[Editor’s Note: First in a series of interviews Scott McVarish, a parent, is conducting with leaders in the School District for his project “For Great Schools. Mr. McVarish’s entire interview can be seen at facebook.com/forgreatschools ]
We have very good schools here in Culver City. “For Great Schools” seeks to collect the best ideas and visions to make our schools even better.
We have great schools here in Culver City. Can they be better? Yes. How do we make that happen? This blog series and accompanying videotaped interviews proposes to find out. Our first interview was with School Board member, Steve Levin. Steve is the former president of the United Parents of Culver City (UPCC) and has three children in Culver City schools (fourth, sixth and 11th grades). This blog is a heavily edited version of the interview. To see the full interview, visit facebook.com/forgreatschools .
I am Scott McVarish and I am a parent of a fourth grade student at El Marino Language School, a co-founder of UPCC and the host of “For Great Schools.”
Culver City High School
My first question to Mr. Levin was, “what are the strengths of Culver City High School”
Mr. Levin: “One of the biggest strengths we have at Culver High is that we have a wide range of options for the students, such as Advanced Placement, a wide range of other classes and the after- school Academy of Visual and Performing Arts program. For the bulk of the students, we have a lot of options academically to do all kinds of interesting, different things, for them to be challenged and do great stuff.
Mr. McVarish: How do we build upon those strengths to make the high school better?
Mr. Levin: “There’s always a need to keep an eye out for new classes, such as computer programming and gaming. Even though we already have great science classes, we can still improve the sciences. We do really well for the vast majority of the kids in the middle and who are advanced. But it’s a struggle to find a way to support the kids who, for whatever reason, aren’t doing as well.
“Now we are taking strides in that direction, such as Centaur Plus, a program where there is time built into the school day for students to work on what they most need to work on. If a student is struggling in math, he or she can sign up via Centaur Plus to see the math teacher during that period and work on that with other students who are perhaps struggling. Or, if a student wants to do something extra in a class, time specifically is set aside to individualize the instruction.”
Centaur Plus at the High School
Mr. McVarish: How do we know if Centaur Plus works?
Mr. Levin: “CCUSD’s phrase ‘Success for all, takes us all’ has real meaning. It’s the idea that every single one of us needs to keep in mind every single day, that our goal is success for every single student.
“We will look at what Centaur Plus accomplishes and ask, Are we helping get success for every student? There already is enough information to see that Centaur Plus is certainly helping some students. We can get student testimonials saying ‘I was struggling. I came into Centaur Plus and now I’m doing fine.’
“We have teachers who say ‘Now I have a way to reach these students. I don’t have to pull them aside in class and distract from everybody else.’
Mr. McVarish: How do we make that better?
Mr. Levin: “Sometimes problems can be emotional. Or a student doesn’t get along with that particular teacher. Or a student’s circadian rhythm is off. He just gets tired during that class time. If your problem is you’ve got so many things going on in your life distracting you from school, we need a lot of perceptive, dedicated, caring people at the high school to notice that. We do have a lot of people who can spot when we are not reaching a kid. But what we need to do is have systems in place that make it easy for a teacher or a counselor or a custodian or an administrator to recognize when a kid needs something extra. There should be a system in place that they can talk to somebody to arrange extra help or attention. We are now putting steps in place to pick out the kids who need a little bit of extra help.}
Mr. McVarish: How does that approach differ from our alternative high school?
Mr. Levin: “What most schools do is to catch kids who are just about to flunk out of school and say we have a special program for you. We have one of the best at Culver Park High School. It does a terrific job with kids who have almost lost it completely, and we can rescue them from the brink. But we need to find and help students as soon as we can spot that something is a little bit off. If it’s a student who has been getting straight A’s, and now this semester he is getting all B’s, help may not be as urgent for that child as it is for somebody who is getting F’s. More or less, though, that’s a sign. You need to go look at what is going on with that kid. I’m not claiming that is easy. But it is one of the next major steps.”
Mr. McVarish: Teachers are far too busy to embrace any fad project or dictate from Sacramento, from Washington, D.C., or even from the District headquarters unless it actually is effective. Are teachers positive towards Centaur Plus? Are they using it? Are they excited by it?
Mr. Levin: Yes, but it is very early. If there is measured feedback, it’s not yet getting all the way up to the School Board. We are not yet getting any kind of statistical feedback. Occasionally a teacher will talk about the value of it.”
Mr. McVarish: That is my message to CCUSD teachers: Let the School Board know, and let the superintendent know how Centaur Plus is working. That type of feedback is necessary to tweak or improve the program or — if it is working as hoped for– then to sustain resources that support and grow the program. Teachers shouldn’t assume that just because they know a program is working that funds and resources will continue to support it. The School Board needs to hear that feedback.
(To be continued)
Mr. McVarish may be contacted at scott@forgreatschools.org