Reading Reflection 2 - BPHS

3 – Of the many practices in place at BPHS, I believe the size of the school, community experiences (particularly internships), and the supportive school climate are what make it work. The small size of the school creates more support options for students which protects individual students from being overlooked or ignored. This relates back to components 4 and 5 of Comprehensive Reform. Providing students with internship opportunities allows students to connect their schooling with the outside world and creates new, professional roles for students, which relate to components 1, 5, and 6. Finally, and most importantly, BPHS has had a focus on creating a supportive school climate from the very beginning to support students and help them through this crazy time known as adolescence. Components 1, 4, and 5 are all represented by BPHS’s supportive school climate.

2 – At my CP1 school site, the freshmen class was divided into three “houses”. Students belonging to each house have the same set of teachers, so many of freshmen have classes with the same groups of students. This helps to build community amongst students and helps freshmen transition comfortably into a large high school without getting lost in translation. This practice represents components 4 and 5 of Comprehensive Reform. Another practice I saw at San Pasqual High School was common assessments (benchmark exams.) In theory, this can be a great way to create common, authentic assessments of student learning, however, in practice it needs a lot of work. I think benchmark exams can be a great tool for teachers to use school wide if implemented properly and so long as it doesn’t become just another meaningless standardized test. This is a tall order and requires a lot of work, but it is possible to achieve. These common assessments at SPHS fall under component 3.

1 – Although the author’s expressed the importance of capping enrollment at 400, I think this will be difficult to achieve. The population will continue to grow, and I believe it is the nature of schools to grow with the population. That’s why new schools continue to open even in crazy times. This goes back to the Comprehensive Reforms component 5 – restructuring the school. I think over time, BPHS will have to consider restructuring again, maybe breaking the school into houses to keep a small feel, in order to allow for expansion without sacrificing the importance of small size.