SMMUSD schools among top in the nation
MAIN LIBRARY — The state of Santa Monica public schools is strong, with students from all grade levels making significant strides in academic achievement, according to a report from leaders of the Santa Monica- Malibu Unified School District.
During a forum held Monday entitled “The State of Our Schools: How Are We Doing?,” parents learned that although California public school students rank dead last in English and second to last in math nationwide, SMMUSD is home to two of the top 300 high schools in the country, according to Newsweek, with a graduation rate of 98 percent, district officials said. On top of that, student test scores have jumped by 33 percent overall compared to last year, with the strongest gains coming from socio-economically disadvantaged students at 56 percent. Additionally, scores among Latinos improved by 52 percent, and scores among African Americans improved 46 percent.
“Growing up in Arkansas, we had a saying about our schools, and that was, ‘Thank God for Mississippi,” joked interim superintendent Mike Matthews about the level of government funding. “Now we say, ‘Thank God for California,’because funding has changed that much. We’re basically dead last.”
But despite the odds, SMMUSD is making gains, much of which is credited to dedicated faculty, an active community and a City Council that has agreed to steadily fund the district in times of financial crisis that would normally force schools to cut programs, Matthews and others said.
“It all comes to this: We have a clear mission at the district, and that is we want extraordinary achievement for all students while simultaneously closing the achievement gap,” Matthews said. “We’ve made some outstanding progress, particularly amongst students who have traditionally struggled. We still have a lot of work to do.
“If it can’t be done in Santa Monica and Malibu, then it can’t be done anywhere,” Matthews added. “We have the resources and the commitment to make it happen.”
Matthews was joined at the forum by school board president Julia Brownley and RAND Corp. researcher Brian Stecher, who tried to provide some context for student achievement here by offering a report card on the state as a whole. The event was hosted by the Santa Monica-Malibu Parent Teacher Association and Community for Excellent Public Schools, a group of community and school supporters.
Stecher found that the state is performing poorly in several areas, including academic achievement, fully credentialed teachers, maintaining and upgrading facilities, funding, and graduation rates. Overall, Stecher said RAND rated the state’s commitment to schools somewhere around a D, with an F in academic achievement and a C-minus in funding.
Brownley said many of the problems school districts face are caused by a lack of funding, which is why City Hall’s commitment of about $6 million annually to SMMUSD is so crucial to the district continuing to offer “a well-rounded, quality education.” Brownley mentioned Santa Monica High School’s award-winning choir, science bowl team, as well as scores of other clubs the school offers as evidence that the district is doing more than just what’s required in the classroom.
“We just don’t stop at education rigor,” she said. “We recognize the importance of arts enrichment … We are also attentive to non-academic needs, with the one of the highest counselor-to-student ratios anywhere.”
Brownley praised parents for donating time and money to their children’s schools. Their efforts, she said, have helped raise $16 million a year through a combination of parcel taxes, funding from City Hall and $3 to $4 million from parents holding bake sales and other fund-raisers.
“The funding we receive helps us attract top-notch teachers, counselors, nurses, librarians in all schools and provide programs that have been cut elsewhere,” she said.
Some of those teachers were on hand Monday night along with seniors from Samohi. They each gave presentations in which they discussed their experiences in the district, both from an employee’s perspective and that of customers of the district, being the students.
“This by far has been the greatest adventure of my life,” said Steve Rupprecht, a former world traveler who has taught math at Samohi for the last 10 years. “There is this pervasive psychology of the loving of learning … We offer not just job training, but thought training.”
Samohi senior Iván Rodriguez-Lopez, whose parents immigrated from Venezuela, said he would never have been able to study neuroscience at UCLA this fall if it wasn’t for the challenging curriculum and the many extracurricular activities in the district.
“When I started school in the district, I was presented with so many options to pursue,” he said. “Anything I felt I wanted to do, I could. I was just blown away by that.”
As was Felipe Garcia, another senior at Samohi, who plans to attend USC in the fall. Garcia said before coming to the district during his middle school years, he attended a school in east Los Angeles, where he said he did not know any of his counselors. As a result, he became detached and depressed.
“The place made me feel ashamed to be Mexican,” he said.
But after a few months in Santa Monica, he said his attitude changed completely. He became enrolled in the district’s AVID program, which helps students whose parents have never been to college navigate the application process.
“This is such an amazing place,” Garcia said. “I love the diversity, the community feel and the commitment from teachers.”
“This is such an amazing place. I love the diversity, the community feel and the commitment from teachers.” — FELIPE GARCIA SAMOHI SENIOR
However, there still is room to improve, said senior Daryl Fairweather, who will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall.
“I’ve never felt like an I.D. number at Samohi,” she said. “But there have been some rough patches along the way.”
Fairweather said there is still “segregation” among students in honors classes and those who are struggling, as well as a lack of minority students in advanced placement classes.
“But teachers know this exists, and they are addressing it,” Fairweather said. “There is also a lack of a sense of unity and pride. Samohi is a great school, but I know we can achieve more.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 10, 2006. Read the original PDF.