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To help high school students achieve higher levels of academic and personal success, major changes are taking place in San Diego Unified high schools. These efforts are part of the district's High School Renewal initiative, which was precipitated by several key factors:
- Student requests and desires for more challenging and relevant coursework.
- Demand for more high school graduates with the increased intellectual, emotional and social ability to compete in and shape today's workplace.
- The rising drop-out rate.
- Research indicating students perform better in smaller, more personalized learning environments.
- Generous funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
By redesigning traditional, large high schools, the district intends to improve academic achievement by:
- Increasing student engagement in the learning process.
- Fostering meaningful, sustainable relationships among students and adults, including their teachers, parents and the community.
- Providing students with the best opportunities for personal success by supporting their individual academic, social, and civic development needs.
Goals of the High School Renewal initiative include:
- Ensuring all high school students:
a) meet or exceed California State Standards, and
b) pass the California High School Exit Exam. - Increasing the number of college-ready high school graduates.
- Improving the opportunities available to high school graduates, including options to pursue higher education, vocational or technical training, or to enter the workforce or military service.
New School Models
As part of the high school renewal program, five school "models" will be implemented:
Alternative
Alternative education high schools are small schools that focus on reinvigorating non-traditional formats and options in order to enhance student engagement and improve student achievement.
Learn more.
Challenge
This model's focus is on enhancing the achievement of all students. Many of these schools met their Academic Performance Index (API) school-wide targets, but did not meet their API targets for subgroups of students. They are intent upon closing the achievement gap between groups of students.
Learn more.
Community Engagement
This model's focus is on retaining neighborhood students. These schools will work to unify and broaden community engagement for schools within their feeder pattern, mobilize parents and the community to support the K-12 community of schools, and promote the involvement of parents of children participating in the Voluntary Enrollment Exchange Program.
Learn more.
Freestanding Small Schools
Under development through Proposition MM, these new schools will be designed by the High Tech High Learning Network
in conjunction with district implementation teams which include parents and community members.
Learn more.
Small Schools
This model's focus is on enhancing student engagement to improve student achievement. Each has formed internal leadership teams to begin the process of modifying the large high school complex into a group of small, separate schools. Redesigned high schools will have the authority to implement their own curriculum (within district and state standards) and their own school structure.
Learn more.
Key Principles
Key principles guiding the design and development of new schools under the high school renewal initiative include:
High Expectations
Students are engaged in an ambitious and challenging course of study, developed by staff members who are dedicated to helping students achieve state and local standards and leave school prepared for success in work or further education.
Personalization
Each school environment promotes sustained student relationship with adults, where every student has an adult advocate and a personal plan for progress.
Performance-based Promotion
Students are promoted to the next instructional level only when they have achieved competency, and receive the additional time and assistance they need to achieve it.
Time to Collaborate
Teachers have time to collaborate to develop their own skills and to develop plans to meet the needs of all students. They partner with parents, businesses and institutions of higher education to meet these goals.
- Achievement in San Diego City Schools: A Progress Report
Non-partisan summary of the status and direction of student achievement. Prepared by the San Diego Achievement Forum, a network of researchers and higher education leaders with a strong interest in student performance in San Diego City Schools. The research and report was sponsored by the San Diego Dialogue.
- Review of Selected High School Reform Strategies
Identifies five approaches to high school reform—small schools, applied learning, professional development, youth development, and whole school reform—and canvasses the available empirical evidence on their respective effects on students' academic achievement. Prepared by Stanford University for the Aspen Institute's Education and Society Program. - Adelman, C. (1999). Answers in the Tool Box: Academic Intensity, Attendance Patterns, and Bachelor's Degree Attainment. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.
- Brand, B. (2003). Rigor and Relevance: A New Vision for Career and Technical Education . Washington, D.C.: American Youth Policy Forum.
See more publications from this organization: http://aypf.org/pubs.htm.
- California Postsecondary Education Commission (1999). College-Going Rates: What are they and what do they tell us?
- Daggett, W.R. (2003). The Future of Career and Technical Education. Rexford, NY: International Center for Leadership in Education.
Contact Information
San Diego Unified School District
4100 Normal Street, Room 2108
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 725-7295 – Phone
(619) 725-7792 - Fax
Key Contacts
Executive Director, Office of Small School Innovation (OSSI) / High School Improvement Officer
Tony Burks
tburks@sandi.net
