"public" education

I visited a high school in Cleveland named John Hay. It is really three high schools housed in one completely remodelled building ($31M). It is run by the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD). The students there are among the luckiest in Cleveland. The school I visited was the one for science and medicine (9-12). I spent two hours with the principal and left with a feeling of uncertainty and also anger...why? There are 50,000 kids in the CMSD, roughly about 4,000 a grade (probably more in the lower grades due to drop out rate, but for purposes of argument let's say 4000 a grade).

I am most interested in high school. Five years ago a small group of people began a high school on Cleveland's east side...it has been quite successful and now has 388 students 9-12. One of the criticism's we get is that we are a Catholic school and therefore somehow exclusive. Actually we do not have an entrance exam, we interview all comers, your religious background or lack thereof is not considered, just a willingness to join us and the ability to learn...anyway back to the story. And we charge very little tuition and each student works at a real job five days a month at law firms, hospitals, manufacturing, banks etc. See http://www.cristoreynetwork.org/

So where do these 4000 8th graders have a choice to go? With the exception of the few small schools like John Hay they can go to large schools like East High, East Tech, Collinwood, Martin Luther King, Rhodes, John Marshall...most are over a 1000 kids in the building and school day ends at 1:30-2PM. Graduation rates are hard to come by for individual schools but they range from 30-50% at these schools.

So at first blush it seems like John Hay and schools like it in Cleveland and, as I have come to find out, throughout large urban districts elsewhere, are a godsend. Well they are--if you can get in!

Here are some things I heard the principal say about admission to John Hay. All freshmen need to be able to start math at geometry (this would eliminate most freshmen at Saint Ignatius High school). They are all interviewed, their tests scores, grades, and how they did on the entrance exam are all part of the rubric. He thinks that this coming year he will have 1000 applicants for 125 spots. He also said that 15% are out of district and their goal is 25%!!

Then we asked what his school day was...he said it was 8 AM to 3:18 (very similar to ours). Then the bombshell...because of the union he needs two faculties...early and late to cover the school day. I don't really understand this fully. I will look more into this but the union has rules about hours taught each day, prep time etc so that in order to have a 7 hour and 18 minute day he needs two shifts!!!

I came away with this perhaps simplistic view. What Cleveland is doing is really what Catholic schools were accused of doing...they are cherry picking the very bright students, putting them in a "private school" atmosphere and leaving the rest of the kids to go to "box" schools which have dismal prospects of success.

I wonder what our school could do with $31M of capital money and two complete faculties!