2 Area Schools Fail to Reserve Slots at UC for Students

Two public high schools in Ventura County failed to participate in a new program that would have guaranteed their top students admission to the University of California.

Channel Islands High School in Oxnard and Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley are among 134 public schools statewide whose administrators either missed the deadline to send students’ transcripts or decided their students didn’t need the program. Because of that omission, the top 4% of students at those schools will not have the same advantage in the highly selective application process as peers who are participating.

Tessa Del Castillo said her daughter Pauline is ranked 10th out of a senior class of about 630 at Channel Islands High School in Oxnard, and is applying to three UC schools: UC Davis, UCLA and UC Irvine. Del Castillo said she is frustrated that the Oxnard school did not send in the transcripts.

“If it’s something that would really benefit their students, they should have done something about it,” she said. “It’s really too bad.”

Channel Islands administrators could not be reached for comment.

Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley didn’t participate in the program this year because the top 4% of students already qualified for UC admission, said counselor Tom Muenzer.

“I did not put anybody at a disadvantage,” he said. “This particular senior class has a real competitive edge.”

And, Muenzer said, only one of the top nine students is applying to the UC system. The rest are sending their applications to private schools, such as Stanford, Cal Tech and Northwestern.

“Being guaranteed admission to UC Riverside or UC Santa Cruz wasn’t something that those students were interested in,” he said.

Students across the state frantically worked this week to complete and mail their UC applications, which had to be postmarked by Thursday. The roughly 11,250 students from public and private schools who qualified for the new eligibility program each received a number to mark on their applications. That number is the ticket to a coveted seat at one of the eight UC schools for fall 2001, though not necessarily their first choice.

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About 85% of the state’s 852 public high schools participated in the new eligibility program this year. Around Southern California, 21 schools in Los Angeles County and 10 in Orange County missed the deadline.

Several hundred students could be affected by their administrators’ failure to send the transcripts to the university. But some of these high school seniors will get into a UC school anyway because they rank among the top candidates statewide. UC officials estimate that as many as two-thirds of the students that will be accepted through the 4% program may have already been eligible for admission.

The program began this year as a way to help students at underrepresented schools--typically those from minority and low-income neighborhoods--get into UC schools. It allows students who are top performers at their high schools to enter the system even if their grades and test scores would otherwise not be competitive enough. Under the new criteria, students will be compared with peers at their own high schools rather than with students statewide.

Though the new policy was intended to help minority students after affirmative action programs were banned, UC officials say it isn’t expected to significantly change the racial balance of the university.

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High school administrators were asked to send their top students’ transcripts to the university by July 15, or by July 31 if they were granted an extension. The university reviewed those transcripts and selected the top 4% of students at each high school. Students still must take the SAT and complete the required course work. Low test scores won’t disqualify the students, but will make it harder for them to qualify for the more competitive UC Berkeley or UCLA campus.

Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach missed the deadline because of a paperwork snafu. Counselors there had identified nearly 50 top students for the UC program and forwarded the list to the records office. But a secretary, unaware of the strict deadline, left for summer vacation without mailing the transcripts. The list was still sitting untouched when the counselors returned to school in mid-August.

“We don’t intend to have that happen again,” said Dave Beard, the school’s head counselor.

Beard said the mistake would have only a minimal impact because most students at the academic magnet school graduate with far more courses and credits than those required by UC campuses.

A bureaucratic mix-up got in the way at Manual Arts High School in South Los Angeles. The campus lost four administrators at the end of last school year, one of whom was responsible for calculating grade-point averages. Without the requisite GPAs, the school was unable to identify which students were eligible.

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“It’s obviously something that should not be missed and won’t be missed again,” said the school’s college advisor, who would not give her name.

None of the six campuses of the Huntington Beach Union High School District are participating in the program because district officials decided it was a “fruitless exercise” with zero payoff. Guidance director Dorothy Crutcher said the program benefits underachieving high schools, but not those with “high-powered kids” who view UC as a fallback to private universities or out-of-state colleges.

At Gov. Gray Davis’ urging, the UC regents approved the 4% program in March 1999. Soon after, UC officials began to send letters, hold workshops and make phone calls to inform schools about the program and how it works. They also set up a Web site with deadline information, sample parental permission letters and answers to typical questions.

“A whole host of effort was made to let the schools know about the program,” said Terry Lightfoot, communications director for UC educational outreach.

UC officials are evaluating why schools did or did not participate.

“We understand the challenges,” Lightfoot said, “but we hope as time goes by it will be easier for more schools to participate in the program.”

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Times staff writers Duke Helfand and Kimi Yoshino contributed to this story.