Students Award High Marks to County’s Schools and Teachers : Many say the campuses are smaller, safer and more personal.

Ventura High School graduate Ramsey Jay leaves the quiet confines of downtown Ventura this month to begin classes at a giant, big-city university. But the 18-year-old scholar-athlete is not worried.

“I feel like I’ve been prepared for life,” the USC freshman said. “There are a lot of teachers who took time to know me, and that means a lot. I’m very thankful.”

Many students across Ventura County say the best thing about growing up here is the local schools. And, for the most part, they say educators have prepared them for life beyond the classroom.

“I am really happy here,” said Beverly Barton, 16, a junior at Oak Park High. “The school really pushes you to get a good education.”

Tori Plueger, a 13-year-old student at Cabrillo Middle School in Ventura, said she feels smart because she is solving math problems in the eighth grade that her father tackled in high school.

“It just seems like I’m getting a better education than my parents got.”

And other students who once attended schools outside Ventura County say they are happier here because the campuses are smaller, safer and more personal.

For a semester of her sophomore year, Beverly attended Agoura High School but felt lost among the 1,700 other students.

“At Agoura, the teachers did care, but there were so many kids they couldn’t pay attention to you,” she said.

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She returned to Oak Park High’s 640-student campus last year and now relishes its gentler scale. “We are like a little family here,” she said.

Amanda Franklin, a 1995 graduate of Camarillo High School, had a similar experience as a student at a large San Fernando Valley high school.

“In the Valley, you’re not a student, you’re a piece of paper, a name in a grade sheet,” the 18-year-old said. In her tenth-grade year, Amanda’s family moved from Granada Hills to Camarillo seeking better schools.

“The teachers are pretty good here,” Amanda said. “They sit down with you. They’re real caring.”

That kind of personal attention, said 17-year-old Oak Park High student Jazmin Rodriguez, is the key to students’ positive views of school. “I think we are getting a good education here,” she said.

In July, Jazmin took a summer-school class to make up a D in geometry last year. Some students would settle for such grades. But in Jazmin’s community, the best grades are expected--as well as being necessary to get into college.

“It’s very important to me,” she said. “I want to go to college when I leave high school. I want to succeed . . . and you can’t go anywhere in life without a college degree.”

Going to college is the primary goal for many students. A Times survey found that 82% of students ages 12 to 17 plan to enter college after high school, although studies show that far fewer actually do.

“You can only be flipping burgers for so long,” said Caroline Ramirez, 18, a Rio Mesa High School graduate who will attend Boston University this fall. “You need more than that, and to get that you need to go to school.”

While many educators say student achievement is largely predicated on the income, expectations and education of parents, students believe the bulk of the responsibility lies with them.

“I think anybody can get a good education if they want to,” Caroline said.

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Ventura High School freshman Kelly Espinosa learned that lesson the hard way. As an eighth-grader at Cabrillo Middle School last year, Kelly got Cs and Ds during the first quarter.

“I sat down and started thinking about my life and said, ‘Gosh, Kelly, you’ve got to get on track,’ ” the 14-year-old said. By the end of the school year, she had pulled some of those grades up to A’s.

No one could have made her do her homework or want to learn, Kelly said. She had to decide that on her own. “If I choose to come to school, I’m choosing to get an education. My parents can’t force me, my teachers can’t force me.”