Shannon's Window: Rethinking high school
- March 28, 2014
- / Shannon Nickinson
- / education
This article in The Atlantic is one of several efforts in the last few months to highlight the “skills gap” between what the American public education system produces and what the work force demands.
Read the story here.
Camden County High School in St. Marys, Ga., has the student body divided into six academies: the freshman academy; the health and environmental science academy; engineering,architectural and industrial academy; business academy; fine arts academy; government, public and human services academy.
The division of the schools 2,800 students includes an embrace of technical learning with a strong emphasis on writing and practical, real-world application of what goes on in the classroom.
A sign in the hallway at school shows, attendance, referral and drop out data for each academy.
The school’s arrangement is similar to the way that West Florida High School is designed. West Florida opened in 2001 and has the highest graduation rate of any school in Escambia County.
West Florida has earned an A on state standardized test grading scale for nine years.
In the 2012-2013 school year at West Florida, 91.62 percent of the white students and 89 percent of the black students graduated.
In Escambia County as a whole, those numbers are 71.17 percent for white students and 51.4 percent for black students. It is a gap that has persisted for at least 10 years in this county.
According to Florida Department of Education data, in the 2002-2003 school year, 73 percent of white students and 51 percent of black students graduated from Escambia County high schools.
Superintendent Malcolm Thomas has said that the high graduation rate at West Florida is attributable to the fact that it is a magnet school that students must apply to to attend. They are motivated, their parents are motivated and thus they perform better.
And that is true.
But let us not discount the fact that the way the curriculum at West Florida engages students is special. Maybe that blend of technical education and core curriculum at West Florida is also due part of the credit for the way students respond to it.
Maybe the question shouldn’t be what makes West Florida High -- and Camden County High -- different from other high schools.
The question should be why don’t more of our high schools look the way they do.
A sign in the hallway at school shows, attendance, referral and drop out data for each academy.
The school’s arrangement is similar to the way that West Florida High School is designed. West Florida opened in 2001 and has the highest graduation rate of any school in Escambia County.
West Florida has earned an A on state standardized test grading scale for nine years.
In the 2012-2013 school year at West Florida, 91.62 percent of the white students and 89 percent of the black students graduated.
In Escambia County as a whole, those numbers are 71.17 percent for white students and 51.4 percent for black students. It is a gap that has persisted for at least 10 years in this county.
According to Florida Department of Education data, in the 2002-2003 school year, 73 percent of white students and 51 percent of black students graduated from Escambia County high schools.
Superintendent Malcolm Thomas has said that the high graduation rate at West Florida is attributable to the fact that it is a magnet school that students must apply to to attend. They are motivated, their parents are motivated and thus they perform better.
And that is true.
But let us not discount the fact that the way the curriculum at West Florida engages students is special. Maybe that blend of technical education and core curriculum at West Florida is also due part of the credit for the way students respond to it.
Maybe the question shouldn’t be what makes West Florida High -- and Camden County High -- different from other high schools.
The question should be why don’t more of our high schools look the way they do.
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