Follow Up Schools Report: High School "At Risk"

NCUST's Devastating Follow Up Report:

School District Ignores Fix-It Recommendations At High School 

Just in time for the start of the new school year, Emery High School has received another failing grade according to a follow-up report released last week from the National Center for Urban School Transformation, an education center funded by San Diego State University Research Foundation, tasked with evaluating Emeryville's schools.  The report was meant to track implementation progress as a result of recommendations from an assessment report presented by the National Center last year.  That report, a sobering affair by any standards, showed a High School in failure on many counts leading to lowered academic results here at Emery.  As with last year's report, the NCUST assessment team this time also faulted mostly administrators.

The NCUST team now recommends the District explore alternate solutions such as transforming the school to what it calls the Emery Early College High School, a place where a high percentage of students complete one or two years of college credit by the time they graduate from high school or a Career Partnership Academy where students complete internships in local companies such as Bayer/ Novartis or Pixar. 

  

Dr. Joseph Johnson
Executive Director
NCUST

Same as last year, the assessment team was headed up by Dr Joseph Johnson, the Executive Director at NCUST.  Dr Johnson personally assisted in the survey conducted at the schools and the follow-up assessment report. 

The new report notes many areas of last year's recommendations that the School District ignored outright or failed to implement properly.  The report now ominously warns of collapsing enrollment as parents seek a higher quality school elsewhere, "We are suggesting that the school is at risk of suffering diminished enrollments until the school is not sustainable" the report warns.  

The new assessment calls into question the School Board's commitment to change they promised after last year's report.  School Board member Josh Simon called for an implementation program to facilitate the recommendations in the wake of that report.

Elementary School Praised

Emery's elementary school, Anna Yates, as a contrast, received generally high marks and is shown to be continuing to improve.  The areas of improvement called for are mostly minor and not systemic.  Both teachers and the administration were praised by the report.

High School Condemned
Of the ten identified areas of concern needing improvement at the High School, seven either failed utterly or didn't improve enough to satisfy the assessment team.  Two areas showed clear progress and one area was deemed "difficult to assess". 

Perhaps the most distressing assessment for School District officials is the observation that the Center of Community Life, a high concept "school as the hub of the community" and long held out by the District as the lifeline to the failing High School, will not be sufficient on its own to turn the culture around. 

The Center of Community Life 

"will not be sufficient" 

to fix the schools

The report was generally positive as far as teachers at the High School are concerned, finding the ongoing problems there mostly with an unsupportive administration disrupting an environment where teachers might be encouraged to improve.  From the report, "One teacher explained, 'It’s hard to become a better teacher if you have to hide your weaknesses to keep your job.'  Teachers were not particularly open or clear about the sources of this tension.  In addition to discussing their lack of trust with colleagues, teachers discussed their lack of trust in the superintendent. They described the reduction in force as a contributing factor. They perceived that the superintendent had assured teachers that layoffs would not occur. They felt betrayed when layoffs were announced."

"We are suggesting that the school 

is at risk of suffering diminished 

enrollments until the school 

is not sustainable."

Administrators were further shown to be operating in a crisis mode, "Administrators did not perceive that they had adequate time to visit classrooms, especially after March 15th when the reduction in force went into effect. We did not acquire evidence that teachers had experienced opportunities to provide feedback to or receive feedback from their colleagues" the report noted.

Bright Note

The assessment team found some improvement, notably a greater sense of orderliness over last year, "The number of suspensions has declined; on the day of our visit, fewer students were waiting in the office because of discipline issues; classrooms and hallways were more orderly; and students reported a greater sense of order throughout the school."  However the assessment tempered the observation with an admonition that student behavior is at a low standard, "While there is substantial evidence of improvement over 2011-2012, there are still classrooms where students are not expected to adhere to high behavioral expectation." the report adds.

The entire NCUST follow-up report may be read here:  http://bit.ly/PEThY0