Editors' Note: This education dispatch is part of a new ongoing series reported from Mission High School, where youth issues writer Kristina Rizga is known to students as "Miss K." Click here to see all of MoJo's recent education coverage, or follow The Miss K Files on Twitter or with this RSS Feed.
It turns out that it's easier to embed as a journalist in the military than it is to find an urban public school in California that will let me report on its doings for six months. You see, these days "education reform" really means fixing underperforming schools composed primarily of low-income students and youth of color—and most schools that fall in that category aren't too interested in letting a reporter just nose around for a while. Large, public schools in Oakland and San Francisco often don't have the resources for daily visitors asking too many questions. Mission High School in San Francisco is a refreshing exception. Here in one of the oldest and most diverse schools in an old and diverse neighborhood. At Mission High, Latino, Chinese-American, and African American students are the norm. The majority come from poor families; nearly half grew up speaking a language other than English. [PDF]
What's particularly interesting about Mission High is that while it has historically ranked among the lowest-achieving schools in the district, recently it's made significant strides. As I reported here, dropout rates at Mission High fell from 32 percent to 8 percent in one year. Test scores shot up. College acceptance rates grew. That's especially impressive in near-bankrupt California, which ranks 47th in the nation [PDF] in terms of school funding per student. So what is the staff here like? Let's meet a few of the people we'll be following in the months to come.
Source: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/12/welcome-mission-high-school-san-francisco
Adrianne Palicki Amanda Righetti Michelle Branch Melissa Howard Samantha Mumba
