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Students and parents puzzle over consortium high schools

BY JENNIFER LANGE

It was a sales pitch infused with as much energy as those late-night television ads for skin cream and household appliances. The sales staff: students and faculty of Albert Einstein High School in Kensington. The product: Einstein’s academics, clubs, and athletic programs. The audience: eighth graders who will choose where they attend high school next school year.

This school year, middle school students in the lower eastern part of Montgomery County are being allowed to choose from among five high schools, rather than be assigned a school according to where they live. The schools make up Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) new Downcounty Consortium (DCC).

The five DCC high schools are: Wheaton, Einstein, John F. Kennedy, Montgomery Blair, and Northwood, which will open next year. Participation in the program will be limited to ninth graders its first year, with one more grade added each year for the next three years.

About 2,100 eighth graders–many with the guidance of mom and dad–are trying to figure out which school will be best for them. They have until December 12 to decide. For many, it’s not a simple decision, especially given next school year’s planned "academies"–smaller learning groups focused on different academic or career themes.

The idea for the DCC took root a few years ago when MCPS decided to reopen Northwood to alleviate crowding at Einstein and Montgomery Blair. MCPS then began looking at starting academies and forming a consortium modeled after a similar one in the northeastern part of the county, according to Walter Gibson, acting community superintendent for Montgomery Blair, Einstein, Kennedy, and Northwood high schools.

All MCPS high schools will start academies and will still have traditional curriculums. Administrators say that academies will help students choose schools, explore careers and, in some cases, earn college credit.

"Personally, I think they’re probably too young to decide based on career goals," said Beverly Jennison, who came with her 13-year-old son, Chris, to Einstein’s information event on November 10.

Currently a student at Eastern Middle School, Chris would normally attend ninth grade at Kennedy High in Silver Spring. But now that he gets to decide, he’s looking into Einstein for its International Baccalaureate Academy, which emphasizes analytical skills, teaches appreciation for various cultures and attitudes, and includes foreign language and "theory of knowledge" classes.

Chris is also considering Northwood High for its Humanities and Film Academy.

Though she thinks choosing a high school is a big decision for a 13-year-old, Beverly Jennison said she’s leaving the choice to her son.

"She’s basically said what schools I’m not allowed to go to," Chris said of his mom.

Beginning at 7:30 p.m., students and parents noisily filled Einstein’s main corridor, stopping at tables staffed by students who passed out brochures and candy. Clusters of balloons decorated the hall, and the PTA sold cookies and soda. One student wore an Albert Einstein mask, while others, some in band and cheerleading uniforms, seemed to be prepping for a pep rally. "The Nine Steps to Financial Freedom," a video featuring personal-finance guru Suze Orman, played on a television set next to the finance academy table.

Like other parents, Beverly Jennison said she generally likes the idea of giving students a choice, but has questions.

"What if there’s no room in any of these schools?" she said. "Do they just plop them somewhere?"

Some parents have more outright reservations. "This whole idea is just against my grain," said Marguerite Glass, standing in the crowded hallway during Einstein High’s information event. Her 13-year-old son, Sam Englehart, is trying to pick out a high school.

A fan of Civil War history, Sam is drawn to Northwood’s Gilder Lehrman Academy of American History, but he’s also attracted to programs at Blair and Einstein, the school he would normally attend. And, like other students, he admits he wants to go where his friends go.

Glass feels that the decision process is irritating and is concerned that high schools stay focused on providing a strong "classical education." The academies, she said, make "it seem like we’re forcing our kids into a career track at 13 years old."

As if anticipating concerns such as Glass’s, Wheaton High Principal George Arlotto told parents and students during an evening academy meeting on November 12 that the school’s focus is not solely on the academies.

"We’re talking about academic success and academic rigor for all our students," he told an audience of about 150. He noted the school’s growing number of Advanced Placement courses, its many SAT preparation courses, and its emphasis on writing, a "skill that transcends any academy."

Gibson said that students are guaranteed admittance to the high school they would normally attend. The order in which students are granted their top picks will be by lottery, and a priority of the school system is ensuring that schools don’t exceed their enrollment capacities and that they are racially and economically balanced. MCPS officials haven’t yet decided what to do, he said, if student choices create imbalances.

"We won’t try to weight anything until we see we’ve got a disproportion," he said.

Consortium Director Erick Lang said that a concern of MCPS officials is lower student performance in the DCC region than in other parts of the county. But Gibson said that the DCC region faces unique challenges in part because of its high concentration of new immigrants. Many students speak English as a second language and move frequently, he said.

The school reforms will cost the school system an additional $3 million a year, Gibson said. A $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education will help pay for the first three years.

One change common to all county high schools will be the separation of freshmen from other grades, a move intended to ease their transition to high school. Wheaton High separated its ninth graders this year, and officials say their grades and behavior have improved as a result.

Though students aren’t mandated to join an academy, Lang said, school officials expect that many students will choose one starting in 10th grade. Some school administrators say that during this first year of the consortium program, many students will likely choose their home school because it’s familiar.

Wheaton’s meeting was toned down compared with Einstein’s, but it was the same situation with students and parents trying to get information to help them decide.

Delcina Walters, a 12-year-old who attends Silver Spring International Middle School, was there working on her decision. She’s interested in Einstein High’s visual and performing arts academy, but also likes sports medicine at Kennedy High, and information technology at Wheaton.

Walters’ mom, Rosa Wilson, said she likes the academy concept because it will encourage her daughter to start thinking about college and careers.

Arlene Pollock, a 13-year-old student at Eastern Middle School, was also undecided.

"I enjoy computers...but at the same time, I kind of like psychology," she said.

Jonathan Windsor, a 13-year-old at Col. E. Brook Lee Middle School, had this to say about reaching a decision: "it’s hard."

By early December, families in the Downcounty Consortium should receive in the mail the forms students will use to list their high school preferences. The deadline for returning them to the child’s middle school is December 12. For information on the DCC, check its Web site at www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/downcounty/, or call 301-649-8081.