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Speak Out
'Student achievement should not be a zero-sum commodity'
At last, at SJUSD board meetings, in The Resident, in supportive phone calls and email messages, there's a stirring dialogue about what constitutes a quality education for students at Willow Glen High School and Middle School. Let us continue and extend this discussion into productive sessions with district administrators, school staff, parents and students.
I would first like to thank Social Studies teacher Mr. Cullison for joining the dialogue and for calling attention to the dedication of our hardworking administrators and teachers, to our excellent AP classes, and to our fledgling arts program with such awesome teachers as Carla and Sarah Miller, Jef Wind, Eric Stachnick, Kathryn Donovan, and Bill Resch. I also agree that Willow Glen is to be commended for its safety net programs that serve those students struggling academically.
Of Willow Glen High School's more than $900,000 in desegregation funding, $770,000 is designated for maintaining the six-period day (Lincoln has an eight-period day) and the remaining $220,000 is restricted to helping-hand programs to assist Hispanic students scoring lower than the 20th percentile on the SAT9 tests. (Lincoln's and San Jose Academy's desegregation funds go for magnet programs unrestricted by race or performance level, including significant numbers of students from outside the district.)
Since Willow Glen's assistance programs are its only unique offerings funded by desegregation, I think "Safety Net Magnet" aptly describes Willow Glen in the lineup of district schools with deseg-funded programs that attract students with particular interests or needs. Mr. Cullison's "academic landfill for the low-achieving students of San Jose Unified" terminology is unfortunate.
My purpose in addressing the school board Dec. 14 was to charge its members to look at the choice process and the politics of desegregation in the light of the extent to which they have dominated the educational process over the last 15 years. I have had ample opportunity during that time to observe choice programs and both magnet and non-magnet schools while logging over 1,000 volunteer hours in the classrooms of my four children (who, for the record, are all adopted and represent a variety of ethnicities, including Hispanic) as well as the media centers, field trip buses, scrip tables, fundraisers, parent clubs, committee and budget meetings, site councils, collating klatches, and you-name-its of their schools, including two with high-profile magnet programs. (I have not served alone; indeed Karen Clinton, Barbara Black, and otherparents working hard to raise money through the Willow Glen Middle School and High School Foundation have given their time to Willow Glen schools.)
I now serve San Jose Unified as a substitute teacher and a resource teacher serving economically disadvantaged students, most of them Hispanic.
My view, therefore, is from "the trenches‚" and I have observed three things:
1. Choice has created "have" and "have-not" schools that are distinguished more by the motivation of the staff and students they attract than by the quality of the overall educational program they provide. The excitement of the program vision in turn motivates student achievement. Willow Glen is a "have-not" school when it comes to a comprehensive vision with programs that benefit all students.
2. Statistically, schools with a low percentage of Hispanic students demonstrate the highest test scores for both Hispanic and white students, with student achievement declining as Hispanic population increases. This is true for both Hispanic and white students, with the graph for Hispanic students lagging that of white students by 20 to 30 percentage points. Only at schools with a strong choice program that attracts and motivates all students do test scores belie this trend. Willow Glen, the poster child of naturally desegregated schools, deserves such a program to benefit all students, whether funded by redirecting desegregation funds or from other resources.
3. The strongest factor affecting student achievement for both white and Hispanic students is the level of rigor and expectation imposed by their teachers, usually echoing the vision of the school's leaders, whether or not there is a magnet program. I could describe example after example of this effect, from whole schools such as Bret Harte to team-unified grade levels such at the rigorous fifth grade at Schallenberger to individual classrooms such as Claudia Olaciregui's bilingual fourth/fifth grade class at Schallenberger or Kathryn Philp's, Gloria Curry's, Kathy Hoffman's, and several other classes at Willow Glen. Unfortunately, expectations are often "dumbed down‚" at schools with significant numbers of low-achieving students, where vision is obscured by the politics of desegregation.
Putting one, two, and three together, I call upon district officials to see that choice has not been good for Willow Glen schools. Just as choice is the law, SJUSD officials are also public servants who by law and by motto represent all students of all ethnic groups. If choice is to continue, administrators must take very deliberate counter-actions to improve the quality of the academic experience for all students at Willow Glen. They should act at once on Dr. Murray's suggestion to create a grade seven through 12 AP strand, or better yet, a college-prep magnet program with high expectations for all students.
A "Superfund academic cleanup" is not required--graduation requirements are already aligned with California State University and University of California entrance requirements. What is needed is a vision and a comprehensive set of core and elective course offerings and expectations so that all students are equipped with the skills and knowledge to achieve the test scores, grade point average, and completion of activities and elective programs necessary to assure college entrance and success in lifelong learning.
Mr. Cullison, Mr. Day, Dr. Murray, and board trustees: we're on your side. Have the courage and the vision to join us in applauding what is working at Willow Glen and to admit what is not. Join us and our trustee, Carol Myers, in advocating for programs of excellence at Willow Glen. Though school funding is a zero-sum world, student achievement should not be a zero-sum commodity from one ethnic group to another nor from school to school. Willow Glen students deserve the best.
Kathy Stark
Berkshire Drive
Correction
A Dec. 14 article on outgoing Councilman Frank Fiscalini ('A Man for Others', page 1) incorrectly reported that Joe Guerra worked on Susan Hammer's mayoral campaign against Fiscalini. Guerra worked on Nancy Ianni's successful 1988 bid for the District 6 council seat against Ken Machado, whose campaign chair was Fiscalini. Guerra later worked on Fiscalini's mayoral campaign.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
