SFUSD monitor's 13 fave schools

The monitoring team that keeps watch on how SFUSD is faring in attempting to meet the goals of the consent decree has posted an interesting list: Thirteen Schools That Exemplify Success under the Mandates of the Consent Decree

Although my own kids' middle school, Aptos, deservedly appears on this list, I have questions about some of the choices. For example, the consent decree monitor repeatedly points out that a number of SFUSD schools have resegregated since the district was court-ordered to stop using race as one of its assignment criteria. He appears to mean that as criticism. Yet several of these schools are very definitely resegregated.

Still, it's an interesting list. I've stuck in some comments.

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We have found that the following SFUSD schools represent the best examples of success under the interrelated desegregation and academic achievement mandates of the Decree. Of course, as we have documented in past reports, these are not the only schools that are doing well, and wonderful things are happening at so many other school sites throughout the City. But these thirteen schools do exemplify the best features of what the Consent Decree has been all about.

Alvarado (K-5)

Targeted for additional funding and “comprehensive school improvement” under the Decree, has maintained a diverse student population and has shown significant gains in performance over the past 10 years, with noteworthy success closing the achievement gap.

[Alvarado did undergo a demographic shift when the Geneva Towers housing project was demolished, scattering a bloc of largely high-need students who used to feed into Alvarado. My understanding, by the way, is that the report does not take into account whether a shift in neighborhood demographics or an effective diversity enrollment system improved diversity at a school.]

Carver (K-5)

Originally reconstituted “Phase One” school in Bayview-Hunters Point, “turned around” under the Consent Decree, and has maintained a solid academic record throughout.

Golden Gate (K-5)

Western Addition school, reconstituted in 1997, showed record gains in academic achievement from 03 to 04, particularly for its African American student population.

[However, SFUSD is closing Golden Gate &mdash which has been plagued by plunging enrollment. I looked at the school's year-to-year demographics and I have to say they're bizarre. They shift erratically. The Asian percentage in the tested grades (2-5), for example, shows as 31% in '01-'02 and 20% in '02-'03. The Academic Performance Index rankings dropped from 3/6 to 1/1 in those same years. What's that about?]

Gordon J. Lau (K-5)

Serves a low-SES student population comprised of over 70% Cantonese-speaking and Spanish-speaking English Learners, targeted for additional funding under the Decree, emerging in this era as a highly desirable, high-performing, and welcoming school.

Marshall (K-5)

Located in a low-income, high-crime area of the Mission, it has developed an enriched curriculum, established high standards for all its students, and has shown great gains in academic achievement for the primarily low-SES population that it has served.

Harvey Milk (K-5)

Civil rights focus, exemplifying both the mandates of the Decree and the life work of the LGBT activist for whom the school is named, actively recruits low-income students of color and maintains one of the most diverse and welcoming school environments in San Francisco.

Claire B. Lilienthal (K-8)

Has maintained a diverse student body and continues to be one of the top performing schools in the District, not emphasizing “test prep” as some campuses do, but instead offering a rich, engaging, and challenging curriculum for all its students.

Alice Fong Yu (K-8)

A new school that has become one of the highest performing in SF, created in the mid-1990’s and guided from the beginning by Consent Decree principles, offering an innovative and inclusive Cantonese immersion program for students of every ethnicity.

Aptos (6-8)

Successfully reconstituted in 1996, when the new administration brought in a young and highly motivated faculty that has remained together over time, the school has maintained a highly diverse student population and continues to improve academically.

[Aptos rules. I'm not totally comfortable giving credit to reconstitution, though.]

Philip and Sala Burton (9-12)

Created new at the beginning of the Consent Decree under “Phase One,” continues to serve a diverse student population in the Southeast Quadrant while working to sustain a rigorous curriculum and consistently solid academic performance over time.

Galileo (9-12)

Targeted for additional funding under the Decree, has made great strides in recent years in its decisions on how to use this additional funding, showing great successes since 2002, increasing its diversity while improving its academic performance.

[Galileo's API has shot up, going from a 3/2 in '02-'03 to a 6/8 in '03-'04. And Burton's API numbers are indeed solid.]

Gateway Charter (9-12)

From its inception in the late 1990’s, the school has demonstrated a highly informed commitment to Consent Decree principles and goals, actively maintaining a diverse student population and demonstrating great academic success across all races/ethnicities.

Leadership Charter (9-12)

Equity focus by highly motivated educators has led to outstanding gains for a student population that is diverse racially/ethnically as well as on the basis of socioeconomic status, led the District by graduating every one of its students “UC eligible” in 2004.

[As a charter skeptic, I don't trust their information. Charter schools are not accountable to anyone and can claim what they want. Gateway claims it doesn't pick and choose its students, but one would have to be hopelessly naive to believe that. It requires a nine-page enrollment application to get into the alleged "blind" "lottery," and many parents who have gone through the enrollment process &mdash both successfully and unsuccessfully &mdash say they felt there was screening going on.

Meanwhile, supposedly successful Leadership has fallen entirely off the radar of families in the nearby area. I didn't hear of any of my son's classmates (Aptos graduating class of '05) applying there, despite Aptos' proximity to Leadership. Many of his classmates are going to Balboa, right near Leadership, without giving Leadership a passing glance. And Leadership has gone to SFUSD asking to become a non-chartered district school, so it's clearly having trouble. I'm unclear whether the information about the UC-eligible graduates is based on unverifiable self-reporting by Leadership.

Back to the monitor's comments:]

In our analysis of these schools, we have identified a number of factors that have enabled them to achieve their successes. These factors include maintaining a diverse student body, awareness of the individual learning differences and personal needs of every student, a school-wide commitment to improving African American and Latino student performance, strong intervention programs, school culture that promotes academic excellence for all students, qualified and caring faculty who understand the tenets of the Consent Decree, communication and collaboration between the administration and faculty, strong parent involvement in the school community, and effective site-based professional development programs that specifically address issues relating to the narrowing of the achievement gap.

[Somewhere in monitor Stuart Biegel's extensive reports, he mentions having made 800 school-site visits, to every school in SFUSD. Well, it's hard to disagree with his conclusions given that extensive research. I wonder if he goes in disguise, like a restaurant critic &mdash if you see a guy in a false nose, glasses and mustache, look busy.]

—Caroline