District Asks Parents to Help Counsel Students

In an effort to turn around high dropout rates and low standardized test scores, officials at the Santa Paula Union High School District are asking each of the school’s students to bring a parent in over the summer for an academic counseling session.

The sessions, which started shortly after school ended last month, are intended to help students plan post-graduation career strategies.

Principal Henry Johnson said he aims to get at least one parent of each of Santa Paula’s 1,182 students personally involved in the child’s academic career.

With parental participation, Johnson and other school officials hope to raise students’ grades and test scores and ultimately help them achieve their personal goals, whether that means going to college or getting adequate vocational training.

“Most parents’ complaint is, ‘I never know what’s going on,’ ” Johnson said. “This is one way of remedying that.”

Such parental involvement is crucial for the student’s--and the school’s--success, Johnson said.

So far, however, less than one-third of students and parents have been showing up for their appointments, counselors said. And most of the students who do show up are not those with the lowest test scores or the highest risk of dropping out.

Officials hope the planning sessions will make a dent in the school’s dropout rates, which according to a state Department of Education report released in May were 28.4%, the highest in the county. Also, the sessions may increase the number of students in the Santa Paula district who go on to four-year colleges. Now this is typically 8% to 20%, counselors said.

The summer sessions were initiated because of a district board policy, adopted last year, that emphasizes making students aware of course options and helping them develop “the decision-making skills necessary to make valid post-high school career plans.”

Participation in the sessions is voluntary, Johnson said. But next year, it will be mandatory for registration.

“We need to get students to take certain classes, even if they complain,” Johnson said. “Students rarely say what is best for them. They want to take the easier route.”

For example, some students decide not to take advanced courses in math, languages or other subjects after they have fulfilled basic requirements in those areas, Johnson said.

And although some students talk about attending the University of California or the Cal State University system, in some cases they find out too late that they have not met basic entrance requirements, Johnson said.

“There are ways to stop these kinds of problems,” Johnson said. “Students rarely give correct information to their parents. We’ve got to get the parents interested in the need to sit in on these interviews.”

Counselors Mike Gonzalez and Marilyn Heins, two of the three counselors conducting the sessions, said they were disappointed by the turnout.

“Maybe it’s because it’s new or people are on vacation,” Heins said. “Maybe when we do it again next year they’ll be more ready or will understand the benefits better.”

School officials acknowledge that there are still bugs to be worked out in the first year of the summer program.

“This is a great process, but probably summertime is not a great time to do it,” said Gonzalez, who is working a 1 to 9 p.m. shift to allow working parents time to drop in during the evenings.

In a three-hour period during one of Gonzalez’s shifts this week, however, only two of seven students showed up with parents for their appointments.

Another problem is that most of the students who come in are those who need academic counseling the least.

Kelley Dike, 13, a college-preparatory student who has a 3.5 grade-point average, came in this week with her father David, an elementary school teacher who is also Santa Paula High’s tennis coach. She is set on attending either UC Santa Barbara or UCLA.

But Kelley used the session to help her navigate her way through the maze of standardized tests, required and elective courses, decisions about preparing for a career and other hurdles she will face over the next four years as she seeks college admission.

“It’s helping me understand what I’m going to go through, instead of going through without knowing,” said Kelley, who will begin ninth grade at Santa Paula this fall.

Although this is the first year Santa Paula High has held summer counseling sessions, the district has attempted to counsel students on academic and career decisions since as far back as 1983, school officials said. That was the year when the state Legislature passed sweeping statewide education reforms.

So far, parents have reacted positively when attending the summer sessions, counselors said.

“I think it’s a really good idea,” said David Dike, Kelley’s father. “We’ve talked about education all our lives, we’ve been talking to Kelley about college since kindergarten. . . . It’s always been in the back of her mind, but this is the first formal occasion she’s had to discuss it.”

In the small community of Santa Paula, school officials said they are hoping the benefits of the program will spread by word of mouth, from parents who have already attended the sessions to those who have yet to go.

“The bottom line is it’s something that hasn’t been done here,” Johnson said. “And really, it’ll pay off a little this year, and a lot the next.”