Opinionator

Berkeley High’s long decline in math, English proficiency

March 22, 2012 10:35 am by Guest contributor

By By Priscilla Myrick

Priscilla Myrick is a former member of the Berkeley HIgh School Site Council and former member of the Superintendent's Small Schools Steering Committee (2003). Myrick is a public education advocate and volunteer writing coach in the Berkeley and Oakland public schools.

Did you know Berkeley High students as a whole are less ready for college math and college English than other students in Alameda or California? This is one of the many alarming facts contained in the report prepared by Berkeley High in anticipation of a school visit by the WASC accrediting team on March 19-21. The full report is available to read here.

Berkeley High is undergoing its first accreditation review by Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) since 2005. The required self-study progress report presents a disappointing picture of Berkeley High academic achievement. Despite years of investment in high school reform, overall academic performance has declined at Berkeley High over the past decade.

With resources far surpassing most school districts, one might expect that Berkeley High School, serving 35% of district enrollment with over 3,400 students, would be an example of high academic achievement and a narrowing achievement gap. A strikingly different picture emerges from the WASC report  “Areas of Need” (p. 60-62):

•  Overall BHS proficiency in math dropped over the past ten years, while during that same period county and state proficiency rates rose according to California Standards Tests (CST).

• All racial subgroups have seen drops in proficiency in math compared with seven years ago. (CST)

•  Overall BHS proficiency in English declined from 2003 to 2011. (CST)

•  After the elimination of extra periods for science labs, chemistry test results showed an increase in students “below basic” and “far below basic,” from 35% in 2009, to 46% in 2011. (CST)

Additionally, the achievement gap has worsened particularly for African-American students:

•  Only 1% of BHS African-American students scored proficient in Algebra 1 test and 0% scored proficient in Algebra 2.  (CST)   (successful completion of Algebra by 9th grade is a 2020 Vision Indicator)

• Only 11% of BHS African-American 11th graders are proficient in English compared with 31% of African-American 11th graders statewide. (CST)

One of richest districts

Berkeley Unified School District is one of the richest school districts in the state. With more than $12,951 per student, compared with the average $8,717 per student, BUSD should be one of the top performing districts (Ed-Data website, Fiscal, Demographic and Performance Data on California’s K-12 Schools). Resources are not predictive of student achievement in Berkeley.

Unlike many communities, Berkeley has invested heavily in our schools for over 25 years. Local parcel taxes for school enrichment, class size reduction, and school maintenance boost average revenue per student by 48% above the statewide average, and doesn’t include additional resources from local charitable foundations, PTAs and the city of Berkeley’s education initiatives.

What’s happened at Berkeley High? Ten years ago Berkeley High was a comprehensive high school with a broad curriculum, a seven-period school day, double-period science and an honors math program. Following Oakland USD’s lead, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation money and subsequent federal support for small learning communities, Berkeley High was broken up into small schools and “redesigned”. The instructional day was reduced from seven to six periods; extra periods for science labs were eliminated; the honors math track reduced; “advisories” replaced instructional time in academic subjects. None of the reforms were data driven.

Dollars to consultants

The Gates Foundation dropped “small schools reform” years ago when an independent evaluation of the data revealed that such reforms had no positive impact on student achievement. On the other hand, in BUSD hundreds of thousands of dollars have been paid to consultants to provide professional development to district staff on small school redesign and equity initiatives.

Despite these resources, the achievement gap has worsened and ALL subgroups at Berkeley High show declines in academic achievement. Since 2010 Oakland USD has found small school reform to be economically unsustainable and is in the process of reconsolidating small schools into the previous comprehensive high schools.

The District needs to reverse the downward trend of student achievement and worsening achievement gap at Berkeley High.  Reforms have not increased student proficiency in math, English and science. The trends show things are getting worse, not better. Resources should be systematically realigned toward strengthening curriculum and instruction in core academic subjects.  BUSD has the resources; they need to be targeted effectively.

Need for educational leadership

BUSD needs educational leadership that is not afraid to address the current data trends and correct the weaknesses in the high school program. Unfortunately, the WASC action plan doesn’t adequately address the issues raised by the data. Despite accreditation, Berkeley High is graduating far too many students who are not proficient in math, science, reading comprehension and writing skills. Without these skills, Berkeley High students face increasingly limited career and educational options in a competitive global economy.

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40 Comments

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  • guest

    Was the comprehensive system working that much better?  I think there were honest, good intentions behind the small school restructure.  So maybe it’s not working as well as hoped, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they should reverse course. Anyone know what DOES work?

  • luckypablo

    There are some math teachers at BHS that should simply not be teaching.  What can be done to eliminate teachers who fail to teach math to their students?  

  • Anonymous

    So we hear about racial disparities but not the more obvious variables: family income, parental education, etc…. If the performance drops are due to a change in these things, that would be good to know.

  • BUSD Parent

    As a parent of two [high school and middle school] I have seen both the fabulous middle school math education one child is receiving and the less-than-stellar math education at BHS [two of four years have been fine at BHS, but two have been sub-par to say the least]. What can BHS learn from the middle school math teachers? There must be more accountability in the BHS math department. 

  • BUSD

    Berkeley
    High School Completes WASC Self-Study Process 
    Response from Berkeley Unified School District

    Berkeley High School’s WASC self-study and review is a process every
    California Public High School participates in. 
    Accreditation enables High School Graduates to gain a diploma that
    enables them to enter college with approved courses,  scholarships, transfer credits and the
    like.  http://www.acswasc.org/pdf_general/WASC_ProcessOverview.pdf   On April 26th, the results of the WASC
    review as well as a full-report on Berkeley High School multiple measures will
    be presented to the Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education.  The full self-study and report reflected that
    Berkeley High School students are College Ready and Section 3 of the report (pages
    20-52) indicates an increase in participation and passing of AP and IB classes
    overall and for African Americans.  Berkeley
    High students surpassed Alameda County and the State on participation in and
    achievement on the SAT, ACT
    and AP tests.  In Chapter 2 of the WASC
    Report, there are two pages which summarize the areas of strength (p. 57 – 59);
    these areas were highlighted and celebrated by the WASC Review Team.  They include the following:

    Academic Performance Index

    ·        
    As a result of increased participation rates
    in 2011, the high school now has an API score to use as a benchmark for future
    growth.

     

    Advanced Placement and International
    Baccalaureate

    ·        
    In the past five years, number of AP + IB
    tests taken and number passed rose. Students in all BHS small learning
    communities took AP or IB tests.

    ·        
    Of the 685 AP tests taken in 2010, 59% were
    passed with a 3 or higher.

    ·        
    Although the IB program is still relatively
    new at BHS, the test scores for several of the tests in 2010 were above the
    world average. For example, in mathematics SL the BHS average was 5.27, while
    the world average was 4.48.

    ·        
    A total of 188 BHS students took IB tests in
    2010. 78% of the tests were passed with a score of 4 or higher.

     

    California Standards Test

    ·        
    On the CST ELA, the school has scored above
    the county and above the state average for the past seven years.

    ·        
    The subgroup of disadvantaged students has
    made gains in proficiency on CST ELA in past five years.

    ·        
    Latino students also made gains in proficiency
    on CST ELA in same time period.

    ·        
    CST life science students proficient and above
    jumped from 22% in 2009 to 49% in 2011.

    ·        
    Overall participation rates in 2011 on CST
    tests increased to 95%.

     

    California High School Exit Exam

    ·        
    First-time pass rates on CAHSEE math and ELA
    tests rose between 2008 and 2011 for the overall group of BHS students.

    ·        
    On CAHSEE tests for math, the subgroups of
    African Americans and Asians have seen gains in past four years for first-time
    pass rates.

    ·        
    On CAHSEE tests for ELA, the subgroups of
    Latinos and Asians have seen gains in past four years for first-time pass
    rates.

    ·        
    On CAHSEE tests for both math and ELA, the
    subgroup of White students had a higher first-time pass rate than the state
    average for first-time pass rates.

    ·        
    On CAHSEE tests for ELA, the subgroup of
    Latino students had a higher first-time pass rate than the state average for
    first-time pass rates.

     

    CSU/UC Eligibility

    ·        
    Latino 12th graders who passed courses to be
    CSU/UC eligible rose from 37.3% in 2006 to 58.2% in 2010.

    ·        
    African American 12th graders who passed
    courses to be CSU/UC eligible rose from 26.1% in 2006 to 35.6% in 2010.

     

    Graduation Rates / Dropout Rates

    ·        
    Overall graduation rates for BHS in 2010 were
    higher than county and the state.

    ·        
    In 2010, 85.6% of the BHS Latino cohort
    graduated, versus 65.1% for the county Latino cohort.

    ·        
    In 2010, 80% of the BHS African American
    cohort graduated, versus 55.3% for the county African American cohort.

    ·        
    BHS dropout rates are much lower than those
    for the county and for the state, overall and for Latino or African Americans.

     

    Scholastic Achievement Tests

    ·        
    Overall SAT scores for both math and English
    are above county and state scores.

    ·        
    Scores in math, writing, and critical reading
    have risen in past five years.

    ·        
    Asian, Latino, and White subgroups at BHS
    outscored their ethnic/racial counterparts on SAT state averages.

     

    California English Language Proficiency Exam – The WASC study was
    published before the Annual English Language proficiency results were
    received. 

    ·        
    The percent of English Language Learners
    increased to 9% of the school population

    ·        
    The percent of students scoring at the
    “fluency” level (Intermediate or Higher) increased by 3% in 2010.  

  • Carol Lashof

    However you crunch the numbers, it’s easy to see that there is a persistent and very serious achievement/opportunity gap at Berkeley High School.  Identifying the underlying causes and formulating workable solutions is much harder to do.  As a parent whose children were at Berkeley High during the transition from the comprehensive school to the current structure, I can attest that under the old structure, there was more chaos and alienation, and plenty of inequality.  I agree with “guest” that there were “honest, good intentions” behind the small schools movement; it is also true that, for better or for worse, the small schools advocates were not successful in their goal to reorganize Berkeley High into wall-to-wall small schools.  Any meaningful discussion of causes and effects should acknowledge this fact. The current structure is actually a hybrid–a compromise between traditionalists and reformers.  As a matter of record, the educational consultants hired by the district to advise on matters of equity and redesign advised against a mix of small schools and large-school programs. But here we are, and we need to find a way to move forward.

  • rukiddingme

    Are you suggesting AC and BIHS are not small schools?

  • Anonymous

     Hey my anonymous brother!

    “Due to” implies causality which you’ll never be able to get at these kind of data.  All of these variables correlate more or less strongly but if a parent wins the lottery their kid’s SAT scores are not suddenly going to go up by 900 points.  A non-trivial amount of educational policy is determined by exactly that sort of reasoning though.  What is consistent across socio-economic status is that if the parents (and it’s plural on purpose) value a culture of learning their children tend achieve academically and beyond.  It’s not about spending money on test prep, after school classes, etc.  It’s your children seeing you read and learn new things, having meaningful discussions with them, and instilling self-confidence and a good work ethic.

  • Anonymous

     Your defensiveness is showing “BUSD”…

  • Priscilla Myrick

    The only way to determine whether an educational strategy is working is to “crunch the numbers” over time to answer the question:  Is achievement (proficiency) improving or declining?  Good intentions do not necessarily result in good policy.    On 1/16/08 the following data on student proficiency by small school was provided by BUSD for 2007.  The data is in the format of school/enrollment for 2010/English proficiency 2007/Math proficiency 2007:
                                                  2010              2007 % proficient                                              Enrollment     English      MathAcademic Choice        (AC)       1300             67%          36%Internat’l HS                (BIHS)     900             64%          39%Arts & Human.             (AHA)      240            40%          12%Comm. Arts &Sci.        (CAS)      230            42%            5%Comm. Partnerships     (CPA)     240             28%            4%    SSJE (now Green Academy)       260             36%            7%    

    Unfortunately, the recent WASC report does not disaggregate student achievement by small school.  The WASC demographic data states, “higher percentages of African-American and Latino students are in the four small learning communities –Arts Humanities Academy (AHA), Communications Arts and Sciences (CAS), Community Partnerships, Academy (CPA), and Green Academy (GRN).”  Small schools appear to be segregating Berkeley HIgh.  I understand that the district will provide this disaggregated achievement data by small school in April.  I agree that “we need to find a way to move forward” for all students.  

  • Anonymous

    Very true. Causation is harder to prove, but you’d think they’d at least measure the correlation with family income. Family educational culture is also clearly important and they should be trying hard to intervene and go for improvements. At the very least, try to measure the family educational culture for at least a random sample of households to see if it is relevant.

  • mp

    If instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants, BUSD had spent those dollars on programs like WriterCoach Connection, bringing trained volunteer coaches into schools like Berkeley High so that every student received individual support in math and/or writing, what effect would that have had?

  • Richard Prince

    All I can say is my 9th grade son is absolutley thriving at BHS. It’s a terrific school for kids who are disciplined and want to learn.

  • bgal4

    ” It’s a terrific school for kids who are disciplined and want to learn.”
    I hope you realize how offensive this statement really is.

    What about the students who through no fault of their own have a schedule in which the percentage of poor instructors far exceeds engaged teachers?

    This happens, more than you might want to know.

    During Slemp’s administration the role of the counselor was reduced, they were prohibited from  advocate on behalf of a student needs.  I hope Scuderi has reversed this harmful policy.

    We had a counselor review my son’s schedule over two years and gasp, ” well that explains why   look at the list of teachers he has been stuck with over two years, most of the worst teachers “.

    If 25-50% of a student’s class schedule is not challenging,  spent  watching movies,  little if any outside reading assignments, no writing, and classroom management is chaotic, what is to  blame for the students’ failure to thrive? The lack of oversight for classroom instruction.  Remember Scuderi himself acknowledges this is only the second year of  teachers classroom support and performance monitoring.

    I would also like to know specifically what is the current policy about student schedule changes when especially in such cases where the student is being bored to death by  poor instruction.

    Child-centered schools allow the counselor to advocate for individual student needs, adult-centered schools do not.

  • Foster Boondoggle

    I don’t quite understand Ms. Myrick’s summary of the WASC report. It seems to be a very selective reading of the various test results. For example, SAT math and writing scores are (slightly) up over prior years. (The fraction of students taking the SAT is fairly steady.) The BHS scores are substantially higher than those of the county and state, and the test taking rate is also higher. AP/IB test taking and pass rates have also increased.

    It’s certainly fair to be concerned about the achievement gap. But other reports have highlighted that enormous diversity of the community served by BHS, which inevitably exposes the gaps in the larger society (whatever their source).

  • Are you kidding

    I graduated from BHS in 1966.  This has been a problem since I can remember.  I am not
    happy that BHS lets students from outside Berkeley attend.  It’s a joke on what they will
    accept for residency.  And our tax dollars are paying for all these problems.  I feel, concerning
    the present problem the years that this problem has been a problem at BHS that no one
    knows what to do or are not inclined to address the problem for political reasons.  Let’s
    bring back the technical schools and understand that many students would be better
    off and more prepared to address the work force.  Some kids are not interested in
    the academic aspects of school and would be better served with this progam.  I feel
    this is not done due to politics.  Be honest and address the problems head on. 

  • Mike Olson

    Myrick’s indictment of the small-school reform is interesting. Are the WASC and testing data available, broken down by school? How to AC an IB compare to the small schools?

  • no chicken on the bus!

    I’m with you, FB. My suggestions:

    1. Accountability for  ALL  teachers-develop intelligent criteria to weed out the crappy ones.

    2. Ditch the liberal apologist bias and INSIST that ALL students be accountable; not everyone should head to college, so bring bck the vocational/technical school and let’s make B-Tech into the great thing it could be.

    3. Put in place iron clad rules for who goes to BHS and who does NOT. Are you listening, admissions department? Hear that noise? It’s critical mass approaching-WAKE UP!

    4. Closed campus with non-criminal security,  and while we are at it,  can the sexual predators in the ‘guidance’ department. Lead by example, or get lost.

    5. Accountability, accountability, accountability.

  • no chicken on the bus!

    I’m with you, FB. My suggestions:

    1. Accountability for  ALL  teachers-develop intelligent criteria to weed out the crappy ones.

    2. Ditch the liberal apologist bias and INSIST that ALL students be accountable; not everyone should head to college, so bring bck the vocational/technical school and let’s make B-Tech into the great thing it could be.

    3. Put in place iron clad rules for who goes to BHS and who does NOT. Are you listening, admissions department? Hear that noise? It’s critical mass approaching-WAKE UP!

    4. Closed campus with non-criminal security,  and while we are at it,  can the sexual predators in the ‘guidance’ department. Lead by example, or get lost.

    5. Accountability, accountability, accountability.

  • cranky

    Mark twain once said that if you torture a statistic long enough it’ll tell you anything.

  • cranky

    Mark twain once said that if you torture a statistic long enough it’ll tell you anything.

  • Max

    For those who choose (knowingly or unknowingly) BHS has made it possible to have four absolutely wonderful high school years without learning a damn thing. You’re honored and enabled…into a lifetime of low paying wage slavery.

    If the high school must provide the cultural values which emphasize academic success (rather than the family) then let them reflect the values of the culture we actually live in. 

    After the first year, anyone not on track to grade level math and english proficiency is reassigned from the main curriculum to ‘basic skills’ – half a day for math and half a day for english – for as long as it takes to proceed to sophomore level.

    Drills, ‘in class’ assignments, more drills, teaching to the test, repetition, repetition, repetition, and then more drills and daily quizzes and monthly parent teacher conferences. Classes held lecture style in the BCT with fewer teachers and more teachers aides. A half hour for lunch, no extracurricular activities until your test scores promote you to sophomore.

    Brutal? Yes. As brutal as send our young men and women off to a lifetime of low paying wage slavery and calling it ‘diversity’? No.

  • bgal4

     Right on.

    The focus of education should be mastery over social promotion.

  • Carol Lashof

    Correct. AC (1336 students) and  BIHS (918) students are not small schools.  They are described in the self-study as “programs”: “With the inclusion of Green [Academy] and BIHS, Berkeley High School
    has six learning communities. Four of these learning communities are considered small
    schools:  AHA, CAS, CPA, and Green.  Two of the learning communities are larger and known as
    programs:  AC and BIHS.” (Self-study, p.90.) The small schools range in size from 231 (CAS) to 261 (Green). (Self-study, p.5). 

  • Carol Lashof

    To evaluate whether an educational
    strategy is working, it is not nearly enough to consider whether achievement
    (even if we agree how best to measure it) is improving or declining over time.
     Too many factors complicate the picture to point to a single cause. For
    example, from 2003 to 2011, the percentage of economically disadvantaged
    students at BHS has more than doubled–from about 15% to about 33% (see chart
    on p.6 of the self-study). 

     

    On a related point–it’s
    true that significant de facto segregation exists at Berkeley High as it is
    currently structured–with higher percentages of economically advantaged
    students as well as higher percentages of White and Asian students enrolled in
    the larger programs (AC and BIHS) than in the four small schools.  (See
    Self-study, p. 5). Is this economic and racial segregation exacerbating the
    achievement gap?  You imply that it is,
    and I am inclined to agree, though the data is insufficient to prove the
    point.  But let’s agree that segregation
    is a problem in any case. What solution do you propose?  Abolish the six
    existing learning communities and return to a single comprehensive school?
     Would that lead to greater or less integration classroom by
    classroom?  Or would you impose strict
    quotas when assigning students to the various schools and programs,
    overriding  individual preference in the
    interests of integration?

     

  • Carol Lashof

    Yes, achievement correlates strongly to family income.  For data on student performance by subgroup, including low-income students, see pp23-24 of the WASC self-study (the link is in Myrick’s op ed piece). 

  • Goodkind

     Priscilla – The formatting of this blog page made your stats difficult to comprehend.
    Would you please post them again, but not in columns?
    Thank you.

  • guest

     How else do you think the strategy should be evaluated, if not by its outcome?

  • acceptreality

    I do not understand how people can ignore the academic achievement data that demonstrates how ineffective the small schools have been. The decline in achievement in the small schools has been much worse than the decline in achievement in BIHS and AC. I would hope that people interested in education would actually consider that fact rather than look for excuses for the abysmal performance of small schools.

  • Bruce Love

    Carol isn’t denying that evaluation should be by outcome.  She has pointed out that simple-minded metrics of achievement, which ignore likely dependent variables such as economic status, are a poor choice of metric for measuring outcome.   It is a pretty glaring flaw in the opinion piece.

  • Guest

    they would rather keep pouring money down the hole than admit that they were wrong

  • acceptreality

    The opinion piece did not purport to consider every possible variable–it examined the long-term decline in math and English proficiency at BHS. If one wants to look at socioeconomic data, then one should also examine how those same categories did in 2000 before small schools began. The entire school has declined over the past 12 years, more than the state with more money.

    There is no information in the WASC report about the considerable extra resources directed to the small schools compared to AC and BIHS and these resources should certainly be looked at when determining the effectiveness of small schools. Most small school classes have 24-26 kids. Most AC and BIHS classes have 40. And yet with much more favorable FTEs, the results are just rotten in small schools.

    Does no one remember the recent scandal about small school teachers hectoring teachers in AC to change grades? I haven’t heard any small school supporters criticize that.

    I do not understand why small school supporters are so resistant to actually examine results. I would really like to see a study of small school students’ college progression. The anecdotes from various UCs are consistently sad, with the small school kids completely underwater as freshmen. It’s not doing those kids a favor. So small school supporters, please support a study of BHS student performance in college. It would be worthwhile to know these outcomes.

    I don’t think most people would object to small schools if there was evidence that they were effective. Why would we? But all the evidence I’ve seen as well as anecdotal information points in the other direction.

  • Bruce Love

    You won’t catch me defending the small schools anytime soon.   I was agin’ ‘em here on Berkeleyside “before it became fashionable”.    Which is why I find Myrick’s argumentation disappointing.

  • Carol Lashof

    The point is to be sure that the effect is indeed the outcome of the strategy you’re trying to evaluate.  To observe that X occurred and then Y occurred does not prove that X caused Y.  

  • Carol Lashof

    Have administrators at BHS followed cohorts of students over their four years of high school to determine which programs provide the most value added (or lost)?  I would love to see this data!  That seems to me the best way to evaluate the outcome of a particular approach.  

    I am not defending or attacking any particular program.  I am asking that we not reach hasty conclusions based on faulty logic.  Incidentally, I was on the design team for BIHS, hoping that the program would be in place in time to allow my younger daughter to enroll in it.  (She missed the opportunity by a year, alas, and was not, in my opinion, especially well-served by the comprehensive high school.)  All of us on the design team for BIHS had high hopes that it would help to raise standards across the board and help close the achievement gap.  However, if the evidence shows it’s doing more harm than good, then I would not fight to keep it.  I would feel the same about any other program. 

    Once again: “Post hoc ergo propter hoc” (after this, therefore because of this) is not logical reasoning.  BIHS was instituted six years ago.  Language and Math proficiency scores have declined at BHS since that time.  Does it follow that BIHS is to blame and should be abolished?  No.

    I no longer have skin in this game–my children graduated in 2005 and 2009 (and are now doing well in college and grad school).  It’s time I left the fight to other people … good luck!

  • Priscilla Myrick

    In response to my email inquiry regarding this question, Debbi D’Angelo, Director of BUSD Evaluation & Assessment tells me that the WASC report does not disaggregate CST testing data (proficiency rates in math and English)  by small school because “the CST trends by Small Schools is not a requirement” of the WASC accreditation process.  

    I have been told that in April the District will make public a report to the school board that “will include a breakdown of the CST and CAHSEE (California high school exit exam) by Small Learning Community.”  Stay tuned.

    My understanding is that SAT scores and other data disaggregated by small school will not be available because of the “time to truly break down trends by small learning community.”  

    Since every year incoming parents and students must choose between six options, making this information public would certainly assist in the decision-making process.

  • circleglider

     Obviously, simply spending more money doesn’t work.

  • circleglider

     

    [N]o one knows what to do or are not inclined to address the problem for political reasons.

    How about the latter?

    Berkeley’s public school system is run for the benefit of its employees — not for the benefit of its students or citizens. That’s why no change (much less reform) can ever take place that would even marginally financially disadvantage employees. And Berkeley residents would much rather argue about equity and social justice than actually improve public education — witness the debate here about “economic and racial segregation exacerbating the achievement gap.

  • Goodkind

    It strikes me that the discussion of small vs. larger schools is based on inappropriate arguments.
    When the small schools were first put into effect it was a requirement that they be evaluated. This was put into a document known as the “Guiding Principles.”
    That was way back what – 6? 8? years ago. And yet such an evaluation has NEVER BEEN DONE.
    And here we are, still arguing over the political reasons that small schools are good or bad, as if there was an answer to that question.
    If we really cared about those kids – all of them – we citizens of Berkeley would demand that evaluations be done of all programs at BHS, based on evidence, based on scientific evaluation. And we would keep the parts that work and get rid of the parts that don’t.  Constant evaluation  is what drives all successful education in this country – yet we rob our kids of it due to the Carol Lashoffs of the world who, in a public meeting, stated that her kids took as many AP classes as they could but that now BHS should get rid of AP classes because they made the gap wider.
    Say good-bye to knowing the answer based on political rhetoric before you find out the answer based on science. Give these kids a fighting chance at learning based on what works best for them, by actually finding out what works. 
    Evaluate – all of the programs. Use statistics. Break down everything by small school and feed in all the data – who attends, what does the cohort walk in with and what do they leave with. Insist on it. 
    Stop knowing all the answers in advance based on politics. 
    And while you’re at it, get some decent math teachers and Spanish teachers and evaluate all math programs traditional vs. IMP. Those two programs are deeply broken and the kids hate them both, and who can blame them.

  • Hg

    Nothing will improve until the unending – and IMPOSSIBLE – effort to balance high educational standards with the need to appease black and latino morons is finally abandoned. That is what the abandonment of the science labs demonstrated and it is inconceivable that the PC Berkley community will ever undo this. Too many cherished ideologies “diversity”, “social justice” are at stake.