Reforming High Schools

berry986
Mon, 09 May 2005 18:52:30 +0000

As I am sure some of you know Newsweek has published its annual list of America’s best high schools. I don’t want to know what you think of the methodology behind these rankings but rather what do you think of the current climate in public schools and how things can be improved? My vote is for a semi-segregated school dividing students based on goals, learning ability, etc.

I will my high school as an example. There are approximately 850 students in the entire school. Of that 850, 70+% are black and approximately 29% are white and less than 1% are hispanic. The vocational program at my school is a decent one enrolling primarily minority students. The students in these program usually go on to the local junior college and some will go on to a four-year university. Overall however, for most students at my school a high school diploma is the highest degree they will achieve.

Time and again it has been shown that if you challenge students they do better, my school is resubscribing to this philosophy for the first time in nearly 40 years. Now it’s time for a little history lesson about my town. Until the intergration movement the blacks students went to a seperate high school and it was a rather good one. The school was one par with, if not better than, the white high school in town. But following the combining of both schools the quality of education has dwindled in my town and county.