IN THE MIX:Students can flourish at new school

Let’s take a trip to la la land where the children ask to go to school, the parents involve themselves with their success and the teachers aren’t frustrated.

Well, OK, maybe the students aren’t always enthusiastic to get to class, but in general, they want to be there.

I’m talking about Early College High School. The campus for ninth- through 12th-graders offers students the chance to receive an associate’s degree or two years of college credit by the time they graduate.

This is not to be confused with Middle College High School on the Orange Coast College campus.

That school is for juniors and seniors only and doesn’t offer the chance for an associate’s degree.

In her 32 years as an educator, Early College Principal Kathy Slawson has never seen a campus of teachers and students that is so effective and satisfying.

“This is what works,” she said.

The reason the teachers aren’t frustrated is because when there’s a student who looks like they need a little extra help to get by, well, they’ll get it. There are no cracks for them to slip through at Early College High School. Have you seen the size of the campus? There isn’t room for cracks.

Teachers have about 25 students in the classroom. They have time scheduled for tutoring and, get this, they have a scheduled time for all the teachers to get together and discuss how things are going for each student.

The school is designed for students who are struggling in traditional schools and administrators will look for socio-economically disadvantaged children whose parents may not have finished college or in some cases high school.

The goal is to take 100 students per grade level. In its first year the school didn’t fill the first class, but as word gets out that’s not likely to happen again.

Early College High School seems like a patch of sun on a gray day.

I appreciate what the teachers do, but the education system is absolutely flawed. Asking one district or individual teachers to solve myriad problems is unfair.

We should hound school officials to do the best they can and watch them for negligence or corruption, but even with the best of efforts they’re forced to work within a Donald Rumsfeld-like philosophy of, we educate with the system we have, not the system we want.

Some parents are so fed up they turn to home schooling. Most of us find that prospect too daunting and not necessarily the answer we’d choose, even if we could handle the load.

In the past few years the nation has seem some alternative school ideas popping up. Oprah Winfrey had a few shows about the failing school system that included some of the innovative ideas people have come up with.

Those ideas included the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools that use enthusiastic teachers who educate through song and have students attending late in the day and on weekends and a High Tech High school specifically for children with a propensity toward technical skills.

The technology school was started by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. The foundation also provides funds to start Early College High Schools across the nation.

Costa Mesa is fortunate to have an Early College High School to offer students new options and greater motivation to succeed in academics.

The school may not be the answer for every family, but if it helps fill in some of the gaps in our system we have to give it the support it needs to succeed.

The success of the school is now intertwined with the success of its first class of students.

Fourteen-year-old Danielle Vartanian is in that first class. She knew the minute recruiters spoke at Costa Mesa High School that she wanted what they were selling, even if it came with a sacrifice.

“I wanted to go, but I didn’t want to leave my friends,” she said. “It’s a little harder. It’s easier with the tutoring, but it’s hard to have college classes.”

Slawson said the enthusiasm of the teachers and the built-in tutoring program does help the students, but agreed with Danielle that it’s still a tough journey.

She said they don’t water down the college courses so each student has to want the degree and be willing to work for it.

“If they don’t want it, it’s not the program for them,” she said.

It was Danielle’s desire to attend Early College that convinced her mom.

“It was her idea,” Gina Vartanian said. “That part I liked the most. She wanted to do it.”

She said Danielle still struggles with keeping her grades steady between all the typical struggles and distractions of the teenage years.

The difference now is that when her grades start slipping, her teachers notice, and get this — they can do something about it.

There are tutoring sessions scheduled into the student’s day and if they need it, they can get extra tutoring after school. The students’ struggles can’t go unnoticed.

“If they’re not doing well a teacher or counselor will tell you, they’ll call you up,” Gina Vartanian said.

When there was a concern recently that there was no place to house the campus it seemed a possibility that this educational opportunity would be wasted.

The idea that we had the chance to give some of our students this chance and then take it away was ludicrous and luckily short-lived. With the help of Coastline Community College the district soon found a solution to the dilemma. The school will be housed on the Coastline campus beginning in the fall.

Newport Mesa Unified School District administrators just gave a report to the school board recommending some cuts to some programs. In that report they praised Early College High School. It’s a great sign for the future of our youth.

Alicia Lopez teaches journalism at Orange Coast College and lives in Costa Mesa. She can be reached at [email protected].