Underperforming Schools

Sunday, March 14th, 2010 | Random Thoughts, Sara the Teacher

I just found out this morning that the high school I graduated from in 1998 made the bottom 5% of underperforming schools in the State this week.

I graduated from A.B. Miller High School in Fontana.  It was a great place to go to school.  I was involved in the AP program, I sang in the choir, I ran track and cross-country, and I was a leader in a couple of clubs over the 4 years I was there.  The school population was diverse (ethnically speaking as well as socio-economically).  The teachers I had were outstanding.  I had a solid group of friends.  I look back on high school with fond memories.

And now, 12 years later, the school has been identified as one of the most “underperforming schools” in California.  My heart is sad.  Not because of what has happened to our school, but because politicians still think they can rank schools, teachers, and precious students according to some unrealistic scale of “success!”  Among my group of friends who graduated in the 90s from A.B. Miller are teachers, architects, EMTs, stay-at-home-moms, accountants, reading specialists, speech therapists, and engineers.  How could all of those students come out of such a “low-performing” institution?  Clearly, the level of success our high schoolers have in the future is more a reflection of their family and personal desire and motivation to achieve high standards than the ranking of schools by the government!

I feel very passionate about this (as if you couldn’t tell!).  So many of us who go into education do it because our hearts give us no other options.  Yes, there are some lousy teachers out there (and I had a few over the years), but there are some phenomenal people in our schools as well.  As Christ-followers, our calling goes even beyond where our hearts lead us.  We know, without a shadow of a doubt, that our classroom is our mission field.  We have been called by our Creator to love his kids…and NOT just the ones in higher achieving, more exclusive communities.

I am an advocate for public education.  Nate and I plan to send our children into our community’s schools.  We are a part of the education process as parents.  Our children have a responsibility to their family and to themselves to work toward success.  The government (state and federal) will not scare me about our schools.  I know that to the politicians, our kids are nothing but numbers and test scores; as well as one of the greatest strains on the economy.  However, I choose to believe that God is greater than any of that.  Public education is a wonderful and important part of our community.  The success of our future generations lies in relationships (with friends, families, teachers, community members, and churches), not in the numbers and lists provided by out-of-touch government officials.

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