Twenty-five San Antonio high schools landed on the federal “needs improvement” list that was released in September. Among those were several area South Side high schools, including Southwest, South San Antonio, McCollum, Harlandale and Southside.
Dr. Guillermo Zavala, Superintendent of Harlandale Independent School District, disagrees with the federal ratings. According to a letter written to parents, he believes the ratings do not adequately and fairly express the hard work and committed effort of the school staff.
However, successful completion of college entrance exams within these South
Side schools proves students are not exactly up to par for entering college.
For example, enrollment at Palo Alto College from all area South Side high
schools in 2002 was 330 students. Of those, 72 percent were required to
take one or more remediation courses in English, Math or Reading.
“I know a lot of people that I graduated with are currently taking
remedial math classes. I guess because it is a harder subject,” said
Sophomore Sabrina Richardson, a graduate of Southside High School.
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is one of the cornerstones of the “No
Child Left Behind Act”, which is a measure of year-to-year student achievement
on statewide assessments in public high schools.
One of the key factors measured in this study includes high school graduation
rates, which are lower at South Side schools compared to other schools in San
Antonio.
Developmental courses at Palo Alto College are geared toward giving students a
chance to learn what they didn’t learn in high school.
Julie Kern, professor of Mathematics, believes
that most students are placed in developmental math classes because they’ve
forgotten a lot of the material learned in high school. According to Kern, students
have difficulty with applications problems, which she believes to be unfortunate.
“It is through word problems that a student can really see the usefulness
of the math they’ve learned,” said Kern.
Dr. Mard Herrick, Superintendent for the Southside Independent School District,
believes student achievement is the first priority, but parents have an important
role to play as well.
“Collaborative effort between the home and school has the greatest impact
on student achievement,” said Herrick.
Dual credit enrollment, college-level courses that high school students take,
at South Side high schools is rising every year.
Maria Gallegos, a junior at Southside High School believes that taking dual credit
courses will help her with her transition from high school to college. “Taking
college-level classes has helped me better prepare for the college entrance exams
that I will soon be taking,” said Gallegos.
South Side high school administrators and students have accepted the state’s
challenge, and they are optimistic that these ratings have underscored what they
need to achieve.