BUILDING AND SUSTAINING EQUITABLE SCHOOLS: Models of Reform
NOTES for a workshop presentation at UESF Conference Washington High School, San Francisco, October 16, 2004

What is EQUITY?

High Stakes testing defines equity by test scores alone (API, % basic or proficient on CST ELA and math  and percent who pass the CAHSEE) – SEE SF map showing discrepancy in API scores and how it correlates to EAST v WEST, which used to be racially divided but not so segregated as it used to be – it is socio-economic status that is the strongest variable that correlates to test scores.   See James Popham, The Truth About Testing: an Educator’s Guide to Actions – browse chapters online. See more Popham.

Consent Decree uses test scores but also adds other categories—suspensions, expulsions, GPA, number of AP classes in a school, special day classes/special ed, attendance rates, degree of segregation within classes, school and district; extra curricular activity participation, staff diversity.

OTHER CRITERIA?  Art teacher per pupil ratio, number of books and computers in school’s library (library hours and number of librarians), college acceptance and retention rates,  employment history following HS graduation, Voting record after graduation, level of participation in community service after graduation, number who return to alumni functions and level of donations by alumni and many more. See Williams Settlement

REFORM MODELS can be grouped into two types: top down and bottom up

EXAMPLES OF BOTTOM UP: (impetus and/or design comes from community)

• Community Schools – school as center of community development, which is what sfLEARNS is attempting to do in BVHP – school integrated with community organizations – health clinic, theater, job training, library, computer center, adult education, child care – school has a horizontal relationship with community not a vertical relationship to district administration. See Coalition for Community School website.
• Nursery COOP model like SF Community - SF Community was founded in 1972 by parents who had sent their children to coopt nursery schools.  When these parents sent their first graders to public school, they were not welcomed by the staff at the school so they decided to establish their own public elementary school. SFC has  survived being moved four times in its 30 year history. The coopt nursery schools came out of the educational progressive movement in 1915.  The first coopt nursery school was founded in Califronia in 1929.  They are schools in which each family shares in the planning and operation of the school. Parents participate in the program on a rotating basis, serving as assistants to a professional nursery school teacher and staff. The efforts of parents and their direct involvement during the school day make parent participation nursery schools a unique educational endeavor.  See Nursery Coop website.
• Debbie Meier’s Small Public Schools  - the District’s Secondary School Redesign Initiative is an attempt to support teacher and parents in designing and redesigning small schools.  But SSRI has struggled because of a lack of central office support.  The San Francisco Organizing Project, which helped organize the community in the Southeast to persuade the school board to adopt the SSRI, is hoping to persuade the school board to choose a new superintendent who is supportive of small schools.

EXAMPLES OF TOP DOWN (community not part of decision making process with the inevitable result that they generally oppose the implementation of these reforms)

1992-1999 – RECONSTITUTION IS DISTRICT POLICY – but still under Consent Decree so community not allowed to challenge superintendent’s decisions on which schools to reconstitute.  Union fought to end Reconstitution -  but state adopted it as part of PSAA in 1999.

STAR SCHOOLS 2000-2001:  schools identified as low performing based upon their state test scores get targeted resources – curriculum and counseling.  Example, snacks on test days, training in district chosen, standardized, scripted curricula like Open Court and High Point.  According to most recent Consent Decree Monitor’s report, conditions have gotten worse not better in the last two years – growing achievement gap, attendance gap, disproportionate numbers of African Americans and Latinos suspended, expelled

TALES OF TWO CITIES

San Francisco– RECONSTITUTION  adopted district wide from 1992-99 under the auspices of the Consent Decree (see chapter 7 in my dissertation or chapter 9 in my book, Why is Corporate American Bashing Our Public Schools?).  Schools reconstituted under Rojas are the same schools still struggling today.  Despite community demands for neighborhood schools, community schools, and small schools, Superintendent Ackerman, instead, has been reconstituting 15 "low-performing" schools as Dream Schools.

Oakland– SMALL SCHOOL.  Oakland Community Organizations, the Oakland Teachers, and Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools created an alliance about 10 years ago to transform all of Oakland’s public schools into small schools.  In 2002, they believed they were at the tipping point—25% of OUSD students were to be enrolled in small schools. But at that moment, the state decided to take over the district because of financial deficits.  One result of the takeover has been the suspension of small school reform in Oakland.  BayCES and OCO continue to support existing small schools (although BayCES seems to have been co-opted now by the state appointed superintendent Randy Ward).  The future of authentic small schools in Oakland is now in doubt. See Lessons of Freedom Summer to understand the current small school movement in the context of the history of alternative schools in the U.S.