For Thursday, May 1, 1997 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 712 words

Next to us

When Bill Honig got the boot as state superintendent he left behind a brilliant little 50-page document that is still having a growing effect on public schools. It is Bill's pie-in-the-sky dream of the perfect high school of the future. It is called "Second to None."

It is his big "What if." He met with top educators, sat around, brainstormed, and collaborated on the following premise: What if we had unlimited funding, a unified, top-functioning staff, total community support, and a full-time construction crew. What would the ideal school look like?

They analyzed it, taking the problem in bites until they had it devoured. After digesting it for a while, they released it onto 50 sheets of paper. It is a Technicolor rewrite of high school philosophy and restructuring. Courses change. Staff changes. Buildings change. Assessment changes. All in hopes that the students will change.

In a nutshell it says to the incoming freshmen: Plan for your future while you are growing up. For the next two years, consider your lifelong goals. Examine your skills, career options, career needs, and learn what you must from school to reach those goals and live the good life. Create a plan, on paper, with a list of classes and activities to pursue in school. During those two years, you will be given a rigorous core curriculum to create a solid, mutual foundation. In the meantime, check the job market.

During your junior and senior years, you will take classes that prepare you specifically for your career aspirations. The high school will restructure to create academic and vocational majors in several fields. For instance, it may have a school of business, science and math, humanities, and industrial arts. Each major will offer specialized versions of English, science, math, social science, foreign language, and so on.

If you live in a city with several high schools, you have the added advantage that each school will offer different majors so you can transfer to find the program that best suits your needs.

If your plan calls for an advanced college degree, you will be eligible to take advanced high school classes. Your placement will be based on your aspirations, not on your perceived ability. Of course, plans can also be rewritten any time if you make a career move.

Clusters of, say, 200 students will be scheduled to similar classes with similar teachers. By breaking the gigantic student population into smaller families, friendships will grow deeper, relationships with teachers will grow more meaningful, and teacher groups will be able to collaborate. Your group can adjust its daily bell schedule to fit in certain projects, like big labs or in-class essays, or even to come together for a presentation. Teachers will also help counselors bring support to everyone, not just those with special needs.

In the first week of school you will learn clearly what the standards are for grades and promotion. The course material will be explained and made available to all students, including the deficient and those of limited English. Standards will extend through all classes, meaning every teacher agrees on what makes a C and what makes an A. Tests will be more challenging and will measure what you know and what you can do.

Upon graduation you will have a portfolio that contains not only your transcripts, but certificates of achievement, letters of recommendation, awards, sample works, notices of extra-curricular and volunteer activity, records of job and field experience, newspaper clippings, whatever. It can then be used for college admissions and job résumés.

Soon your Graduation Portfolio will be required to earn your diploma. It will need to contain certain entries and scores. In the year 2004, many California districts intend to have graduation exams. Any way we look at it, the trend is to increase learning, accountability, and camaraderie.

Bill admits that the money and man-power doesn't yet exist to bring "Second to None" restructuring to fruition, but the lack of resources is no reason to do next to nothing. He wants us, the public school officials and the community, to be resourceful instead. There's a lot of free stuff we can do.

The feeling is this: Colleges are designed to fit student aspirations. If high schools begin to fit in a similar way, perhaps students will be more motivated and accomplished.