory to college work. These courses are not transferable for credit to SDCC, rather they prepare students to take courses for credit at a later date. By physically locating some of the preparatory classes on the college campus, students become acclimated to college and begin to see that enrollment in postsecondary education is possible.

Once the students finish the required preparatory coursework and the internship, they can take regular classes at SDCC for credit. Manzoni said the program has been a success: a group of 175 students that participated in the middle college high school program completed a total of 200 more college classes than a comparable group of students who did not participate in the middle college program.

Another option for students at Garfield is the Oracle Independent Study Program. Students are expected to fulfill the same requirements as they would in a traditional school, but have the opportunity to work one-on-one with a teacher who specializes in customizing courses to fit the student’s diverse educational needs and goals. Students meet with a teacher once a week to develop a strategy to earn credits. Courses are taken one at a time, and usually 20 days of course work equals one credit. Students sign a contract and agree to stay on task by completing the work of five classes each week. Students can take their independent study courses at SDCC as well. Students in the Oracle program have access to teachers/counselors and computers from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Garfield also offers the Pregnant Minor program for pregnant teens and teen mothers. (Fathers are welcome to participate in the program, but most work or are in school, so it is hard for them to attend.) The self-contained program has about 30 students, with three teachers. The girls come from all over the district when they learn they are pregnant, and sometimes after the birth of their baby, they return to Garfield to finish their studies. Courses are offered in parenting, language arts, and science. There is a child care center for the babies in the basement of the school, so the teen mothers can visit their children and learn about child development with trained personnel. Nursing students from SDCC also work with the young mothers or pregnant teens. In addition to helping them learn parenting skills and child development, the nursing students form mentorship relationships with the teens, which encourages the teens to follow their mentors to SDCC.

A Hospitality Restaurant Program introduces students to a range of hospitality career opportunities in San Diego’s tourism industry and appears to be very popular. As part of their training, students work at homeless shelters and prepare meals for Thanksgiving. Money that is raised from certain catering jobs is funneled to the Garfield Foundation, a non-profit that involves city leaders in the support of Garfield’s school-to-career efforts with a main focus on the Hospitality Restaurant Program. Through the foundation, restaurants in the city provide support (dinnerware, tablecloths, and supplies) for events. The foundation has also helped add music classes at the school with support from the music and entertainment industry. The school has numerous other partnerships with the employer community, and employers serve as mentors or allow students to job shadow at their workplace.

Garfield receives the same per pupil expenditure as any other San Diego high school, despite its high need population. Separate funding for the pregnant teen program and for the nursery comes from Title I. Most gym equipment has been donated. The partnership with San Diego City College is one of the most important keys to the success of Garfield, according to Zeno and her colleagues. And since the school has limited support from parents, help from other organizations and employers is critical to their success.

As part of the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, the State of California is requiring each school to have an Academic Performance Index (API) number based on standardized test scores for reading and math. However, CA is allowing alternative schools to report on categories other than standardized reading and math scores given the transient nature of the student population and is trying to determine how alternative schools can most effectively show growth and progress. Zeno said that Garfield will use student suspension and attendance as two areas for the performance index, and they will also provide a quantitative analysis in reading, but it will not be based on state standardized tests. Recognizing that Garfield needs to align itself with the expectations of NCLB, the school will offer high school exit exam preparation classes during the summer or fall. As of May 2003, Garfield has improved student attendance and reduced the annual suspension rate by one-third. In May 2003, 130 students graduated from Garfield.

San Diego City Schools (SDCS) Blueprint for Student Success in a Standards-Based System

Kathe Neighbor, High School Reform Manager for the San Diego City Schools, provided an overview of the district’s K-12 reform strategy, the Blueprint for Student Success in a Standards-Based System, and the work that has been carried out on high school reform with support from the Carnegie Corporation and the Gates Foundation. The three guiding principles of the Blueprint are (1) principal leadership development; (2) personalization of the learning process; and (3) academic rigor. The Blueprint calls for changing the organizational structure of district schools and the entire system to support teaching and learning for all students and places a heavy emphasis on literacy and math development for students at all levels of schooling. At the high school level, the strategy focuses on the dual purposes of enabling all students to read and do math with facility and purpose and to meet the requirements for graduation and entrance to postsecondary education. The Blueprint also focuses on professional development (peer coaches, summer institutes for teachers, leadership development for administrators) and accountability.

Many of these initiatives were started when Alan Bersin became Superintendent in San Diego in 1998. The support from the Carnegie Corporation and Gates Foundation, starting in 2001, has allowed the district to be more aggressive in implementing the plan at the high school level. San Diego has used the Carnegie and Gates grants to focus on a number of specific interventions: intensive professional development with a strong emphasis on teaching literacy for all teachers; improving the literacy skills among adolescents by providing longer blocks of time for English language arts; and creating smaller schools.

San Diego has also received a Small Learning Communities Grant from the U.S. Department of Education to break up large high schools into smaller settings. Jack Fleck, one of the district’s instructional leaders, said that the four largest high schools (of a total of 22 high schools in the district) are being reconfigured into smaller schools and that several new small schools will be opened beginning in 2004.

The district has heavily invested in the development of current principals as instructional leaders, as well as seeking ways to develop new principals. Principals have mandatory training one day a month. SDCS can remove principals if they are not focused on improving instruction. Fleck said they need to find that “fine line between pushing principals too hard and frustrating their morale.” He described their work as transforming principals from being a “plant manager” to an instructional leader. Principals are also provided training on how to assess their teachers to determine how effective they are. In-service helps the principal analyze instructional practice and then determine what to do about changing it. A strong sense of collaboration has been developed among principals from this ongoing professional development, and the ones we met with all shared a common vision and vocabulary.

School redesign and the focus on instruction is an ongoing work, said Fleck. “We are flying this plane as we are building it. You need to have an aggressive plan to make change and change the culture of the school.” Schools need instructional leaders to focus on what happens in each classroom. The practice of teaching must be public and must be analyzed. Every teacher thinks they are teaching so that their students can learn, but when you analyze it, that is not so, Fleck continued. Teachers did not like having open visits at first, but now they are used to it. The district is encouraging teachers to be more like coaches with students and engage students in their learning. This demands specific lesson plans, which Fleck said were infrequently used in previous years. Teachers are spending more time planning their instructional delivery in ways that are more engaging for students, yet equally rigorous and challenging. One change in the science curriculum to make courses more engaging for students is to start with physics in ninth grade, then teach chemistry in the tenth grade, which are both more “hands-on,” and then biology in the 11th grade, which is more abstract. But this will require more professional development and clear curriculum frameworks to ensure teachers are prepared, said Fleck.

Neighbor described the process for involving the community in the development of the reform plan. The district started the conversation by sharing student outcome data with the broader public. San Diego has approximately 9,000 ninth grade students, but only 6,000 of them graduate. When the community learned about this situation, people wanted to come together to solve the problem, said Neighbor. Student and parent focus groups were held to learn what their needs are compared to what they are getting. This feedback was then provided to principals and teachers. The district also asked teachers and the business community for their input and feedback. The voice of the students, however, has been the strongest in leading to increased student engagement and academic rigor, noted Neighbor.

Neighbor said they sought union leadership early in the process to help define the vision and the three guiding principles. This cooperative working relationship led to union approval for some teachers to work as peer coaches rather than in regular classroom positions. The lowest performing schools were also given priority to hire the best teachers, she said.

Shirley Peterson, another instructional leader for the district, said that San Diego had a strong school-to-career program prior to the reform efforts, and that while the Blueprint does not address career and technical education, it is alive and well in the high schools. In reality, she said, career paths may be one of the most effective strategies for breaking large high schools into small schools, and numerous schools are using such a strategy. But, she said, it is incumbent upon the district to ensure that any small school focused on career preparation is also academically rigorous, because every student must complete the required A-G curriculum. “That doesn’t mean we are making the decision students are or are not college bound, but we are ensuring that they are prepared for college,” Peterson concluded. The district does require high school senior exhibitions related to career and applied learning, as one way to help prepare students for careers.

Fleck and Peterson described some of the challenges of the district reform efforts. Fleck said that “you can’t do this kind of work without professional development, but it’s always the first thing that goes when the budget is tight.” He also complained about teacher education programs (at colleges and universities), which have not changed to reflect the needs of schools today. Fleck said SDCS has to retrain new teachers, with a strong emphasis on teaching literacy, because the training they get from the teacher education programs is not what is needed. He said they have also had to amend the Blueprint, such as reducing the three-hour literacy block to a two-hour block because three hours was too long for the students. The plan also now emphasizes math and the district has provided a math content expert at every high school.

Another challenge to overcome was the loss of instructional aides at many schools, as the Blueprint began. The school district decided to use its discretionary money, which had supported instructional aides, to support more professional development. While schools were initially unhappy with this decision, the increased professional development has been welcome, but the loss of instructional aides was also controversial.

Other challenges in San Diego include a severe lack of space for students, due partly to the increasing number of teens enrolling in high school. Because of the high enrollment numbers, there are temporary facilities at every school, and despite plans for new construction, it will take many years to catch up.

Peterson said that the district is constantly reassessing the plan and is now focusing on transition points as students move through the system. Peterson also said that while teachers may not be implementing the complete package of reforms in every classroom, they know and have internalized the vision of student success. This was borne out by our observations of administrators and teachers at various schools who cited the guiding principles of the Blueprint and talked about helping each student succeed. The district will continue to do as much as resources allow, Peterson continued, but there has been a reduction of $21 million from the previous year. Therefore, “it’s all about reallocation of resources to meet our instructional goals,” she concluded.

Southwest High School

Southwest High School (SWHS) is a comprehensive high school located three miles from the border with Mexico. (SWHS is located in the Sweetwater Union School District, just south of San Diego, and as such is not part of the San Diego reform efforts. However, there is a strong network of principals in the metro area who share a common reform framework.) The school enjoys a wealth of linguistic, cultural, and ethnic diversity in its population of 2,474 students. Eighty-four percent of the students are Hispanic, 800 are designated limited English proficient, and 300 students are fully bilingual. The school receives Title I funding. SWHS is promoting rigorous college preparation for all of its students and uses the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) model as the foundation for its reform efforts. AVID is a national school-based college preparatory program for low-income and first-generation students used in 21 states and Department of Defense schools. AVID is an elective course and requires students to enroll in college preparatory classes, receive tutoring from college students, attend sessions with guest speakers from colleges and businesses, and participate in field trips to colleges and universities. The program is implemented as an integral part of the school day, and staff and teachers must attend AVID training and staff development. SWHS is also an AVID National Demonstration school and as a result is moving to institutionalize AVID methodologies throughout the campus, and over 40 percent of the faculty has been trained in the AVID approach.

AYPF participants first met with Helene Matthews, the AVID Coordinator, in the school library that was filled with reading material of high interest to adolescents. There are currently 350 students in 12 AVID sections at SWHS. Matthews said they target students with a 2.0 – 2.5 grade point average, but that students must also be determined and willing to change their study habits and behaviors to participate in AVID. “We look for students that are educationally disadvantaged, but because so many students here are educationally disadvantaged, basically any student at SWHS can participate in AVID. The goal is to get students ready to go on to a four-year university.” Ninety percent of the AVID students at SWHS go on to college, and almost all of those students go to four-year colleges, Matthews said.

There are four curriculum-based AVID strategies to help prepare students for postsecondary education: writing, inquiry, collaboration, and reading. The material is designed to be rigorous, but also interactive and of high interest to adolescents. All of our teachers are working to make their classes more rigorous, said Matthews. One of the cornerstones of AVID is improving study skills and using the Cornell note-taking system to help students become more organized. All AVID students participate in Advanced Placement (AP) or honors courses, and most students who take an AP course end up by joining the AVID program.

Several AVID students spoke of the importance of the supports, such as college tours, tutors, and mentors, to their success. Several SWHS alumni who are in college have returned to SWHS as AVID tutors, as a way to repay others who helped them. One college-going AVID alumnus who attended our meeting said that some parents don’t expect you to go to college, and some teachers don’t expect you to go to college, so AVID is very important in changing your own mindset about your potential.

John DeVore, Principal at SWHS for the past four years, provided an overview of why AVID is so needed. “The system fails the kids. The kids think the system will watch out for them and help them get ready and into college, but it doesn’t.” DeVore said that once they had success with AVID for certain students, they asked the question, if the AVID strategies of writing, inquiry, collaboration, and reading are good for some kids, why don’t we provide this type of education for everyone? As a result, the school is moving to use the AVID principles throughout the school, part of the national demonstration initiative. DeVore said the most difficult aspect of his job is to cause a shift in the way teachers think about the abilities of their students and the way they think about their teaching. “Teachers can no longer be a content teacher; they must now be a reading and writing teacher in a content area. In other words, a chemistry teacher is a reading and writing teacher in the content of chemistry,” said DeVore. The school has eliminated all remedial and lower level classes because they do not meet the A-G requirements.

DeVore continued by presenting his ideas for how school leaders should approach reform. Most principals, he said, are working “in” the system, not “on” the system; they are not looking for barriers to success. “The principal needs to work “on” the system. I’m the teacher’s first coach, and I spend 45-50 percent of my time in the classroom. Principals should be in the classroom developing his/her teachers. I’m interested in how all classes are doing, not just the Advanced Placement chemistry class.” When DeVore first came to SWHS, there were no standards for classes, and because teachers were isolated behind their classroom doors, no one knew what was being taught. “You have to agitate the status quo and force the teachers to work together. I have to make it uncomfortable for teachers and then help them get where we need them to be,” DeVore continued. As a result, professional development for the past four years has been solely focused on improving student competencies in reading and writing. The school uses its Title I money for reading and writing coaches, professional development, and to create classroom libraries that have books and materials of interest to adolescents.

As a low-performing school, SWHS also receives state funds to improve student outcomes. Those funds support a process of creating teams of teachers to better understand how to develop instruction to meet the A-G requirements. Common preparation periods for teacher teams were scheduled and nine academic coaches were hired to focus on guided practice and checking for understanding. The coaches do not evaluate the teachers, they help them improve their teaching. The school also reassigned the best teachers to work with ninth grade students.

DeVore said that “we know the paths to success, so if a student performs at a certain level in ninth grade, we know exactly what it will take to get him or her to succeed, and we know what it will take at tenth grade, 11th grade, etc.” As a result of the AVID program, the school has increased the number of students taking Advanced Placement tests from 290 four years ago to 920 now, with about 350 with passing scores. DeVore concluded, “My responsibility is to have superior classroom performance every day.”

Preuss Charter School

The AYPF group was not able to visit the Preuss Charter School due to our tight schedule, but the Principal, Doris Alvarez (National Principal of the Year in 1997), spoke to our group at dinner and described the mission, structure, and outcomes of the school.

Preuss Charter School is a middle/high school, grades 6-12, chartered under the San Diego Unified School District. Preuss Charter School was created in response to CA Proposition 209 which outlawed affirmative action in higher education admissions. The University of California – San Diego (UCSD) felt that a program designed to prepare low-income students, particularly students of color, for college would help ensure campus diversity. The community raised $14 million dollars to build the school on the campus of UCSD. It opened with 150 students in grades 6-8 and has now grown to 650 students in grades 6-11. Students are selected through a lottery process and must be eligible for free and reduced price lunch, demonstrate that they are motivated to attend college, and be a first-generation college student.

The school provides a very rigorous curriculum designed to allow all students to exceed the A-G university entrance requirements. With this high expectation, many students, given their backgrounds, need various supportive services to succeed, said Alvarez. Preuss offers a range of supports such as tutors, a longer school day, a longer school year, Saturday and summer school and other extended learning opportunities, and a mentor program. UCSD provides approximately 150 tutors per semester – one for each classroom – and these college students receive credit for their work. The school also draws upon retirees, community volunteers, and university personnel to serve as mentors. Alvarez said that the mentorship relationship is a significant factor in students’ lives. Advisory programs teach students about college, how to prepare for college, and about student financial aid. Students are grouped and stay together from the sixth grade until graduation. This grouping helps students develop a social support network and also creates positive peer pressure to perform academically. As a small school with an average class size of 25, learning is personalized, and adults know the students well.

Preuss offers other significant supports to its students, such as:

• A Head Counselor provides academic, social/emotional, and college counseling and works closely with parents and faculty to monitor and support academic progress. A second Guidance Counselor serves students in grades six and eleven.

• A Dean of Students provides support for students who are experiencing behavior and citizenship problems.

• A partnership with the UCSD Healthcare Department supported by a foundation grant allows access to medical care on a referral basis. The services of an adolescent physician to work with teachers and a Nurse Practitioner on adolescent health are also available. A school nurse is on site five days a week.

• A Resource Specialist serves students with Individual Education Plans and itinerant Resource Specialists serve students with speech, hearing, and physical disabilities.

• A district psychologist is available one day per week for testing and counseling, and a private psychologist sees students on-site in a therapeutic relationship.

• Preuss teachers regularly participate in problem-solving sessions with students and families.

The staff meets weekly to improve curriculum and learn new teaching strategies, especially in the area of literacy. Trainers from UCSD or teacher experts from the staff present model lessons or strategies learned from workshops, videos, published material, or books. Activities also center on reflection of teaching styles and practices and discussion of lessons and student work. These discussions enable teachers to inquire into best practices and learn from each other as well as research in the field. As a result of this cycle of inquiry, curriculum is further refined and developed to meet the needs of the students.
Preuss School works closely with the UCSD community to provide unique educational opportunities for Preuss students and improve the curriculum. Some of the activities include: placing students as Superfund project interns in various UCSD labs, cosponsoring efforts between UCSD Biology and Latin American Studies professors and Preuss teachers to improve and enrich the school’s curriculum, and working with the UCSD School of Education on how best to teach math and science and to determine what curriculum is most effective.

Ninety-five percent of the 11th graders passed the CAHSEE in English language arts and 100 percent of the tenth graders did. The school has a 98 percent attendance rate, and the Academic Performance Index for the school is 812, giving the school a ranking of nine out of ten statewide.

Alvarez said that too often there is a disconnect between high school and postsecondary education and the real world. The school seeks to create connections to help students envision their future. Internships provide an opportunity for students to connect their studies with the real world and being on the UCSD campus encourages students to strive for higher education.

Mission Bay High School

Mission Bay High School (MBHS) is a magnet school with approximately 1,600 students. It draws 30 percent of the students from the local neighborhood, with the remaining 70 percent of its student body coming from throughout the city. Student demographics mirror the city: 45 percent of the students are Latino; 28 percent are white; 15 percent are Asian; and 12 percent are African American. There has been an increase in the number of students eligible for free and reduced price school lunch (now 60 percent), and MBHS has a school-wide Title I program.

Tom Yount, Principal, introduced the reform efforts at MBHS by saying that “starting with the principal, we see ourselves as instructional leaders, not managers.” The school has a Literacy Administrator, a Math Administrator, and a Science Administrator, all highly qualified teachers who lead their departments. Literacy is the primary focus for all teachers and departments. The school follows the requirements of the Blueprint for Student Success and is one of the schools that received extra funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York grant to introduce reforms.

According to Lynda Templin, Literacy Administrator, about two-thirds of ninth graders are reading below their grade level, with some students reading at the first grade level. To determine their literacy needs, students are assessed when they enter and on an on-going basis. Based on their reading ability, they are then assigned to attend a one-, two-, or three-hour literacy block, with those students most significantly below grade level assigned to the three-hour block in a class with no more than 20 students. The students read for 35-40 minutes at a time, then there is a writing workshop, group discussion, and checking for understanding. The instruction is focused on helping students make meaning of what they are reading; teachers are not necessarily delivering other content. The Carnegie grant has also allowed each classroom to create a library with high interest reading materials. Teachers indicated that students in the three-hour classes have the most growth, and there was two years of growth in reading between September and February for some students. However, given the funding cuts, the three-hour blocks for ninth graders will be ended, and they will switch to a two-hour block with 25 students.

Teachers at MBHS have accepted the fact that “they need to focus on literacy in order to allow students to access content, so the literacy work does not get in the way of content delivery, it enables it,” said Yount. Professional development is offered throughout the year. Yount and the discipline administrators confer with teachers about how their students are performing and what each teacher needs on an individual basis to help their students succeed.

Given that the focus of the school is on literacy, all students, whether they are in a special literacy block or not, have sustained silent reading every week. Students can also use this period to get extra support from the teachers.

Donna Roberts, the Math Administrator, described some of the initiatives to improve math performance. While the district encourages students to take Algebra in the eighth grade, 75 percent of the ninth graders at MBSH come without those skills and have to take Algebra exploration, she said. The school uses an inquiry and discovery method, helping students understand the meaning of mathematics. Because improving student performance depends on the quality of instruction and trained teachers, a great deal of professional development has been provided to the teachers. Currently there are seven first-year teachers at MBHS, and Roberts is working with those teachers so that students have the best possible learning experience, and to make sure the teachers are meeting the needs of the students. Having the additional funding from the Carnegie grant allowed the school to keep class size for ninth grade math students at 20. Two-hour math blocks are also offered to students who are behind. There are some ninth grade students who take a three-hour literacy block and a two-hour math block, with lunch and PE, and that is their whole day.

Students are required to take three years of science, starting with physics, then chemistry and biology, and all courses meet the A-G university entrance requirements, said Dan Lavine, Science Administrator. Lavine said that the changes to the sequence of science courses and to the curricula has been made without really understanding what it will mean for students, because teachers have not been fully prepared for the changes. Only two of ten science teachers at MBHS have degrees in the subject they are teaching. While all ninth graders must take physics, most science teachers do not have the credentials to teach physics, or teachers are teaching out of their discipline to fill the classrooms. Recognizing this, teachers are given support structures to accommodate for these curriculum changes. To deal with the ninth grade physics requirement, the school is using an active physics curriculum, which is less rigorous but still meets state standards. There are different levels of physics, in the school: honor physics, inquiry or active physics, and sheltered physics for English language learners.

MBHS has an Academic Performance Index score of 5 out of 10 and is ranked 8 out of similar type schools. These scores went down from last year. Yount indicated that it is probably because they are keeping more lower-performing students in school, which might result in the decrease in test scores. Yount said they have not focused on dropout statistics because it is so hard to count dropouts. But, he said they are hopeful that the instructional improvements will result in a lowered dropout rate.

MBHS also has a program for upper-class students to mentor freshman and sophomore students. In the tenth grade, students develop a plan regarding their college plans and the classes they need for graduation. The school has four counselors who each work with approximately 500 students to review these course and college goals. The grant from Carnegie also allowed the school to conduct numerous focus groups with students, parents, and teachers to learn what changes might be needed at the school and to increase community involvement.

MBHS has also received an Advanced Placement (AP) Challenge Grant so that more students can take AP courses. The school tried to offer several online AP courses, but found it was not successful because their students were not accustomed to that level of independence. MBHS offers an AVID program, and the school has also formed a study group to consider moving to small learning communities, still at the earliest stages of development.

MBHS has a Coastal Studies program, as the high school is located on a body of water, and a Publication/Presentation Technologies program. Mission Bay received a Digital High school grant which helped set up a wireless network and provide an LCD projector for every classroom and a laptop computer for every teacher. There is no dedicated computer lab at the school; instead, there are rolling laptops that any classroom can access. Lastly, the school has a unique lab facility for professional development. A classroom can be observed through a one-way mirror and is used for professional development for the entire district.

The Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High

High Tech High (HTH) is an independent public charter school, designed to serve 600 students in grades 7-12. Gary Jacobs, Chair of the Board and Founder, said that the school was conceived by a group of San Diego high technology business leaders and local educators to address the high tech industry’s problems of finding qualified people to fill the growing number of job opportunities in San Diego. The design is based on three key principles: Personalization; Adult World Connection; and Common Intellectual Mission. Innovative features include performance-based assessment, daily shared planning time for staff, state of the art technical facilities for project-based learning, internships for all students, and close links to the high tech workplace.

The school was started in 2000 and currently has 400 students, with the expectation of 500 in 2003-2004. Students are accepted through a lottery process and reflect the demographics of San Diego. Eight percent of the students qualify as special education students, which is a relatively high number for a charter school. Larry Rosenstock, CEO and Principal, said that because of the personalized nature of the education at HTH, the school has a good reputation for serving special education students, so more and more apply. The school receives Title I money, based on the student enrollment, and uses it to help improve reading.

Rosenstock said the “whole proposition of high school is to engage kids and treat them with respect.” Rosenstock provided some background on the design of HTH. He had served as project director of the New Urban High Schools, which studied urban high schools that were using school-to-work strategies as a lever for whole school reform. The design also grew from the concept of academic-occupational integration of coursework, espoused by the Carl Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act. Concepts of student internships, access to an adult milieu, and doing relevant work were later drawn from the National School-to-Work Opportunities Act.

Rosenstock said HTH has integrated vocational education and academics. “The methodology of vocational and the ideology of content are married here. This is exactly how Perkins money should be used.” HTH receives funding from the Perkins Act, but, Rosenstock declared, “you aren’t able to tell if this is a technical school, an academic school, or an art school.” (The halls, classrooms, meeting rooms, and administrative offices are covered with student artwork.)

HTH does not use tracking or ability grouping. All students are educated to exceed the A-G university entrance requirements. Teachers design their own courses to meet the standards, but have great flexibility which allows teachers and students to explore their passions. All courses are approved by the University of California or accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. HTH has a five-period day, but some periods meet for 2 hours, and some are combined.

Teachers do not have tenure; they are on one-year contracts. Out of 25 existing contracts, 23 will be reoffered, and 21 have accepted. For the handful of openings, HTH had 250 applicants. Rosenstock said there is a good dynamic between the teachers and that teachers are not asked back if they do not get along with others. Teachers generally are young and have deep content and strong academic knowledge. Teachers come from all over the U.S., but to teach at HTH, but they need to be certified by the State of California. Because this has been an issue in hiring, HTH has been granted an exemption by CA to fully credential their own teachers. HTH received this exemption because the school provides so much professional development: teachers meet 45 minutes every day before the students arrive.

Teachers teach no more than 50 students. This encourages the unit of accountability to be between the teachers and the students. Advisories of one adult and 12-13 students are formed, and advisors also conduct home visits and family interviews.

As a performance-based school, students can move through the school at their own speed, so some take three years, some take four, and some take five. Every student creates a digital portfolio that provides a comprehensive look at each student’s work and learning. Each digital portfolio includes a personal statement, resume, work samples, and information about projects and internships. The digital portfolio is mapped to the traditional high school transcript to ensure that HTH’s students can demonstrate their learning and educational achievements in ways that fit the standard measurements of student achievement used by the state and other colleges and universities. For projects, students have built robots, a hovercraft, a submarine, and produced a video on Japanese internment. Art is also integrated into all aspects of the curriculum and appears throughout the school.

HTH’s emphasis on project-based learning as a strategy also helps students develop a personal connection to their work. Students explore their individual interests and passions and collaborate with adults on work whose success has meaning well beyond that of a graded course. Every student completes at least one term-long internship outside the school as a junior or senior.

All of HTH’s graduates have gone to college. The school’s API score is 10 (the highest) compared to all similar schools in CA and in San Diego. HTH also has the highest test scores for Latinos and for disadvantaged youth in CA. This is possible, Rosenstock said, not because they “teach to the test,” but because they prepare their students to think critically, to analyze, and engage them in their learning.

In 2004, HTH will be opening an international studies program for high school students as well as expanding to a middle school.

As a charter school, HTH receives a $5,500 per pupil expenditure (the San Diego per pupil expenditure is $7,600), and the operating budget to educate a student at HTH is $6,200. The school also receives funds for facilities, separate from the per pupil expenditure, and has recently received a $6.4 million replication grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support HTH’s technology-based education programs and to establish nine additional HTH sites in the U.S. Rosenstock said that the only way to truly replicate the school would be if people from this school left and incubated their own programs. But another replication strategy is to bring potential leaders to the school, immerse them in the culture and design of the school, and provide ongoing technical assistance during the start-up phase of the replication schools.

Debriefing Comments

Group participants engaged in a debriefing session after the visits. The following comments provide a glimpse of what participants learned or observed:

• The positive leadership of the superintendent in San Diego has led to sustained reform efforts.

• The role of the principal as instruction leader is critical.

• There was a difference in styles of principal leadership at each school, and it was interesting to see how it is manifest at each school. But each school was focused on the Blueprint and student success.

• Every school was so different, but they all had the same goals and purpose.

• It is important not to structure the reform too much, but to allow room for flexibility and creativity.

• Everyone at the schools knew what the A-G university entrance criteria were and talked a lot about them. But the university isn’t producing the teachers that can help students meet those goals.

• Partnerships with the community colleges or universities are necessary. Offering early college credit is an incentive for students.

• The problem of achievement does not rest with kids, but with adults, so professional development is critical.

• We need to have competition and diversity of choices.

• Can reform efforts be sustained when leaders leave?

• Internships make education relevant.

• The dropout problem keeps coming up, but hasn’t really been addressed.

Common Themes and Findings

While the four schools that we visited and the one we heard about were all different in terms of size, structure, and focus, there were a number of very obvious similarities. First, it is clear that the district leadership and the involvement of the district in the Carnegie and Gates reform efforts have had a tremendous impact on aligning efforts to improve student achievement. (Note: HTH, as a charter, does not operate under the Blueprint for Student Success, but evidenced many of the same themes and priorities in the Blueprint.) The administrators, staff, teachers, and students we spoke with understood the need: to focus on increasing student achievement, particularly in literacy and math; to provide the necessary supports for students to do this; to provide the necessary supports to teachers to do this; and to prepare students for entrance to postsecondary education consistent with the A-G university requirements.

At every school, we found a strong focus on improving the literacy skills of students, although it varied in intensity based on the student population. Because Mission Bay High School was selected as one of the high schools to implement the Blueprint for Student Success, and their student population demands it, their attention to literacy instruction was perhaps most concentrated, with the three-hour time blocks. But Principal DeVore’s comment about every teacher being a reading and writing teacher first and a teacher of content second, was striking in that it implies a lessening of the importance of the traditional disciplinary structure of high school as well as an acknowledgement of the need to concentrate on the most basic of skills.

All of the schools clearly stated that part of their mission is to prepare students for college, using the A-G university entrance requirements as the benchmark. Understanding that not every student would attend a four-year college or university, the schools ensure that students are prepared to a level that will allow them access to postsecondary education, a significant change from many high schools, and again, one that was consistent across every school we visited. The leadership from the state and from the university system has also been very helpful in conveying this message.

Schools were well aware of the accountability systems in place, how the schools are measured, what their scores were, and the challenges they faced in meeting the standards. Garfield, as an alternative school, in particular, had concerns about being measured by traditional or standardized tests, but understand that they need to prepare their students for the high school exit exams and are beginning to take steps to move in that direction. On the other side of the spectrum, HTH did little specifically related to preparing their students for the standardized tests (e.g. there was no curriculum alignment with state tests), but because of the depth and quality of the teaching, students performed very well on the standardized tests. The Academic Performance Index was discussed by most principals and administrators. While it appeared they did not necessarily like the rating system, it gave them an understanding of where they were in relation to other schools and what they would need to do to improve their score.

All of the schools described ongoing professional development linked to the academic needs of their students. This type of professional development is generally more effective than isolated or short-term training, as it relates directly to what teachers need at that time. The fact that it is ongoing or very frequent also increases the chance of its success. HTH’s dedicated 45 minutes a day for professional development is unique, but a wonderful model to aspire to.

Several of the schools used personalization as a strategy to help students succeed. The smaller schools, Garfield, Preuss, and HTH, were obvious examples of how a smaller school can provide greater personalization. But at Southwest and Mission Bay High Schools, opportunities for students to connect more closely with adults were provided through mentor and tutoring programs, college advisories, the use of the AVID program, smaller ninth grade classes, and smaller literacy classes. Garfield and HTH took personalization a step further by offering individualized learning options. Students at these two schools have opportunities to select the program they wish to participate in and/or to design their own learning.

Lastly, there appears to be good alignment between state and district high school reform initiatives. While the state provides a framework for reform, it allows local districts flexibility in how to improve student achievement and meet the needs of the youth and the community. The consistency of leadership in the San Diego school district and the efforts to develop strong principal leadership also appear to be important elements in the effort to reform high schools.

Contact Information

Patrick Ainsworth
Director
High School Leadership Division
California Department of Education
P.O. Box 944272
Sacramento, CA 94244-2720
painswor@cde.ca.gov
916-445-2652

Doris Alvarez
Principal
Preuss Charter School UCSD
9500 Gilman Drive
LaJolla, CA 92093-0536
858-658-7404
dalvarez@ucsd.edu

Rob Atterbury
Director
School-to-Career
San Diego City Schools
2441 Cardinal Lane, Building E
San Diego, CA 92123-3799
858-496-8719
ratterbu@mail.sandi.net

John DeVore
Principal
Southwest High School
1685 Hollister Street
San Diego, CA 92154
619-628-3023
john.devore@suhsd.k12.ca.us

Jack Fleck
Instructional Leader
Institute for Learning
San Diego City Schools
Eugene Brucker Education Center
4100 Normal Street, Room 2038
San Diego, CA 92103-7237
619-725-7235
jfleck@mail.sandi.net

Katherine Neighbor
High School Reform, Program Manager
San Diego City Schools
4100 Normal Street
San Diego, CA 92103-2682
619-725-5525
619-725-7238
kneighbo@mail.sandi.net

Shirley Peterson, Ed.D.
Instructional Leader
Institute for Learning
San Diego City Schools
Education Center, Room 2038
4100 Normal Street
San Diego, CA 92103-2682
619-725-7223
speters1@mail.sandi.net

Larry Rosenstock
President and CEO
The Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High School
2861 Womble Road
San Diego, CA 92106-6025
619-243-5011
lrosenstock@hightechhigh.org

Tom Yount
Principal
Mission Bay High School
2475 Grand Avenue
San Diego, CA 92109-4898
858-273-1313x 100
tyount@mail.sandi.net

Joan Zeno
Principal
Garfield High School
1255 16th Street
San Diego, CA 92101
619-525-2059
jzeno@mail.sandi.net

American Youth Policy Forum   1836 Jefferson Place NW,  Washington DC 20036
Telephone 202-775-9731      |      Fax 202-775-9733      |     Email aypf@aypf.org