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New school may migrate to The City
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SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - A small high school for new immigrant students, bankrolled by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, could open its doors in August 2009 if it wins board approval tonight.
Internationals Network for Public Schools, which runs nine college-track schools for English learners in New York and launched a 10th in Oakland last year, applied in January to open a sister school in San Francisco. The nonprofit that runs the educational organization was launched in 2003 and has received more than $13 million in financial support from the Gates foundation.
The San Francisco Unified School District already has one high school for recent immigrants: Newcomer High School, a one-year program for students new to the English language, which enrolled 221 students last fall. However, the district has some 545 high-school-age students who are new to English, according to data from the California Department of Education.
While newcomer schools offer a “crash course” in English, Internationals provides four years of intensive, collaborative education — or more, if students need it, according to Carmelita Reyes, principal at Oakland International High School.
“If you’re a rock-star math student from China, we don’t put you in a different class from someone who struggles in math,” Reyes said. Students help one another with the language as well as the lessons, she said.
SFUSD turned its attention to small schools — learning centers with a student population typically less than 400 — after seeing an influx of charter schools during the past decade, according to school board member Jill Wynns.
“We have a large number of charter schools, given our size,” she said.
Small schools offer many of the same benefits of charters — reduced class size, more individual attention and a community feel — while allowing the district to more directly manage the school, Wynns said.
The concept of small schools appeals to parents, too. Pamela Coxson enrolled her son, Eugene, in Excelsior Middle School two years ago. She has stuck with it despite numerous name and location changes.
“He really knows his teachers, and I like the fact that all kids are in the same classes together, rather than being tracked,” Coxson said. “They don’t get all the [classroom] choices of a big school, but they get good choices.”
Creating a small school specifically for new immigrant students — whose families can feel lost and confused in a new country and school system — makes sense, said Ellie Rossiter, interim director of Parents for Public Schools.
Comments from Examiner Readers
2:20 PM MST on Fri., Jul. 25, 2008 re: "Lottery for school assignment comes under fire"
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1:11 PM MST on Sat., Jun. 28, 2008
re: "Funds sinking alongside enrollment"
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12:30 PM MST on Thu., Jun. 26, 2008
re: "Lottery for school assignment comes under fire"
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12:30 PM MST on Thu., Jun. 26, 2008
re: "Lottery for school assignment comes under fire"
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7:37 AM MST on Thu., Jun. 26, 2008
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11:17 AM MST on Tue., May. 20, 2008
re: "Lowell High named among nation’s best"
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miyoko said:
I just recieved a letter from SFUSD that they made an error and need to re assign my child to different school. This is only one month left before school starts. So outrageous. We already got involved with the school that we thought our daughe was going to. We met principle, teachers and all the parents and kids that involves in school. We paid non refundable tuition for afterschool program that the bus goes from there. We are sooo upset about SFUSD unproffesionalizm and poor organization skill. It is a big change for kids to attend a new school. We visited the school many times and organized play dates with new comers. We made a difficult decision picking a right afterschool program that bus goes to. Finally we are feeling comfortable for our child to start a new life at this new school. I hope that we can raise our voice.
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Examiner Reader said:
I think the writer may have missed a more interesting angle. According to the public data from the California Department of Education, San Francisco’s public high schools continue to be an entry point to the public school system rather than an exit point. To illustrate this point, here is the SFUSD’s enrollment data for the past several years, taken from the CDE website (www.cde.ca.gov): 2007-2008: 5,529 9th graders 2006-07: 6,030 9th graders and 3,982 8th graders 2005-06: 6,050 9th and 4,273 8th 2004-05: 5,438 9th and 4,196 8th Comparing any given year’s 8th grade SFUSD enrollment to the following year’s 9th grade SFUSD enrollment, it becomes clear than several hundred students ENTER the public school system for high school, presumably from private or parochial middle schools. The fact that, for each of the last three years, over 1,500 students ENTERED the SFUSD for 9th grade is a very significant and positive message about the quality of the public high schools
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Neighborhood Schools = Segregation said:
Odd that a city that prides itself on progressivism and projects itself as a paragon of diversity is so severely Balkanized. Calls emanating from some communities demanding "neighborhood schools" are thinly-veiled appeals for ethnic and class segregation. I attended hearings at the SFUSD a few years back and was shocked when some Chinese-American parents (frequently thru interpreters) insisted that they did not want their kids, described as model scholars who respected their parents and teachers and were hungry to learn, to study alongside black and Latino/Chicano children, characterized as brutal thugs with a profound aversion to discipline and education. I was shocked by their ignorance and racism, but perhaps not terribly surprised. Such scenarios once more expose San Francisco as a provincial little town rife with racialized tensions, despite its veneer of sophistication, urbanism and tolerance.
4 agree | 7 disagree
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Neighborhood Schools = Segregation said:
Odd that a city that prides itself on progressivism and projects itself as a paragon of diversity is so severely Balkanized. Calls emanating from some communities demanding "neighborhood schools" are thinly-veiled appeals for ethnic and class segregation. I attended hearings at the SFUSD a few years back and was shocked when some Chinese-American parents (frequently thru interpreters) insisted that they did not want their kids, described as model scholars who respected their parents and teachers and were hungry to learn, to study alongside black and Latino/Chicano children, characterized as brutal thugs with a profound aversion to discipline and education. I was shocked by their ignorance and racism, but perhaps not terribly surprised. Such scenarios once more expose San Francisco as a provincial little town rife with racialized tensions, despite its veneer of sophistication, urbanism and tolerance.
4 agree | 5 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The lottery system is not the answer. Maybe instead of busing children in order to integrate schools, we could reapply the $7 million saved to improve the low performing schools. ($5 million busing + $2 million staffing). Both my children were in the 37% that did not get into their first choice for school. That makes me less inclined to contribute any money to their school's requests for donations of $250 - $500/year.
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Examiner Reader said:
Lowell has always been the best high school the City has to offer. It's too bad the Stupid Board of Education looks at Lowell as the ugly step sister (e.g., no funding for improvements, always trying to canabalize the admission process, trying to fix things that aren't broken etc.).
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