GUEST OPINION: M-A's outlook bright, despite 'no child' listing (December 08, 2004)

By Norman Estrada

Menlo-Atherton High School is on a roll.

M-A continues to strengthen its academic program, and the passage of Measure H signals a dramatic expansion of our curriculum and facilities. Fortunately, M-A has the support of its community. We are all determined to make public education work.

The recent bond measure will fund a new performing arts complex, including a 500-seat theater with professional stage, along with rehearsal and classroom space. Here, M-A's music, drama and dance programs will take on new life. The theater will showcase the school's young talent, while hosting performing arts events for regional audiences. It will bring campus and community closer together.

The funding provides new classroom space, helping M-A maintain good teacher-student ratios. It will upgrade computers, networks and information technology. Funds will spur long overdue improvements to everything from paving to plumbing. The campus will get its own electrical substation. In a major efficiency move, M-A will build one of the region's largest solar-energy installations, with photovoltaics expected to cut utility costs by thousands of dollars per month.

Our school's academic program will continue to strengthen. This year, 96 percent of M-A's graduates went on to higher education, including an impressive 21 percent admitted to University of California campuses. Our class of 2006 recently took the California Exit Exam and scored very well. For students needing special help, strong community-based programs such as RISE (Realizing Intellect through Self-Empowerment) continue to boost test scores.

At M-A, our biggest academic opportunity lies in the middle. How do we lift the aspirations of students performing in the "average" range? What does it take to encourage kids who seem to demand little of themselves in a world that demands more and more?

One key is focus. At M-A, our goal is to see students come to grips with their skills and interests earlier. Future freshmen and sophomores will more closely align aptitudes with coursework. As our students narrow their focus in terms of subjects, we want their sense of options to expand. An early interest in PCs could lead to work as a network technician, a software designer or a computer scientist. How can we structure M-A to keep students focused on aspirations and the coursework that goes with them?

Oddly, as Menlo-Atherton High School goes from strength to strength in academic performance, the school finds itself on the federal No Child Left Behind watch list.

Why? The answer has to do with test attendance. Simply put, several kids who registered for school were no longer on the rolls by the time M-A administered the California High School Exit Exam. They left for various reasons, including frequent truancy. Regardless of the reason, under rigid federal guidelines, their absence counts against M-A. If a single student from one minority category had turned up on exam day, we would have complied with the No Child Left Behind requirements. The law is what it is, and M-A must boost testing attendance.

M-A faces the challenges of continuous improvement. But it keeps succeeding, thanks to an extraordinary community partnership. This autumn over 100 college and university admissions representatives will visit M-A. In recent years, universities from as far away as Bremen, Germany, have sent representatives to us.

The word is out. M-A combines high academic standards with a real-world, multicultural experience, and its students enter college and succeed. Norman Estrada is principal at Menlo-Atherton High School.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.