EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116 
Chaska, MN  55318 
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June 21, 2001
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Career Tracking in Small Learning Communities
Report on the "Small Learning Communities/Schools Choice Event"

On June 14-15 the St. Paul Public High Schools and the Center for School Change sponsored a "Small Learning Communities/Schools of Choice Event." The focus was on the supposed glowing benefits of "schools within schools", also called "small learning communities", or SLCs. Never was there a description of the fact that SLCs require that 8th grade students must choose a career path before choosing an SLC and that all of their 9-12 grade classes will be focused on that path.

Keynote speakers on Thursday evening were two administrators - Principal Walter Thompson and School Improvement Coordinator Mary Stewart - from Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kansas. The sole purpose of this event was to garner support for the SLCs that the high schools in St. Paul will be implementing over the next several years. Not stated, however, was the agenda to promote mandatory (or involuntary) career tracking of students at an early age, cementing into place the federal School-to-Work system.

Before the presentation by the keynote speakers, St. Paul superintendent Pat Harvey addressed the group. Most significant was her insistence that St. Paul's SLCs were "not about career tracking." (She is probably aware that there is a strong attempt underway in the state legislature to prohibit mandatory career tracking.)

Her disclaimer is in stark contrast to the contents of the St. Paul district recent brochure entitled, "St. Paul Public Schools Education Blueprint." It states:

"Saint Paul Public Schools will have successfully implemented school-to-future initiatives when... all students participate in a variety of career exploration opportunities including job shadowing, mentorships, internships and service learning... [and when] students identify a career cluster..."

The purpose of the St. Paul's SLCs becomes clearer:

"...Saint Paul secondary schools will consider six career clusters as a focus of their small learning environments."

That is mandatory career tracking.

Joe Nathan of the Center for School Change (a co-sponsor of the event) also made a few remarks. He pointed out that funding up to $360,000 was available for St. Paul high schools to implement small learning centers. Not only is Dr. Nathan a strong advocate for SLCs, but he also recently wrote a column for the St. Paul Pioneer Press praising the concept of STW and criticizing those who opposed it.

Mr. Thompson and Ms. Stewart followed with their experience in Wyandotte. When Walter Thompson was hired back in 1997, Wyandotte was dismal academically and socially. To his credit and under his leadership, tardiness fell from around 4,800 instances per day to 26. This change alone would bring increased scores on standardized tests. The message was clear that tardiness was down because they had instituted policies that cracked down on tardiness.

But the main thrust of his and Ms. Stewart’s work over the last several school years was designing and implementing SLCs. This they portrayed as the real savior of education in Wyandotte, if it is saved at all.

For the last three school years Wyandotte High School has had eight SLCs (averaging around 160 students each): Business, Foundations of Applied Skills and Technology, Health Careers and Life Sciences, Hospitality, Humanities, Performing Arts, Visual Arts and Technology, and an Opportunity Center. The two goals of these SLCs are to "transform relationships" and to "improve the quality of teaching and education."

The unstated goal, however, is that these SLCs are designed to track students into a career cluster. Why else would these SLCs be oriented to eight careers? If the primary purpose is to improve the quality of education, why not have the SLCs all be liberal arts learning communities? Why are they having all students engage in job shadowing, internships, and work-based learning if career tracking is not their concern?

Theoretically, SLCs could lend themselves to improved academic performance. But the focus of SLCs at Wyandotte (and everywhere else we know of) is career clusters, interests, pathways, or some similar word describing a career orientation. That is, at the present time, we do not know of any liberal arts SLCs in which genuine academic knowledge is the goal. Thus, the real purpose of "transformed relationships" and SLCs is School-to-Work.

The presenters pointed to increased class attendance, fewer dropouts in 9th grade (the year students first enter their SLC), increased graduation rates and improved test scores as evidence that SLCs are working. But two things need to be understood. First, student test scores improved obviously because students were in class due to a "zero tolerance" policy toward tardiness. When students are in class almost every minute versus hardly being there at all, they learn more. Second, there is example after example of poverty area schools with much better indicators of high academic achievement than Wyandotte, and they did so without SLCs, let alone career tracking and STW (see the example below).

On the second day three workshops were attended by representatives of the Maple River Education Coalition (MrEdCo). In all three the emphasis was very similar to what it was the night before. There was much talk about developing personal relationships with students. There was very little said about academics. In fact, in two of the workshops the issue of academics came up once briefly in each, and then only because someone asked the presenter about it. This irony should not be surprising since the new education system is not about genuine academic knowledge, but skills and careers.

The other workshop attended by MrEdCo was entitled, "Planning in St. Paul: Getting from here to there." David Evertz of the Center for School Change opened the workshop, as did Pat Harvey the night before, by telling everyone that St. Paul would not be tracking students into careers. It is hard to understand how he or anyone else can say that.

He also explained that the first principle for changing high school education into a SLC system is that "[p]eople must trust each other." This is a Delphi technique to compel people to agree with the predetermined goal - Between the lines they are saying, "We have decided that SLCs are best for your children and that means you must trust us; if you don’t trust us, you do not want what is best for your children."

Members from the St. Paul High School Design Team (staff from each high school who are assisting with the development and implementation of the SLCs) then reported on the progress of the SLCs in their respective high schools. Many, if not all of them, had traveled to New York to visit the Frederick Douglas Academy.

They were very impressed with this highly successful academic institution located in the middle of Harlem. In this school where 80% of the students are from low-income families, 95% of the students passed the New York State exam in 1999 (compared to the citywide average of 54%) and 93% passed the U.S. History Regents (58% across the city). Other test results and rankings are just as impressive (see No Excuses: Seven Principals of Low-Income Schools Who Set the Standard for High Achievement, by Samuel Case Carter; Heritage Foundation).

However, what seemed to be a total disconnect for the members of the Design Team (all of whom are committed to making sure that St. Paul high schools will have career oriented SLCs) is that Frederick Douglas Academy has no SLCs and has no School-to-Work element. That is, the direction in which they wish to take the high schools in St. Paul is the opposite of what is going on in the school they all so highly praised.

The highlight of this workshop was when a (Hmong) high school student asked a simple but very insightful question that got to the heart of the matter: "Was it the SLCs that made the difference at Frederick Douglas Academy?" None of the presenters answered her question.

It is important to realize that once a student is in one these STW-SLCs, they are stuck; the best a student can do is transfer to another SLC that will still focus on some career cluster; and even that change, we were told, would be very difficult to accomplish. What is telling are the future plans of Wyandotte High School:

• Establish a "Family Advocacy System" to enlist parental support of SLCs.
• "Enhance collaboration" (i.e., make sure everyone is on board).
• "Strengthen school- and work-based partnerships."

In the mind of Pat Harvey there is no turning back: "There is no limit to what we can do if we decide, and we have decided." We hope that there will be limits placed on what she and her STW friends want to do. If not, then the ones who will be truly limited are the students. They will be locked into a career way before most of them are able to choose a direction in life knowledgeably, maturely and freely. They will no longer be academically educated and they will no longer be prepared to maintain a constitutional and free republic. They will be educated, but not beyond their assigned station in life.

David Thompson
Executive Director, Maple River Education Coalition

Comments from another participant:

There was a Q & A time, but Joe Nathan [Center for School Change] the moderator, didn't allow anyone to question the speaker too deeply. He finally said, "For the sake of time, only one question per person."

For example, one of the St. Paul Assistant Superintendents asked her about academic achievement and assessments. Instead of answering her question directly, the speaker talked about the importance of good relationships, so that kids feel they belong and someone cares, and they will be motivated to do better. The superintendent tried to ask her question again, but at that point, the moderator reminded her, "only one question."

When asked when and how students choose their Small Learning Community, the speaker said that this was "decided in middle school." One woman said that some kids come from homes where parents aren't involved much in their kids' lives, and the speaker responded that sometimes "it's the teacher, more than the parent, that helps the student decide." She said that one of the benefits of SLCs is that "teachers begin to own the kids."

This same woman asked what would happen if a student wanted to change to another SLC, and I think this is when the moderator instituted his one-question policy. The speaker said there was a procedure, but they encourage students to stay in a SLC at least a year before allowing a change. (Notice she didn't say what the procedure was.)

Comments from yet another participant:

I asked the speaker in private how students change SLCs [i.e. change from one SLC to another SLC]. She responded by saying, "They write an essay and then they are interviewed by both their team of teachers in their present SLC and the one they wish to go to."  I don't know about your children, but mine wouldn't have dared take on such a task (one student trying to convince 5-7 teachers at once) until maybe his senior (full of confidence) year - a little late at that point.

Not a word was said about parent involvement or honoring choices, demands, etc. of parents.

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