New school run by outsiders: a harmful proposal
The proposal by an out-of-town organization, the Coalition of Essential Schools, to create a new school in San Francisco's Bayview district is still on the table. I'm posting an updated explanation about why that plan is misguided.
Enrollment in SFUSD is dropping as families move away, a situation universally blamed on San Francisco's astronomical housing prices. If a new school is started, an existing school will have to close, a painful and divisive process.
A new school would drain resources away from nearby existing schools – and those would be vulnerable schools serving vulnerable kids in the same community, such as Burton, Marshall, June Jordan, Leadership and Balboa.
SFUSD has a number of small schools, and demand for seats in them is not exceeding supply overall. SFUSD also has three larger high schools organized into "small learning communities," a design that combines the benefits of a small school with the resources a larger school can offer.
There is not a clear pattern of higher achievement overall at SFUSD’s existing small schools, nor of higher achievement for African-American and Latino students. So the idea that small schools are so effective that it’s worth harming other schools is not based on reality.
In fact, most of the high schools in greatest demand, with the most applications per opening, and with the highest achievement are the larger, comprehensive high schools.
As an out-of-town organization, the Coalition of Essential Schools may not be familiar with the complexities of our district. Apparently, CES also has no track record of operating schools on its own. (Its website is murky on this issue. Its website, by the way, also lists the Bayview school as a done deal.) A new school would not only do undoubted damage to other schools and probably lead to closures — it would also be a huge gamble.
The implication that SFUSD needs more small schools is based on a misunderstanding of the situation. It would be far more effective to put the resources into the existing schools serving the Bayview, and perhaps to find a home there for one of the existing charters (City Arts & Tech and Metro Arts & Tech) currently seeking a site. In addition, Leadership is relocating to the Burton campus, in the Portola district adjacent to the Bayview, a site that has always served the Bayview community. So that’s a small school right nearby, and CES is already involved with it.
The best way to support our students is to support our existing schools, not to harm them.
— Caroline
Enrollment in SFUSD is dropping as families move away, a situation universally blamed on San Francisco's astronomical housing prices. If a new school is started, an existing school will have to close, a painful and divisive process.
A new school would drain resources away from nearby existing schools – and those would be vulnerable schools serving vulnerable kids in the same community, such as Burton, Marshall, June Jordan, Leadership and Balboa.
SFUSD has a number of small schools, and demand for seats in them is not exceeding supply overall. SFUSD also has three larger high schools organized into "small learning communities," a design that combines the benefits of a small school with the resources a larger school can offer.
There is not a clear pattern of higher achievement overall at SFUSD’s existing small schools, nor of higher achievement for African-American and Latino students. So the idea that small schools are so effective that it’s worth harming other schools is not based on reality.
In fact, most of the high schools in greatest demand, with the most applications per opening, and with the highest achievement are the larger, comprehensive high schools.
As an out-of-town organization, the Coalition of Essential Schools may not be familiar with the complexities of our district. Apparently, CES also has no track record of operating schools on its own. (Its website is murky on this issue. Its website, by the way, also lists the Bayview school as a done deal.) A new school would not only do undoubted damage to other schools and probably lead to closures — it would also be a huge gamble.
The implication that SFUSD needs more small schools is based on a misunderstanding of the situation. It would be far more effective to put the resources into the existing schools serving the Bayview, and perhaps to find a home there for one of the existing charters (City Arts & Tech and Metro Arts & Tech) currently seeking a site. In addition, Leadership is relocating to the Burton campus, in the Portola district adjacent to the Bayview, a site that has always served the Bayview community. So that’s a small school right nearby, and CES is already involved with it.
The best way to support our students is to support our existing schools, not to harm them.
— Caroline
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