Here's a list of 30, with #1 being here in Sacramento. Do beautiful (and expensive) buildings allow students to do well in school? I'm not convinced, but I certainly wouldn't mind working in nicer looking surroundings.
Here's the school report card for each California school on the list:
http://api.cde.ca.gov/Acnt2013/2013GrowthSch.aspx?allcds=34752830102236
(can't find a Pacific Ridge High in San Diego)
http://api.cde.ca.gov/Acnt2013/2013GrowthSch.aspx?allcds=19647330122861
http://api.cde.ca.gov/Acnt2013/2013GrowthSch.aspx?allcds=28662660121087
http://api.cde.ca.gov/Acnt2013/2013GrowthSch.aspx?allcds=10621661031897
http://api.cde.ca.gov/Acnt2013/2013GrowthSch.aspx?allcds=19647091996313 (I think that's the right school!)
http://api.cde.ca.gov/Acnt2013/2013GrowthSch.aspx?allcds=19649071995901
(can't find a Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts)
They don't look bad.
Who wouldn't prefer working in pleasanter surroundings, all other things being equal?
ReplyDeleteOf course, all other things never are equal and the one thing you can be sure of is that those buildings weren't designed with the best education of the kids in mind. If that were the driving motivation then the attention would've been on the classroom and not the building the classroom occupies.
The buildings are monuments to the fund-raising prowess, and egos, of the school board and the proof that it's hoped an expensive building is an acceptable proxy for educational quality. The quality of the education simply must be related to the cost of the building even if the school board that spent the money for the latter fights tooth and nail to avoid measuring the former.
Trouble is, the diversionary value of educational Taj Mahals diminishes as the contrary evidence mounts.
Kids who wash out of college with $50,000 in student debt because they were in no way prepared to enter college are not likely to view the public education system with the same confidence as their parents so are much more likely to be receptive to alternatives of any stripe. The more so when they have kids of their own.