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High Schools for Equity:
Data and
background on school
selection
November, 2007
Based on a conference
presentation releasing
a new report last
week, Caroline Grannan
has raised a number of questions
about the rationale
for our selection
of June Jordan School
for Equity in a study
of schools succeeding
with African American
and Latino students
in California. We
are sure that her
concerns arise from
the same motive as our own — a desire
to support strong education for children
of color in California.
However, our data
sources and interpretations
are different. We
used data on achievement
that are disaggregated
by race and class,
and data directly from school records
on student transfers and college-going
which are more accurate than what seems
to be available to Ms. Grannan. For
those who are interested, below we
provide information that
explains why we selected
June Jordan for the
study and more descriptive
information on the
school’s context.
A central difference in our perspectives
is that Ms. Grannan compares data on
overall API scores and college-going
rates for a number of schools without
disaggregating the data by race. We
selected our schools in 2005-06 based
on their successes in high school graduation,
college-going and achievement for low-income
students and students of color. We
looked at schools in comparison to
others in their neighborhoods. For
2005-2006, June Jordan — with a population
that was 70% African American and Latino
— had an overall API base score of
605, which was lower than that of some
nearby schools with very different
populations, such as Balboa, with a
population that was 61% white and Asian,
and Burton (54% white and Asian), but
higher than that of other comprehensive
high schools serving more similar students
in the district, such as Mission High
School with an API score of 563 (61%
African American and Latino students),
John O'Connell High School (81% African
American and Latino) with an API score
of 553.
More pertinent for our purposes is
the fact that June Jordan’s API scores
for African American and Latino students
were considerably higher than those
of all of the other surrounding schools,
including Balboa and Burton. (See table
below).
Table 1: API scores of nearby schools,
2005-2006
|
JJSE |
Balboa |
Mission |
O'Connell |
Burton |
API
Base Scores |
605 |
672 |
553 |
553 |
663 |
API
African Am. |
525 |
479 |
448 |
n/a |
476 |
API
Latino |
611 |
575 |
513 |
549 |
569 |
June Jordan had substantially higher
English Language Arts (ELA) CST scores
for African American and Latino students
than all of these schools by a considerable
margin, often showing proficiency rates
10 to 20 percentage points higher for
similar students. (See Table 2.)
Table 2: ELA CST scores proficient
or above of nearby schools, 2005-2006
|
JJSE |
Balboa |
Mission |
O'Connell |
Burton |
All
Students |
|
|
|
|
|
CST
ELA 9th Gr |
32% |
47% |
19% |
21% |
39% |
CST
ELA 11th Gr. |
29% |
33% |
17% |
14% |
31% |
Af.
Am. Students |
|
|
|
|
|
CST
ELA 9th Gr. |
22% |
15% |
6% |
10% |
6% |
CST
ELA 11th Gr |
23% |
20% |
17% |
5% |
14% |
Latino
Students |
|
|
|
|
|
CST
ELA 9th Gr. |
46% |
27% |
13% |
19% |
25% |
CST
ELA 11th Gr. |
26% |
20% |
13% |
14% |
13% |
.
June Jordan also had substantially
higher pass rates on the CAHSEE exit
exam in 10th grade in ELA than all
of these other schools — for all students
as well as for African American and
Latino students (See Table 3.) JJSE's
ELA passage rate of 72% far surpassed
the next closest ELA passage rate,
which was Balboa's, at a pass rate
of 53%. JJSE surpassed all the other
schools except for Burton in overall
pass rates in mathematics, and surpassed
all — including Burton — in math pass
rates for African American and Latino
students.
Table 3: CAHSEE passage rates of
nearby schools, 2006
|
JJSE |
Balboa |
Mission |
O'Connell |
Burton |
All
Students |
|
|
|
|
|
ELA
Passed |
72% |
53% |
44% |
43% |
51% |
Math
Passed |
58% |
56% |
39% |
39% |
67% |
Af.
Am. Students |
|
|
|
|
|
ELA
Passed |
69% |
41% |
40% |
37% |
34% |
Math
Passed |
44% |
30% |
16% |
28% |
38% |
Latino
Students |
|
|
|
|
|
ELA
Passed |
69% |
39% |
36% |
41% |
55% |
Math
Passed |
57% |
41% |
31% |
39% |
50% |
Our data analysis also examined graduation
rates and college-going rates. With
access to meticulously coded individual
student data, we used the state metric
for calculating a graduation rate from
the school, which adjusts for transfers
and counts dropouts. (The state had
not yet done this calculation, because
JJSE was just completing its first
graduating class.) Using the state
calculation method (described in our
report), we found that JJSE had a graduation
rate of 95%, with two students from
the cohort still in school finishing
a fifth year of high school.
We did track losses of students that
occurred when June Jordan moved locations
from its original site on the San Francisco
State University campus to its current
site, far from many of its initial
students’ neighborhoods. We also tracked,
in our longer case study, the number
of students who did not graduate but
are still at the school completing
credits, expected to graduate next
year. We collected data that tracked
the transitions of students into and
out of the school (including where
those who left transferred to and their
likelihood of graduation). Finally,
we attended to changes in the student
composition of the school over time,
which can influence a variety of outcomes.
Finally, we documented, with individual
student data, the fact that 73% of
the school’s graduates were admitted
to four-year colleges and 95% to 2-
or 4-year colleges. Although Ms. Grannon
questions whether the June Jordan’s
college-going rate is noteworthy, this
four-year college-going rate is nearly
three times the state average, for
a school with many more students of
color, and its overall college-going
rate is comparable to that of Balboa,
which has fewer than half as many African
American and Latino students.
As these comparisons are made, it
is worth noting that JJSE has the highest
percentage of African-American students
of any high school in San Francisco
Unified School District, except for
the “second chance” continuation schools.
In 06-07, JJSE’s student population
was 37% African American, ISA’s was
35%, and all others were below 20%
— Marshall 19%; Mission 18%; Wallenberg
18%; Burton 15%; Balboa 13%; SOTA 12%;
O'Connell 11%; Washington 8%; Galileo
7%; Lincoln 7%; and Lowell 3%.
Our study was completed before state
test scores were published for 2006-07.
However, we are aware that the scores
for JJSE went down that year, as its
population grew by nearly 50%, from
254 to 371. In that year, the share
of African American and Latino students
served at JJSE also increased from
70% to 73%. We are also aware that
two of the comparison schools — Balboa
and O’Connell — lost so many African
American students between the two years
that they no longer have an African
American subgroup whose scores are
counted. The lower scores that incoming
students brought with them to JJSE
in their first year in the school will
be a new challenge for the staff. We
believe the staff should be evaluated
on how they raise student achievement
in the years to come, and that all
analyses of school progress and accomplishment
should be sensitive to these issues
of student populations and migration
that are essential to interpreting
how schools are serving students.
Respectfully,
Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Friedlaender,
School Redesign Network
at Stanford University
SRN LEADS/Stanford University: School Redesign Network — 
