Santa Paula High’s College Prep Plan Debated

More than 200 parents, students and teachers packed a meeting hall this week to debate the Santa Paula school board’s plan to adjust the high school curriculum to place most students in college preparatory courses this fall.

For 3 1/2 hours the overflow crowd argued the issues of equity versus privilege, student motivation versus apathy and whether the revised course work at Santa Paula High School would result in higher standards or a watered-down curriculum.

Officials at Santa Paula High, hoping to reverse the school’s reputation as one of the poorest performing campuses in the county, want to boost every student in standard level classes to more demanding college prep courses. Students currently enrolled in college prep classes would be elevated to even more rigorous honors classes.

Though the plan has angered many residents it has earned praise, especially from Latino parents who complain that the majority of students at Santa Paula High have long been placed in standard classes, where they usually languish for their high school careers.

Several Santa Paula High graduates told district trustees Tuesday night how they had felt pigeon-holed into standard level classes where their teachers did not expect much from them and rarely encouraged them to prepare for college.

“I’m so glad [my kids] will not have to struggle to get enrolled in college prep classes like their mother did,” said Teresa Trujillo, a Santa Paula High alumna whose daughter is an incoming freshman.

Critics say the Santa Paula Union High School District has not sufficiently proven that it can implement this plan without lowering the quality of education for top students. They argue that school officials should move more slowly and carefully to ensure that the curriculum changes indeed lead to improved student performance.

“You’re just changing the [course] titles,” said parent Michelle Kolbeck. “What’s our credibility with the University of California when we certify they’re honor students but they aren’t? The credibility of our school will go down.”

Steve Lopez, head of the district teachers union, originally had some reservations about the new curriculum. But the Santa Paula High science teacher now urges others to join him in supporting the plan, which he said is a moral issue.

“It is immoral to place a student in a level and predetermine his or her achievement,” he said.

Giving all 1,314 students at Santa Paula High access to the more academically challenging courses is at the heart of the plan, supporters said. This past school year, just 16 of Santa Paula’s students participated in the senior honors English course.

Some parents complained that honors classes were only open to the privileged few, while the majority of students received a poorer quality of education. But current honor students respond that they earned the right to those classes by studying hard and that other pupils can do the same if they wanted to.

The plan’s detractors say that while they generally agree with the concept of improving educational performance for all students, they are concerned about the district’s rush to implement the changes without proof that the program will work.

“Really listen to what you’re talking about. It’s not just about access,” said parent Sylvia Lemons. “What do you do once you have access?”

She argued that with so little time to devise the new curriculum, the courses may simply end up watered down to accommodate the poorest performers.

“It really concerns me that what I have to look forward to is radical experimentation,” said Andrew Seeley, whose three children attend schools in the city’s elementary school district. “I have not heard the scientific research about where de-tracking has been done . . . This is a major serious curriculum change.”

Some parents have already discussed pulling their kids out of Santa Paula High and transferring them to other schools in September.