Diplomas Count - June 5, 2014 - 20

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EDUCATION WEEK JUNE 5, 2014
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Diplomas Count > www.edweek.org/go/dc14
By Sarah D. Sparks
At San Ysidro High,
'Community' Is Key
Educators link learning to local culture, local needs
San Diego
F
or students living in poverty, high school
graduation and a college diploma are
often pitched as a ticket out of neighborhoods
without resources. Yet empowering
students to find the strengths within
their communities and work to improve
them also can be a powerful motivator.
After-school programs like YouthBuild
have long blended public service with work skills for
students, but experts say the efforts to teach students
through community-engagement initiatives here at
San Ysidro High School are more holistic and more
localized. From learning Mexican-American music
and literature to exploring-and addressing-local
social and health problems, San Ysidro works to relate
students' academic studies to practical ways they
can build up their community.
"There are sometimes assumptions made that our
kids who are harder to serve can't do [community or
service learning], and the exact opposite is the case,"
said Martin J. Blank, a community school researcher
and the president of the Washington-based Institute
for Educational Leadership. "Making meaning of
their lives is particularly important for low-income
students. If you treat them like they have nothing,
you won't get very much. You have to leverage what
they do have."
At first glance, students in this border district of
southern San Diego have less to leverage than to
overcome.
It is home to the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Interstate
5 from Tijuana-the busiest land border crossing
in the world and, according to the investigative
group CaliforniaWatch, the one the U.S. Immigrations
and Customs Enforcement uses most often to deport
Mexican nationals. The crossing puts the neighborhood
squarely in the path of some of the largest drugand
human-trafficking paths in the country.
The border creates a constantly shifting, high-need
school population: In the 2,400-student San Ysidro
High School, 4,500 students transfer in and out every
year, according to Principal Hector Espinoza. Many
will re-enroll several times during the same year.
More than four out of five students live in poverty,
on a median family income of less than $28,000 a
year-the lowest in San Diego's Sweetwater school
district. Nearly three out of four students are still
learning English, and half are the children of parents
who did not complete high school.
Rather than dwell on such deficits, Mr. Espinoza
and teachers at San Ysidro have committed to building
on the community's strengths and turning its
challenges into learning opportunities to engage its
students.
Cultural Connections
One wall of the school's library is covered in pledge
cards that each student signs in 9th grade, promising
to attend school every day, graduate from high
school, and achieve three other goals of the student's
own choosing. Each freshman turns in a pledge and
discusses it with the principal, one on one, in the
first two weeks of school. The cards remain posted
San Ysidro High School graduate Jennifer
Sanchez, right, reaches for paperwork from
co-worker John Ramirez at the San Ysidro
Health Center.
throughout a student's years in the school and are
attached to each student's diploma at graduation.
It seems to be working: For the past three years,
San Ysidro 10th graders have outperformed the
state average on mathematics for the California high
school exit examination, and 40 percent take at least
one Advanced Placement course. As of 2012, the most
recent year of data, the school had a four-year graduation
rate of 87 percent, 10 percentage points higher
than the state average and 8 percentage points
higher than the average for San Diego County. More
than nine out of 10 students are Hispanic, with a
smattering of Asian, black, and white students.
"I've been to other schools, and the students who come
from higher-income [families], they tend not to care as
much about higher education as we do," said Katia
Jennifer Sanchez prepares a needle with
a flu vaccine at the San Ysidro Health Center.
The medical-pathway program at San Ysidro
High School inspired Ms. Sanchez to pursue
a career in community health care.
ndy Huffaker
Photos by
hotos by
Sandy Huffaker
for Education Week
http://www.edweek.org/go/dc14
Diplomas Count - June 5, 2014

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