High School Choice, Part 2
Heidi Gilman Bennett
At Forward Albemarle, we’ve been spending a lot of time trying to understand the new high school Career Learning Communities alongside our freshman teens… so, here’s an explainer to catch you up! (And if you’re a 9th grade parent who is missing the basics, look here.)
Here are some reasons we’re excited:
Student Engagement – Really can’t dismiss this as a “nice-to-have,” as kids who are engaged actually show up to school and learn. ACPS students are less satisfied and persist less in college, so we are all for focusing on developing highly-engaged students.
Graduation is Not The Endgame – What parents want for kids is not just a diploma, but to actually have a satisfying life… whether that’s college or work or most likely both. Yes, please help our kids begin to think about meaningful careers! They’re not ready.
Research-Based Models – ACPS has put years of thinking into high school redesign. If your kids were littles when this started, don’t worry… Virginia’s pathways and our local model are based on success in other places like South Carolina and California.
Equitable Outcomes – SOME of the comparable programs have shown positive impacts for all kids in college & career readiness AND also: African-American students earned more high school credits, English language learners less likely to drop out, and more.
And yet, here’s why we’re concerned (teaser, it’s about equity & implementation):
Academy Enrollment – The current high school academies (ESA at WAHS, HMSA at MoHS, MESA at AHS, and Center I) are not attracting Black and Hispanic students equitably and attract more economically-privileged students. This is despite many sincere efforts like lottery-based admissions, bus service from home schools and outreach.
Family Communication – ACPS acknowledges that to overcome the known equity obstacles, effective family engagement is critical. Let’s just say they’re off to a rough start and hope more is planned (really soon).
Middle School Prep – We appreciate the ACPS efforts to increase equity of Algebra I enrollment, build career prep into advisories, and implement culturally-responsive teaching. But, these are newer initiatives that current 9th graders haven’t experienced. Will a diverse enrollment just reflect current inequities in high school course failure?
Transportation – Wow, the matrix of complex transportation required while ACPS is still struggling to hire bus drivers?! Participating high schoolers would need to travel from their home school to the alternative site every other day, all while losing instructional time, too.
Overcrowding – As we explained previously, AHS is already overcrowded and WAHS is about to be. ACPS is counting on career learning community enrollment to reduce overcrowding. Further overcrowding at AHS will only exacerbate the challenges in our most wonderfully diverse school… yikes.
And More Questions – Why were these sites selected? Are teachers ready? Will local businesses offer internships? We have been working with the ACPS Parent Council, which is asking these questions and more. We look forward to sharing the answers!