For Thursday, February 26, 1998 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 711 words

The Big 6

The high school’s getting its report card this week. The WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) accreditation team members are here with their clipboards. They’re roaming about campus observing classrooms, chatting with students and teachers, matching up our written self-evaluations with reality.

The WASC team consists of about seven people – principals, teachers, and a student – from nearby schools who are sent out by the California Dept. of Education to evaluate schools. If we earn a good score, they won’t come back for six years. If we bomb they could come back in a year or two. In the past we’ve earned six-year approvals, so we’re hoping to do it again. If you’ve lived in Benicia for any length of time, you know we stand a good chance of earning the Big 6.

The objective of the observation is not only to determine if we’re doing a fine job, but to compel us to reify our mission – to evaluate ourselves before the reviewers come and get our results down on paper. In fact, the hard part is over. We’ve been working on this project for about two years, holding meetings, having inservice days, forming committees, analyzing our methods and means, highlighting our strengths and weaknesses.

This week all we are expected to do is go about our regular daily routines -- business as usual. The ball is in their court.

The great part about it all is the written report – about 200 pages of self-study. Everyone wrote it, everyone gets a copy, and we all learn all there is to know about ourselves. I’m sitting here now pouring over it and learning interesting facts. Here are some.

The state dropout rate is 3.9 percent. The BHS rate is 2 percent. We are 69 percent white. Hispanic is the largest minority at 10.9 percent. We have a student population of 1586, with six more boys than girls. The Freshman Class is the largest at 479, and it progressively shrinks to the smallest group, 307 seniors. Ten percent of the student body is absent each day.

The most common reasons for suspensions and expulsions are fighting, disruption and defiance. The least common are robbery, vandalism, and drug peddling.

This year we’ve seen a significant drop in tardies, down 52 percent over last year. A big part of that drop is due to our new, stricter tardy policy. That policy received some initial flack from the public and has undergone plenty of fine tuning, but it seems to work now and the faculty loves it. In a nutshell it reads like this – if you’re tardy, you can’t come in. Go to lockout and miss that class. At first a lot of kids missed a lot of valuable class time – the reason for the flack – but now those numbers are way down, and several worthwhile exceptions have been included.

We surveyed students, parents and teachers. The questions asked people to agree or disagree with statements. Here are some highlights.

In the student survey, high "agree" and "strongly agree" scores went to the following statements: BHS provides programs appropriate to learning needs; the campus is safe and orderly; students feel safe traveling to and from school. Low scores went to these statements: I’m satisfied with the availability of technology; technology is incorporated into instruction in many classes; and I look forward to going to school each day.

High scores in the parent survey went to these: BHS provides opportunities for parent involvement; parents are well informed of school policies; BHS does a good job preparing students for continued education. Most disagreements went with the following: the facilities are adequate; teachers regularly communicate with parents about student performance; BHS helps kids understand ethics and morality; and the lowest of all disagreements – there is not a significant drug/alcohol problem.

High agreement among teachers went to these: a variety of teaching strategies are used; BHS provides programs appropriate to learning needs; and science is doing a good job. Low marks went to these: teachers and administrators consistently enforce rules; class size does not limit effectiveness; and the lowest of all – there is not a significant drug/alcohol problem.

It’s hard to sum up two years of research and 200 pages of analysis into 700 words, but those are the highlights. I expect that our grades on this evaluation will be shared on the front pages someday soon.