The quality of our public schools is a big draw to this region. Students have traditionally enjoyed the benefits of academic options in the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) with a varied curriculum focused on growth and opportunity. But more recently, in the name of “equity”, ten Advanced-Standing/Honors courses have been eliminated. Advocates of these course eliminations claim socio-economically disadvantaged (SED) students are better served by having eliminated those opportunities.
Proponents of this “equity reform” claim that mixed- level classes are superior pedagogically and prevent teachers from tracking less advanced students into lower level classes. It all
sounds wonderful at face value. After all, we all want students who need more help to get it. However, eliminating AS/Honors courses as a means to this end does not withstand scrutiny and it’s a worrisome slippery slope.
SUHSD is solely a high school district. Feeder districts have varying levels of average academic achievement with some striking gaps; the most notable between Ravenswood and the Menlo Park City and Las Lomitas Elementary School Districts. Equally striking however, are the gaps in funding per student, but not in the direction you’d think. For 2021-22 Ravenswood received $37,000 per pupil vs. Menlo Park and Las Lomitas ($25k and $32k respectively). Furthermore, the Ravenswood Education Foundation has $12 million at its disposal (as compared to $2 million for MPCSD). It’s unclear how much of this surfeit of funding can be used to address the Ravenswood’s Districts 51.7% chronic absenteeism rate (30% statewide), but the resources exist.
The 2015 “detracking initiative” in the San Francisco Unified School District has been an undeniable failure. As of August 2023, a lawsuit has been filed against the District. There is no “clear consensus” among academics on the topic, only a false consensus. Indeed, a UC Berkeley Nobel Laureate recently found an accelerated curriculum particularly benefited disadvantaged students and students of color with no negative spillover to students on a non-accelerated path.
Perhaps what’s most concerning is the divisive and corrosive methods employed by proponents of these reforms. Proponents are quick to accuse opponents as “privileged” and “uninformed”. Ignoring the irony of the latter for now, it’s worth discussing a recent event that highlights the level of discourse.
Recently, a SUHSD consultant whose professional activities involve research initiatives around detracking, denounced the “arrogance”, “elitism”, and “nepotism” of “privileged parents” who oppose the elimination of AS/Honors courses. This consultant’s husband, who sits on the Board of the $14 million per year tax-payer funded Sequoia Healthcare District (SHD), subsequently emailed the SUHSD Board warning that reversal of detracking initiatives might compromise future funding from the SHD to the SUHSD. Apparently, it never occurred to the consultant or her husband, (whose board meets at the genteel grounds of Filoli Gardens), that everything about their behavior exuded arrogance, elitism, and nepotism.
It does not appear that the most vocal proponents of eliminating honors courses are about education at all. Instead, this is political. Indeed, if proponents of “equity reforms” wanted to close the achievement gap, they would focus attention on underperforming feeder districts.
Proponents operate on an assumption that removing AS/Honors courses will redress previous years of a student’s educational shortfalls, some of which may have even occurred outside of the United States. It is culturally offensive and ignorant to suggest that there are not SED families sending their children to SUHSD schools because they want the best academic options and resources for their children.
Apart from this soft bigotry of low expectations is SUHSD’s embrace of divisive, corrosive language. Many parents of children under this Board’s charge have remained silent for fear of accusations of racism or retribution on their kids.
As a community, we must make our message to SUHSD clear: restore AS/Honors classes and provide choices to ALL students. There is no data to support any other course – just politics.
Ram Duriseti, Stanford Clinical Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Ph.D., Stanford University, Operations Research (2007) MD,
University of Michigan, Medicine (1996). He is a member of SUHSD Students First, a coalition of students, parents, teachers, and community members.
