Union of High Schools, Colleges Urged

Public schools and community colleges in Los Angeles are edging toward an unusual marriage that could blur the boundaries between high school and college, allowing ambitious students to finish as much as two years of college while still in high school.

In keeping with a broader trend toward breaking down barriers between high school and college, Los Angeles Unified School District and Los Angeles Community College officials are discussing the possibility of building four high schools serving as many as 6,000 students on four local college campuses.

The campuses may be designed to offer a combined high school/community college curriculum, allowing students to rack up college credits while finishing high school.

Although some community college faculty oppose the idea, talks have progressed such that both sides say an agreement to build the first such large-scale school for 1,500 or more students at East Los Angeles College may be reached by June.

High school students already take community college classes in large numbers, and one small version of a high school campus at a college exists at Los Angeles Southwest College. But the recent effort represents an unprecedented level of coordination between the two systems, which have been separate for more than 30 years, and could lead to the creation of new types of institutions in which students move seamlessly between high school and college.

“Why go through a four-year system when in fact one can go through it more quickly . . . and be in college at 17?” said Robert Collins, L.A. Unified’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

The idea was broached as a marriage of convenience: Locating high schools on community college campuses would ease overcrowding at city schools and could provide needed funds for the colleges.

But along the way, the talks have led to a reexamination of the very nature of high school education: its rigid, four-year timeline, which seems slow for some advanced students, and its cultural distance from college.

It’s time, said school board member David Tokofsky, that educators challenge the traditional kindergarten-through-12th-grade format. The alternative, he said, is a model that would allow high school students to ease into college at their own pace, attending what he called “ninth- through 14th-grade” institutions.

“We spend 13 years worth of money in K-12 [schools] teaching these kids, and then . . . after they graduate they somehow forget to enroll in community college,” he said. High schools that are somehow blended seamlessly into college are a way to keep them on track, he said.

“There is nothing magic about the age of 18,” agreed Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. “This is a powerful and creative idea. One questions why it’s taken so long to happen.”

But what sounds good in theory may not work as well in practice, say some skeptical community college faculty.

Not Everyone Is Wanted

At East L.A. College, supporters of the L.A. Unified plan have acknowledged as much by insisting that the new high school be a selective institution, rather than one serving a general L.A. Unified student body. It’s a nod to college faculty worried about crime and youthful high jinks.

Tentative plans, said college President Ernest Moreno, are for “a high-tech academy . . . targeting a student population interested in transfer [to four-year universities].” Math, science and technical fields would be the focus.

L.A. Unified needs new high school classrooms so desperately that, even if all the high schools adopt year-round calendars, the district will run out of room for new students within six years at current growth rates, said Gordon Wohlers, assistant superintendent for policy, research and development.

Nine high schools have been proposed; these college-oriented schools could help fill that need. But finding large parcels of land for them--parcels free from toxic contamination--has not been easy.

The community colleges, by contrast, have seen enrollments shrink from historic highs, and have some extra space, officials say. What they lack is money. Funds for building have been scant for years and operating funds are stretched.

Under the circumstances, it might seem inevitable that the two systems would collaborate. At East Los Angeles College, tentative plans are for the school district to build a structure for 30 or so classrooms near the stadium.

In exchange for the space, the school district would use school bond money to build a parking structure for college students--something for which the college has virtually no chance of getting state funding. The college would also have use of the high school classrooms at night.

The scheme would require the bending of state rules, and officials plan to get more public comment on the proposal, but both sides seem confident that the talks will yield an agreement.

Three other community colleges have been tentatively suggested for high school campuses: Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and Los Angeles Southwest.

“Wherever the opportunity presents itself” to build high schools on college campuses, said Collins, “we will be more than interested.”

Although such new institutions wouldn’t solve all of L.A. Unified’s overcrowding problems, they could significantly reduce them.

They would accelerate a trend already growing in Los Angeles County: that of recruiting teenagers into college programs while they are in high school.

In the past five years, the number of high school students concurrently enrolled in the Los Angeles community colleges has doubled to some 3,300.

Getting a Jump on College

High schoolers have always enrolled in community college classes to get a jump on college. But the numbers have increased as community colleges have expanded formal programs to boost enrollment.

Taking community college classes prevents high school students from wasting their after-school hours and helps them realize that “wow, there is something more interesting out there,” said Bernadette Tchen, who heads one such program at City College.

The school district’s one high school on a community college campus is 11-year-old Southwest Middle College High School, a 300-student school designed after a similar middle college in New York. These very small schools, which resemble alternative high schools in structure, are at or near colleges and allow students to take some college classes more easily. They have grown to 27 nationwide.

Meanwhile, various forces are combining to encourage the trend in California. A recent effort by lawmakers to provide financial incentives for shared facilities failed, but will be reintroduced. And a joint high school/college has been proposed involving Sierra College east of Sacramento.

“There is a groundswell of desire in a number of high school students to move faster, and we are responding to that,” said Barry Abrams, head of the faculty senate at Sierra.

In Los Angeles, the small, middle college high school at Southwest is located in a few portables on one side of the campus. Though enrolled in high school, advanced students take both high school and college classes, sometimes completing as much as two years of college by the end of their senior year. The school claims to send 96% of its graduates on to college.

“It helps you know what to do when you get to a four-year university,” said Eloghosa Osaseri, 16, one of the students who expects to complete an associate of arts degree when he graduates.

“It’s good to get a head start,” said another middle college student, Susie Santalena, 16.

But some college professors are wary. At Southwest, said English professor Darrell Eckersley, the high school and college coexist uneasily at best.

The high school students on the campus have been disruptive in the past, he alleged, scratching graffiti and drawing the attention of gangs.

High school officials downplay problems. But Eckersley’s concerns are echoed by many other community college faculty who say college students are distinct from high school students: not just older, but more motivated, because no one has forced them to attend. They shouldn’t have to submit to mingling with younger teenagers, some faculty say.

Eckersley also questioned the rationale for combining high school and college programs: If students are advanced enough to be taking college classes, he asked, why would they be interested in attending community colleges?

Despite such questions, officials from both systems say the idea will continue to be developed.

“We have all met high school students who are way ahead. . . . They could benefit from a year or more of college already under their belt when they graduate from high school,” said Kelly Candaele, president of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, adding: “If the traditional pattern is not working, why be stuck on tradition?”