San Francisco school officials are lambasting a controversial list released Monday by the state that labeled 12 schools in The City among the lowest-performing in California.
The list was compiled by the state Department of Education as it attempts to grab federal stimulus dollars available for revamping the nation’s worst schools. To receive the money, California was required to compile a list of low-performing schools and must adhere to strict federal reforms. However, San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Carlos Garcia said he’s not convinced the federal reforms would fix The City’s schools and could disrupt reforms that the district already implemented.
The list identified the 188 “persistently lowest-achieving schools” in the state through English and math test scores, along with graduation rates from the past three years. Reforms the federal government would require in order for school districts to receive several sources of federal stimulus funds — such as the School Improvement Grant program and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — include firing principals and staff, closing the schools or converting them into charter schools.
In response to the six elementary, two middle and four high schools being named among the state’s worst, Garcia questioned whether the reform measures would work in The City.
The troubled schools, he said, already set in motion plans for improvement, including new programs or leadership.
“I’m not just going to throw that away,” he said.
Jane Kim, president of the Board of Education, agreed with Garcia’s assessment, saying recent reform measures that have been implemented in the struggling schools are working. Those measures include decreasing the student-teacher ratio and adding support and professional development for teachers, she said.
The federal government’s reform measures may work in other districts nationwide, but “we’ve seen what works in our district,” Kim said.
“There’s absolutely no research right now that the charters are doing any better than us,” Garcia said.
This is not the first time Garcia has expressed doubts about the stringent reform measures tied to federal funding.
He was lukewarm about the SFUSD receiving Race to the Top funding that President Barack Obama announced in July. As much as $4 billion was made available as an incentive to advance academic reforms and improve schools that are not meeting testing standards. However, California did not receive the $700 million it applied for.
The reform measures also are particularly harsh on school principals. More than half the schools either have principals that are new or haven’t been on the job long enough to reasonably improve their schools, Garcia said.
Proposed solutions
The state’s persistently lowest-achieving schools are required to implement one of the following four intervention models:
- Replace principal, rehire no more than 50 percent of the staff, revamp the instructional program
- Close school, reopen as charter campus
- Close school, send students to higher-achieving schools in district
- Implement required school improvement strategies, which may include replacing principal, increasing instruction time
Source: California Department of Education
Performance index
S.F. schools on preliminary list:
1. Willie L. Brown Jr. Elementary
2. Bryant Elementary
3. Cesar Chavez Elementary
4. Everett Middle
5. George Washington Carver Elementary
6. Horace Mann Middle
7. John Muir Elementary
8. Paul Revere Elementary
- John O’Connell Alternative High*
- Mission High*
- Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High*
- Thurgood Marshall High*
Peninsula schools on preliminary list:
- Pescadero Elementary and Middle
- Costano Elementary
- Edison-Ronald McNair Intermediate (charter)
- Stanford New School (charter)
* Schools could be removed or new ones added to final list coming out Thursday
Source: California Department of Education
Underachieving state schools
California institutions, by county, on list of lowest performers:
Los Angeles: 39
San Bernardino: 16
Monterey: 12
San Francisco: 12
Alameda: 11
Kern: 11
San Joaquin: 11
Contra Costa: 9
Riverside: 6
Santa Clara: 6
Tulare: 6
Fresno: 5
San Diego: 5
Solano: 5
Santa Barbara: 4
San Mateo: 4
Orange: 3
Santa Cruz: 3
Kings: 2
Sacramento: 2
Stanislaus: 2
Others: 14
Source: California Board of Education
