The Editorial on the Editorial updated April 20, 2008
The type in black is the E-N editorial, the bold red is our commentary.
Editorial: SAISD early college great deal for students
Web Posted: 04/15/2008 05:34 PM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
The San Antonio Independent School District's plan for an early college high school is a win-win situation.
Students, the school district and Alamo Community Colleges all can benefit. The proposal deserves the enthusiastic community support.
The old saying of "If it sounds to good to be true, It probably is." should be in the back of everyone's minds when considering this ECHS.
The concept is not new, currently more than 27 early college high schools are operating across the state, and 11 more are in the planning stages.
While the concept is not new. It is not a tried and true success either. Of the current 27 ECHSs not one has graduated a class of seniors yet. The schools are only in their second year of existence. Shouldn't the district wait and see how these other ECHS perform before jumping on this bandwagon?
After everything this school district has been through in the last several years (since the Diana Lamm fiasco) and taking into consideration their current weak financial status wouldn't it be prudent for the board to take a wait-and-see attitude? If this ECHS is a good idea today then it will be just as good, if not better, in two years.
Early college high schools allow students to complete a two-year associate degree by the time they graduate from high school.
This does sound really great doesn't it? Remember when you were in high school? Could you imagine simultaneously working on your high school diploma and your associate's degree? How about the student's maturity level? You can't run before you learn to walk, ya know.
The SAISD school board will vote on a memorandum of understanding with the community colleges that allows them to proceed with the plan at their April 28th meeting.
The school board would be wise to recall their words from the March 24 board meeting. And if they've forgotten, they can view the video here. Trustee Olga Hernandez told the superintendent that we needed to slow this process down. Trustee Carlos Villarreal was not sold on using Travis Elementary as the ECHS campus. Trustee James Howard was concerned whether or not these college credits would be transferable. The board would be wise to closely inspect the numbers given to them by staff and decide if they can live with a $1.9 MILLION loss for the first 5 years of this ECHS. If all goes as planned, eighth grade students who will be freshmen in the fall can start the application process in May for the 125 slots that will be available.
Only if they fit the profile of at-risk, underserved, economically disadvantaged, and first time generation college-going student. And then you better be lucky because that's when the district will use a lottery system to determine which students attend.
A site for the early college campus has not been selected, but a likely location is Travis Elementary, which the school board recently voted to close due to declining enrollment in the district.
Which only lends credence to the belief that Travis Elementary was NOT closed for declining enrollment as we were led to believe but to fulfill a secret plan that the superintendent had begun way back in Sept. 2006. We wonder if the district had been able to close the schools that were on the list last year where would this ECHS had been placed?
The proximity of Travis Elementary to San Antonio College makes the location a good choice.
There are two other locations being considered for this ECHS. Edison High School which is only 2.29 miles from SAC and the Navarro Campus 2.58 miles from SAC. Trustee Olga Hernandez would love to see this ECHS in Edison, which is completely doable according to TEA, with no loss of grant money whatsoever.
If the ECHS were in an already existing high school the only accomodations necessary would be keeping the ECHS students seperate from the regular high school students.
The Travis Elementary campus would need major renovations as Trustee Carlos Villarreal pointed out at the March 24 board meeting. Think of all the little elementary school toilet facilities, of which there are 64, that would need to be removed and replaced. The furniture currently in place would have to be completely replaced. And how about the library? Or would the ECHS have a library?
These upgrades would take $100,000's to convert Travis Elementary into a high school as opposed to using either the Edison or Navarro campuses, as they are already high school facilities.
Students who enroll in the program would not pay college tuition or have to pay for books. That is a saving of about $4,000 just in tuition and fees.
Who wouldn't think this is a dream come true? Especially the family that may feel this is the only way they're going to provide a college education to their child. But there are still questions to be asked. But nothing is FREE, remember ~ "If it sounds too good to be true. It probably is." SAC will be getting money from the state to cover their tuition & fees.
But what happens if those credits don't transfer to their college of choice? The student/their family will have to pay the second time around to take those courses.
A grant from the Texas Education Agency would fund the initial costs and state daily attendance funding would keep it going.
The first grant SAISD received for Cycle I from the TEA will expire July 31, 2008 and according to a TEA employee the SAISD has NOT applied for the Cycle II grant as of yet.
There is a problem as far as relying on ADA (average daily attendance) as it's primary source of funding once the grants have run dry. The problem is that once these high school students begin taking college courses at SAC the ADA to the SAISD will be reduced proportionately on the number of college courses taken. When that happens SAC will be receiving the ADA monies. What will happen when this upper class ECHS student is taking predominantly college courses?
This program would provide a wonderful opportunity for high school students to get a taste of college and give them a major headstart on their college career.
This "wonderful opportunity" of getting a taste of college and getting a headstart is currently offered at every high school in the district. Students have the opportunity to take dual-credit courses at their current high schools NOW.
Early college high school is not for everyone. It is strongly focused on academics. There are no UIL sports activities; there is no band or choir.
We have heard board members and the superintendent say on several occasions that the way to keep students interested in school is through its extracurricular activities LIKE athletics and band. This is one more example of the district saying one thing and doing quite the opposite. As a matter of fact on April 14 at a board work session meeting Trustee Carlos Villarreal said that you never hear a student get excited about their math class. Why don't we ask the superintendent to once again tell us the story of his son being bored in middle school and how he was able to get interested in school again. I believe it was in the extracurricular activities that school offered.
Parents should give serious consideration to having their children participate in this non-traditional high school campus.
Yes, parents must give serious consideration to their children participating in the ECHS. Parents will be required to sign a type of contract of participation and will be required to get their child to and from school regardless where in the district they live. Transportation will not be provided by the district.
And safety? A parent asked district representatives how they intend to keep their teenage daughter safe while attending college classes at SAC at one of the middle school meetings on Tuesday April 15. The answer was "We'll figure that out".
Increasing the number of college graduates is of vital importance to the future of this state.
No arguments here. But let's take a close look at the numbers and the true impact of this ECHS. If this ECHS is approved by the board, 125 students will (hopefully) be enrolled in the 9th grade for the 2008-2009 school year. Each year another 9th grade class of 125 students will be added. We will have to wait for 4 years, 2012, for the first graduating class. And the number of graduates? 125. That's a huge impact isn't it? How about if the district was to put its efforts in ALL 8 of the district high schools rather than one small school?
Developing a college-going culture by exposing high school students to the rigors of a college curriculum and providing them 60 hours of college credit by graduation day will enhance their chances for success in life.
The superintendent believes that but once again we have no real data to prove it.
The plan is part of an aggressive series of initiatives being pushed by SAISD Superintendent Robert Durón.
Be aggressive, but be aggressive in a positive way. We'd like to see the superintendent make our current schools better rather than spending money and time on building more schools. It makes no sense that the district has voted to close six schools and then turn around and open up three new ones. If declining enrollment and lack of funds were the true reasons for these and upcoming school closures then how can they justify creating the new ECHS with the knowledge that they'll be placing our school district in a $1.9 MILLION hole in less than five years.
Considering the difficulties faced by the inner-city school district, Durón's sense of urgency and willingness to embrace a bold approach are welcome.
One of our issues is that the superintendent is not truly addressing the difficulties facing our school district. He's busy shoving his own agenda down the board member's and the community's throat with no regard to their lasting affects.