Hoover High Takes a Close Look at Itself

From the English literature curriculum to after-school clubs, staff and teachers at Hoover High School have spent much of their spare time this year examining how well their school works.

The top-to-bottom look has covered the way every subject is taught, how students are counseled, how members of the multi-ethnic population at the mid-city school get along with one another, and to what extent parents support their children and the school.

Their product, a 200-page book on Hoover, was required for a special committee of outside educators sanctioned by the state Department of Education to determine whether the school should receive accreditation.

A seven-member committee sat in on Hoover classes, talked to students at random, and pored through the school’s self-examination for three days last month in preparation for its recommendation to the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges. The association is one of six around the country recognized for accreditation purposes by the U.S. Office of Education.

Three other area high schools--Serra, Patrick Henry and Muir--underwent a similar process this year. The Board of Education received a report Tuesday on what accreditation means for individual schools and the district.

One important factor in accreditation is that it is difficult for graduates of unaccredited high schools to be accepted by colleges. Accreditation is also important in attracting quality teachers to a school.

“It’s more than just an accreditation,” Principal Doris Alvarez said in an interview this week. “You really study yourself, then they (the committee) come out and look to see what you are really doing.

“I think it gives us a validation of what we are doing.”

Resource teacher John Collins said the school’s effort also improved communication among the staff.

“At first, the (process) seemed just a massive amount of work,” Collins said. “But now it seems that it really helped to take a close look at what we do. And the validation from the committee is a real impetus to improving morale.”

Upon approval of its plan by the visiting committee, a school can receive accreditation for up to six years. In subsequent examinations, a 10-year approval is possible.

Maximum accreditation from such committees is by no means certain, Alvarez stressed.

“They have no stake in the district and are really taking a close, fresh look at us,” she said. Committee members pulled students from classes at random, asking them to comment on parts of the school’s self-study and to offer additional views on what they believe is right and wrong with the school.

“They knew what they were doing every minute of the time,” Alvarez said. “They were well-trained. One man had been doing this for more than 20 years.”

Safe Environment

The committee wrote up a detailed, 40-page report on its findings, including many commendations for the school’s efforts to raise test scores in spite of its highly mobile population, in which 50% of the students who begin the school year in September are elsewhere by June. In particular, the committee praised Hoover for its safe environment, which came as no surprise to Collins or other teachers, but perhaps was a revelation for a committee expecting a state of chaos at a diverse, urban school.

But the report’s heart is in its recommendations for the school. And those recommendations must be addressed over the next six years in periodic progress reports by the school.

Among the committee’s concerns are that Hoover improve its reading programs for students, especially those learning English as a second language, encourage more class discussions, work more closely with feeder elementary and junior-high schools and provide more resources to ease the transition into school for the many students who enter during mid-year.

“I don’t think there were any big surprises,” Alvarez said, pointing out that most of the recommendations are among those proposed by her staff in Hoover’s own report. Alvarez and her teachers have been in the forefront of those schools willing to tackle the district’s new core curriculum proposal and plans for giving teachers more responsibility in running their school.

The committee also took the district to task for a lack of maintenance at Hoover, where some of the buildings are only a decade old while others date back to the early 1930s. The committee in particular objected to sewage backups in science labs. It also said that the school should have better science facilities, better drama-production areas, and better counseling.

Those issues considered the responsibility of the district must be addressed by district administrators, who are required to file replies to the committee as well.

“The process has had to have stimulated everybody here,” Alvarez said. She was especially pleased that the committee had recognized Hoover’s attempt to focus on long-range projects, such as the Hoover 2000 program, in addition to seeking short-term gains in areas such as testing.

“The bottom line is that we want to have (more learning) and improved test scores,” Alvarez said. She cited an event last week when Hoover’s Saturday enrichment program sponsored a schoolwide write-off and attracted 80 students for three hours of writing.