Yesterday while reading up on current events back in my hometown of Dallas, I ran across a very disturbing article about how the high school I graduated from faces closure at the end of this school year if their test scores don’t improve.  Sadly this epidemic is affecting hundreds of school districts across the country, especially in major cities where school’s don’t measure up to national guidelines.

There are a few parts of this issue that I just don’t understand, namely how closing a school fixes the problem.  School administrators are pressed to find appropriate resources for the schools they are currently maintaining.  However the last time I checked, the majority of schools in the Dallas school district are facing overcrowding issues.  I know it’s a very difficuly situation to fix but moving 1,000+ underachieving students to a different school that has higher test scores does not seem like a viable solution to me.  Even if you split the students up among various schools in the area, you still have to deal with overcrowding issues in the new schools.  If a school already has a hard time meeting the demands of its current students, what will it do when you add a few hundred more?  There simply isn’t the space to allow for this is pretty much ever school in the district.

My second concern about this issue is how the student’s needs are being met.  High schools have 4 years to educate their students and prepare them for the real world.  For many of them this is the last formal education they will ever receive.  One of the biggest things that annoys me about this article is how the school district is offering incentives to teachers to get them to come in and teach in these destitute schools like Samuell.  The fact that the incentives are being offered is not my problem, but rather who they are being given to.  Typically the recipients are fresh out of college, with very little formal experience in the classroom.  The article even states that this year’s principle at Samuell has never worked at a high school before, but rather only in elementary.  While I’m sure that his intentions are well placed, it is a very poor decision to place to fate of a school that serves a large portion of a community in the hands of someone who has very little experience leading at that level.  That makes about as much sense as a corporation facing bankruptcy hiring a recent MBA to lead them to solvency.  Maybe the school district should take some tips from the private sector and realize that the solution to the problem is finding a way to bring in proven leaders who has a track record of success.

I started attending Samuell in the fall of 1992 going into my sophomore year.  I spent my freshman year at nearby Lincoln High School and elected to transfer after my parents found a new house in the Pleasant Grove area.  During my 3 years at Samuell I can definitely say that I enjoyed the majority of my high school experience, but always knew that the education I was receiving was not on par with that of some of my cohorts in other parts of town.  At the end of my junior year I had the opportunity to graduate a year early, needing only to take two courses in summer school to finish my time.  I decided to come back for my senior year and enjoy what was left of my childhood.  I had a pretty intensive course load packed full of AP and honors classes which led to me eventually being named class valedictorian.  Midway through the year I received a visit from a recruiter at the University of Texas at Austin and in an instant my future was sealed as a Longhorn.

Through a good portion of my last 2 years of high school I found myself not preparing for college, but rather tutoring my fellow classmates in key subject areas in order to help them pass the state mandated TAAS test.  I passed the test in 10th grade getting only a few question incorrect in the math and reading sections and scoring a perfect score in the writing section.  Over the next two years I felt compelled to help my friends because that was just the right thing to do.  A few of my 11th grade teachers started the tutoring program in which a few of us students who had already made it would get together with others in our free time and help them along.  I spent countless hours volunteering for this effort as did quite a number of my other classmates.  Together we made sure that as many of our friends as were interested had the resources they needed to improve in these basic skill areas and many took advantage of it.  I have always taken great pride in the fact that I helped a few people achieve the merit of high school graduation especially since it came almost naturally to me.  I will never graduation night sitting on the stage after giving my speech and hugging one of my best friends as she walked by to receive her diploma.  A few years later I found myself in a bank and another friend I tutored worked as a teller there.  After seeing exchanging greetings he pulled me over to the side to thank me for what I had done in high school because he might not have graduated otherwise.

The warning signs were there 13+ years ago while I was still in school.  Preparations should have been made then to avoid the situation we are now faced with.  While I loved being able to help out my fellow classmates, ultimately this was not my responsibility.  For every moment I spent working with them, I was losing valuable time learning what I needed to prepare for college.

The reason why this article struck a nerve with me because I was one of the lucky ones who made it through W.W. Samuell and it truly saddens me to see a school district giving up on the opportunity to shape the lives of hundreds of youth in the community.  I say giving up because in my eyes that is exactly what it is.  Instead of finding a way to fix the situation, they are choosing to just sweep it under the rug for the time being, until it crops up again in a different school.  We are facing a similar situation here in the DC area with schools being closed all over the district.  The thing about playing musical chairs is that eventually there are no more chairs to sit in, and what will you do then?