New Report On Emeryville School Reveals Failure of Management

Points to "Lack of Efforts to Address Problems"

Independent Report: "Alarmingly High Percentages Of Students Are Failing" 

A May 11th independent audit of Emery High School performed by the National Center for Urban School Transformation  concludes that school management is failing on a number of critical fronts and they're failing to address the problems.

The Center identified a general "lack of standards-based instruction" at the school and students tasked with "busy work" with a "significant percentage of students [that] are being allowed to fail".  The audit, called the 'High-Performing Schools Audit Report', also concludes  that "trust levels among adults at the school are low" and reports the existence of "multiple cliques among the adults".

School board president

Miguel Dwin: Report 
merely shows "strengths 
and weaknesses"

School board
member 

Josh Simon: 
Report is 
"important"

School Board member Josh Simon, jarred by the audit, called for an implementation program to make sure the conclusions are properly addressed and not swept under the rug.  He told the Tattler that while the study compares Emery High with the best schools in the nation, a very high bar, certain intolerable inadequacies are highlighted that need to be corrected.  He called the study "important".  

School board president Miguel Dwin on the other hand seemed to take the whole audit with a grain of salt, "the report shows strengths and weaknesses at the school" he quipped.  He declined further comment.

50% Failure Rate

The auditors, Dr. Lynne Perez, Director of Research at NCUST and Dr. Joseph Johnson, the NCUST Executive Director visited the school and made observations as well as conducted interviews with teachers, students and parents.  

They found several classrooms where students were observed "sleeping, sitting with their backs to the teacher, or continuously engaging in off-task behavior"  Teachers were observed allowing this aberrant behavior "as long as the students did not interrupt them".

Dr. Joseph Johnson
Executive Director
NCUST

Teachers and administrators the report noted, expressed concern about "high course-failure rates that exceeded 50% at some grade levels".  This, the report concludes is a result of insufficient objectivity related to grading, leading to a "lack of clear, written, and enforced grading policy [that] is eroding parent trust".

Teachers also reported that often there is not a common understanding of critical course content resulting in a school that has no capacity, "no way" the report says, "to ensure that students are prepared to meet state learning expectations or to succeed in more advanced courses".

The report finds an "alarmingly high" percentage of students are failing classes, and concludes there is "no evidence of systematic efforts to address the problem".

Two Conflicting Studies

By coincidence another report recently made public is the "Self Study" of the High School; a periodic self examination of the school required for state accreditation.  This other report offers a detailed, if contradictory conclusion about the academic culture at the school.  The Self Study titled 'Focus On Learning', conducted by the school district as a self examination of academic achievement concludes the school is in much better shape than the independent audit surmises.  Noted in the Self Study is the finding that the school is an "orderly place that nurtures learning" and the existence of an "atmosphere of trust and respect in the school".

The Self Study finds "all course curriculums [sic] are standards-aligned", a direct contrary finding from the independent study.

School board president Miguel Dwin told the Tattler that the self study "shows strengths and weaknesses", the same as the independent study and was not impressed by the two inconsistent conclusions from the two studies.  He added, "No conclusions can be made, both reports are complimentary to each other, both show strengths and weaknesses at the school" noting no greater understanding flows from comparing the two studies.

The Self Study, 'Focus On Learning', was submitted to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges on April 11-13 for consideration to continue accreditation of the High School.

The independent audit report, called the 'High-Performing Schools Audit Report' was designed to identify how Emery High deviates from "high performing" urban schools in the nation, and was released to the public on June 27th.  The National Center for Urban School Transformation is a San Diego State University based public policy group.
The independent report is here:http://scr.bi/lG6bhe