Sharpening the focus

Portland takes a hard look at magnet school programs

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Jan 28, 2010 (2 Reader comments)

L.E. BASKOW / TRIBUNE PHOTO

Senior Amanda Axtell (center) adjusts the wheel alignment on her car during an automotive class at the Sabin-Schellenberg Professional Technical Center in Milwaukie. Portland school leaders are looking to create more career exploration options like this in the district’s high school redesign.

At Beaverton’s School of Science and Technology, Principal Greg Parcher is the first to admit that his students are proud of their unique sense of individuality.

“One kid had a shirt on the other day that said ‘SST: We fight ninjas when nobody’s watching,’ ” he says.

Another student wore a cat tail and cat ears all year “and didn’t even get beat up for it,” he jokes.

Another was known for sporting a cloak to school every day for four years.

What do their fashion choices have to do with science and technology? Not much, Parcher says.

But with just 180 students, the small-school environment here has proven successful for the past 15 years, ranking as “exceptional” with just a 0.6 percent dropout rate and consistently high scores.

Just a stone’s throw from Nike’s Beaverton-area campus, the School of Science and Technology is one of that suburban district’s eight full- and partial-day high school magnet programs for those who opt out of their neighborhood schools, in a system much like the one being proposed in Portland.

“They feel safe here,” Parcher says of the small-school model. “Big schools have to be kind of an assembly line. But personalization comes at a cost. … There’s no art, no music here. … We’re trying to toe the line.”

After 18 months of discussion, Portland Public Schools leaders are finally starting to get to the crux of the redesign effort, trying to toe the line between options and outline a high school system that will fit the needs of all students better than the one today.

The only problem is, nothing is black or white. Until now, the working proposal would have kept high school students at their neighborhood school unless they opted for a special magnet program. On Monday, however, board members discussed the possibility of carving out exceptions to the no-transfer rule for those who want a language immersion program or even a program like dance or theater not offered at their neighborhood school.

“This is cracking it open a little bit, but I think we’re going to see other areas where we’re going to be hitting up against that question,” board member Bobbie Regan says, earlier noting that people in Portland “like and want some level of flexibility.”

This new line of thought is likely to invite even more scrutiny of the plan, which already has its share of “tension points,” as district staff call them.

Some critics have charged that the massive redesign effort amounts to “social engineering” and is more than the district should take on. Many worry about the inequities that still persist at the K-8 level and think those should be fixed first.

Still others say they’ve seen no compelling need for focus schools and predict those schools will skim the brightest students off the top, to the detriment of neighborhood schools.

Perhaps the most common refrain is “not my school,” when it comes to looking at which schools to close or turn into focus option campuses.

TRIBUNE PHOTO: L.E. BASKOW • Student Grant Statler conducts a physics lab at the School of Science and Technology in Beaverton. Portland may look to create a small science-focused school its redesign process.

To most, the complexities of the issue are mind-boggling.

“I’m trying to figure out how to make sense of what we have to do in the next 45 days,” says board member David Wynde.

The working proposal would create seven or eight high schools (of today’s nine); redraw boundaries to balance enrollment, staffing and curriculum; and create two to four magnet schools for students who want a deeper focus or different learning environment.

The board is expected to consider a set of resolutions with “key elements” of the plan on Feb. 8, then solicit more public input and possibly vote on those elements four to six weeks later. The board is set to approve a full plan by June for implementation in fall 2011.

Beaverton’s model

As Portland grapples with finding the right balance between big and small, comprehensive and magnet options, Beaverton has had such a system in place for years.

With about 38,000 students (compared to Portland’s 46,000), Beaverton serves students in five large comprehensive schools and five full-day magnet schools, ranging in size from about 80 to 800.

The magnets include a “big picture” school that uses project-based learning, a health and science academy, science and technology academy, language academy and the most popular — an arts academy that has hundreds on its waiting list each year.

Another three partial-day programs focus on health careers, horticulture and automotive services. Students may apply to a magnet school by filling out a common application and being selected through a lottery, the same way Portland proposes to do it.

Eighty-eight percent of students, however, attend their neighborhood school. “For the most part, they offer everything they want,” says district spokeswoman Maureen Wheeler.

The neighborhood schools hover between 1,800 and 2,000 students each (compared to Portland’s largest school, Grant, at 1,400). Just one campus, in the fast-growing Bethany area, is oversized, with 2,651 students.

With so many students, most schools create what’s called “small learning communities” to keep students in teams with the same staff to personalize learning and relationships. Many Portland high schools have those in place as well.

Something must be working for Beaverton: the district’s dropout rate is 3.1 percent, compared to Portland’s 8.4 percent.

Just to be fair, a third of Beaverton’s students receive free and reduced lunch, compared to nearly half the students in the Portland district. It’s one model, among many, the redesign team has taken a look at.

North Clackamas model

Drive 30 minutes southeast from Beaverton and you’ll land in the North Clackamas School District, home to another focus option that Portland school board members and the redesign team have been eyeing.

Since 1967, the Sabin-Schellenberg Professional Technical Center has served the district’s high school students with partial-day career exploration and training, a model unique in the state.

Eighty-nine percent of the district’s students participate in at least one course during their four years, getting hands-on experience in 21 areas of study: everything from culinary arts and broadcasting to automotive services, health occupations, financial careers, law enforcement, electronics and agriculture, to name a few.

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