Attention high school students: Si usted no puede leer esto (If
you can’t read this), it’s going to be difficult to get accepted to
a state university.
Attention high school students: Si usted no puede leer esto (If you can’t read this), it’s going to be difficult to get accepted to a state university.
While it’s not news that Morgan Hill high school students are not required to take Spanish or French to graduate – the idea of making that mandatory is something the school board thinks is worth considering. California State Universities require prospective students to pass at least two years of a foreign language to even be considered for admittance.
A Tuesday night workshop that attracted just five non-board members to Ann Sobrato High School’s library confronted issues that are expected to become additions to the board’s goals. The breadth of the three-hour discussion focused on college preparedness, from how students might benefit from more rigorous course work to a board member’s strong objection of trading applied art classes for more remedial help.
“You allow students to be flexible and you allow them to choose,” Trustee Shelle Thomas said. “If you want to go to college, then you take those classes. We want you to do it, but you have other options available.”
The back and forth posed some spirited opinions on what makes sense for most students.
Trustee Mike Hickey said the remark “college isn’t for everyone,” isn’t always true, and by implementing the A-G course work automatically gives Morgan Hill students a leg up on college, even if it’s not on their minds right now.
The term “A-G” comes from the seven prerequisites – listed from A to G – that students must meet in order to be considered for admittance to a school in the CSU system. They are English, math, history, laboratory science, foreign language, visual and performing arts, and one year of a college prep elective.
The largest difference between Morgan Hill Unified’s graduation requirements and the A-G list is that students have the choice to take a foreign language, whereas CSUs mandate it for acceptance.
There are six subject areas that do not fall under the A-G requirements: Special education, English-language learning classes, foods, welding, ASB and yearbook. All others, according to Theresa Sage of the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, meet the needs of the CSU system.
Hickey said that from his own experience many college students waver on choosing a major for some time before they find a career niche, but incorporating A-G would at least get students to that point with more opportunities.
And as the meeting wore on, “rigorous” became difficult to define, but board Vice President Peter Mandel suggested that making students four-year college bound would equate to a stringent sequence of course work.
“Colleges set the bar,” Trustee Don Moody said. “It’s whether we meet those requirements.”
The Federation of Teachers solicited input from staff in the weeks prior to the meeting that tackled all three new goals; 142 of MHUSD’s 450 teachers responded.
Superintendent Wes Smith wrote in an e-mail to board members that most of the comments by school district staff suggested the goal of four-year college preparedness was too limited. Staff wanted to see more attention paid to failing students, parent responsibility, trade or apprenticeship programs and the expansion of electives to “keep our students interested, excited and engaged.”
While there were no simple answers to the “college preparedness” goal for the board, Smith said he will talk with educators and staff on what it would take to require two years of a foreign language for every high school student. Smith said he will also look at how the district might shift the foundations at the elementary schools to make it more likely that they would want to go to college.
Fisher pointed out that, “long-term success has to start in kindergarten.”
A short-term fix, though, might include hosting a college and career fair for highschoolers. The district hasn’t had a high school career day in at least nine years, Sullivan said. On the Web sites of both Sobrato and Live Oak is a section for “guidance” that lists useful links to college help sites. Members expressed a need for more guidance counselors to put students on the path to college and give them some direction. Right now, Sobrato employs three guidance counselors for about 1,500 students. Live Oak has two for 1,300 students.
Amid the hustle and bustle of simply getting through the course work and to graduation day, counselors provide more concrete strategies one-on-one with students. Yet with just four counselors for 2,800 students, the seed sometimes isn’t planted until it’s too late to take two years of a foreign language, for example, trustees said.
“It’s something our district desperately needs,” Trustee Hover-Smoot said about more career advising.
If it were decided that foreign language would become part of the high schools’ curriculum it would begin with a class of incoming freshmen and would not affect any students currently in high school.
“We’ve got kids that can’t read. That can’t pass math. So they can’t read the Spanish book. We’ve gotten off that foreign language is the answer to college,” Thomas said. “We need to look at all the options.”
Besides a sometimes philosophical-bent discussion on how to make or not to make students CSU prepared, were two more additions to the board’s list of goals: More substantive staff evaluations and enhancing communication among staff, the board and the superintendent’s office.
A new evaluation system for staff, including classified employees, teachers and administrators, is being developed and will launch as a pilot program for the 2010-11 school year. Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Jay Totter said the system uses a more descriptive rubric to show what quality education looks like and to make sure the evaluations match those definitions. He said everyone will be trained, including the bargaining parties on the new evaluation format, although the district is still working with SEIU on this.
“Administrators have to be held more responsible for teacher evaluations,” Totter said. Before, there were just two levels of achievement: Satisfactory and needs improvement, but the new evaluations will be more detailed and more credible, Totter said.
Smith will take on developing ways to increase communication between school sites and the board. One idea is to implement a time during school board meetings to recognize an achievement from a school every week, inviting parents, boosters and students to be a part of that segment of the meeting.
The board plans to re-examine the new goals and possibly adopt them at a later meeting.
