High School’s Faster-Track Plan Assailed

SANTA PAULA —  Administrators say changes planned at Santa Paula Union High School this fall will raise academic standards, but some of the campus’ top students are already predicting failure.

Supt. William Brand and Principal Tony Gaitan made a decision earlier this year to bump standard-track students--more than 55% of the students--into the more rigorous college-prep classes this fall.

And college-prep students who received an A this last grading period would be placed in an honors course in September. But some students are blasting the program, saying it does not take into account those pupils who may not be prepared to enter more advanced classes.

“I’m afraid they won’t have the motivation or skills they should have to keep pace with the curriculum, which can lead to kids failing,” said Tim Yuen, this year’s valedictorian.

The majority of the campus’ 1,300 students have long lagged far behind their county and statewide peers in standardized test scores and college attendance rates.

While standard-track classes meet only the basic requirements for high school graduation, the college-prep classes fulfill requirements to pursue entrance into Cal State or UC campuses.

“It’s going to mean you will have to study harder,” Gaitan said recently. “It will mean you have to ask more questions.”

The school will provide more study and tutorial sessions than in the past. This summer, incoming freshmen not testing at grade level have been asked to attend summer school. The changes affect the English, math, social sciences and science departments.

Yet some English students are rallying with parents to urge the school to reconsider their the plan, arguing it would water down the quality of their courses by forcing students into courses requiring more work but not at their own initiative.

What they have seen so far has fueled some of their fears.

Recently they learned that two teachers--considered by many students to be the best on campus--are no longer scheduled to be teaching the ninth-, 11th- and 12th-grade English honors courses they have taught for years. And a long-standing tradition to have honors students read “The Scarlet Letter” over the summer has been dumped.

“Who cares if you’re in a class called honors,” said Amy Dilbeck, an incoming senior. “If you are not doing honors work, it doesn’t matter.”

Dilbeck, an honors student, cheerleader and next year’s class president, said she wants to be pushed academically so she can survive in college.

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Amy had planned on attending John Merrill’s honors class. The 26-year teacher has a reputation for being tough, caring and one of the school’s best.

But Merrill recently asked for a transfer to a continuation school, saying he was worried he would not be able to uphold his high standards this fall. The transfer request is still being considered by school district officials.

By moving students to the more-demanding classes, Brand and Gaitan said they hoped to motivate students--especially hard-working but overlooked teens who are continually placed in lower-level classes.

But Merrill believes that to implement such a program by next school year is not practical.

He foresees a situation where teachers will spend much of their time instructing students who are ill-prepared to attend higher-level classes, thereby lowering the quality of education for the other students.

Or, he said, teachers would keep the standards exactly the same as before, resulting in mass failure and eventually leading to complaints from parents and school officials.

“The teachers had been placed in an untenable situation where they water down the curriculum or lower the standards to meet the needs of the other kids,” Merrill said. He has joined with some other teachers in asking that the plan be implemented over a period of years, rather than over one summer.

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Jeri Cook, who has taught honors English for eight years, has been one of the most vocal critics of the school district’s plan. While the English department requested that she teach 12th-grade honors again next year, Gaitan has decided to place her in a college-prep class for fall.

This is the first time the principal has gone against a placement recommendation by the English department, fueling speculation among students that Cook was demoted in retaliation for speaking out.

Two new teachers will teach honors English.

“Mr. Merrill and Cook have a heart for honors English, and when you take someone out of where their heart is, how do you expect anyone to succeed?” Amy said. “It’s like taking someone who loves art and making them teach math. It seems like pretty much a punishment for speaking out against the program.”

Gaitan, who made the decision, denied that it was retaliatory.

“All changes made are tentative right now,” he said. “When you’re building a program, you need to have flexibility and teachers that teach at different levels. No teacher is hired to teach just college prep or honors.”

The loss of these two teachers from the school’s honors program has students worried about next year.

“There’s a strong fear that since they don’t have these two teachers who have always been the most challenging ones, the new ones won’t hold up the standards,” Tim Yuen said. He worries that his sister, an incoming freshman, will have a lesser quality of education than he did.

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Cook required that her honors students read “The Scarlet Letter” over the summer so that they would be prepared to talk about the Puritans at the start of school and jump right into “The Crucible.”

For students to qualify for her honors English class, they were required to receive a B or above on her book test on “The Scarlet Letter” administered in September at the beginning of the school year.

While most honors classes in the county require at least two books for summer reading, Brand dropped the requirement to read the single book this summer, calling the book test too punitive.

“We have kids moving up into honors and they need some time and nurturing,” Brand said. “They need patience on the part of the teachers to be successful.”

The book test would eliminate from Day 1 students interested in honors English, Brand said.

That’s exactly the point, some students argue. The reason a class is honors is because it’s demanding and is attended by students willing to put in the work and perform at a certain level, they say.

“We’re trying to uphold standards, and that naturally cuts people out,” Amy said. “[Brand] is so intent on the point that all these kids have to move up that he’s not willing to tell us what those standards will be.”

Dilbeck and other students and their parents have begun meeting, visiting the superintendent’s office and speaking out at board meetings. They say they will continue to challenge the decision to implement the new academic program this fall.

“We’re not ready to give up yet,” said Nancy Dilbeck, Amy’s mother.