S.D. Unified Continues To Put Pressure On SDSU
November 9, 2009
Above: High school student Sakeenah Shabazz could be one of many local teenagers affected by SDSU’s policy change.
SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Unified School District continues to clash with San Diego State University over the college's decision to deny some local students admission next fall. San Diego school trustees will hold a special hearing on the matter today. KPBS Education Reporter Ana Tintocalis has more from both sides:
Groups of high school juniors huddle over a class assignment at Lincoln High School in South San Diego. Many of these teenagers come from poor, minority families yet they're a step ahead of other students because they're enrolled in a special college preparatory program called AVID.
Sixteen-year-old Sakeenah Shabazz says she can't believe San Diego State would turn away some local students like her.
“It almost seems unethical,” Shabazz said. “The main foundation of a college is the students who go there. So how are they going to take away the local foundation?”
Two months ago SDSU officials unexpectedly decided to end a longtime policy that guaranteed local students a spot on campus as long as they met minimum California State University requirements.
Now there's a universal eligibility system. Local students will have to compete with out-of-area students at a higher academic level.
The decision has sent shockwaves through the San Diego Unified School District. Critics say SDSU will deny thousands of San Diego students who are CSU eligible but don't have high GPA and SAT scores. San Diego Unified school trustee John Evans is one of the most vocal critics in the district.
“I think the problem is really breaking faith with the San Diego community," Evans said.
Evans and the rest of the school board are demanding SDSU President Stephen Weber reverse the decision.
But university officials say a $55 million state budget shortfall is forcing them to reduce admissions. However, San Diego State is one of only two CSU campuses that is doing away with its local student preference policy.
Evans believes San Diego State might be using the state's money problems as an excuse to rid itself of local students.
“I'm afraid they're taking advantage of this budget crisis situation to enter into a change they might want for other reasons," Evans said. "To me, in the middle of a budget crisis, it makes sense that throughout the state, there would be more and more students who would be going to a four year university locally.”
At a recent state assembly hearing on this matter, some San Diego State professors testified they believe the university wants to squeeze out local students so it can become a more elite institution. They say some university officials worry SDSU is becoming a great big four-year community college.
Sandra Cook is SDSU's assistant vice president for academic affairs. She says that's simply a "conspiracy theory."
“There are lots of different philosophies of how you should do your admissions. But the bottom line is the university is doing what is best for the university under the circumstances (and that is) to give admission slots to those students who are most likely to succeed.”
Cook says local students who meet minimum CSU standards have a 51 percent chance of staying in college.
She says the only local students who would be barred are those at the lower academic end.
Cook says the university will not reverse its decision despite San Diego Unified's special hearing on the matter.
“What I'm seeing with a lot of the critics of the policy is they're telling students that San Diego State doesn't want you, they don't like you. So if the school board meeting turns into a screaming session, or a pounding your chest ‘Oh my God this is horrible,’ that will be extremely counterproductive.”
Cook adds the university is keeping other special admission programs such as its Compact for Student Success in the Sweetwater Union High School District. South Bay students are guaranteed a spot if they meet certain academic requirements. Cook says the university would be open to creating a similar compact with the San Diego Unified School District if it adopted major curriculum changes.
Comments
myumyu // February 6, 2010 at 10:48 a.m. ― 2 days, 22 hours ago
I was a math teacher in San Diego Unified School District at an urban school that was part of the SDSU compact for success. That school engaged in ridiculous grade inflation. Teachers were routinely forced to pass students who had no competency in the subject at all. Especially new teachers with no tenure were strong-armed to pass students, including students who had flunked every test, had done little homework for the term, and had more than the allowed number of absences for the term. These students absences always magically disappeared from the computer records before grades were due. Who was deleting these absences and under whose authority? I would like to know. I had a girl with way more than 50 absences for the semester but somehow the computer records were changed to show that she had fewer than 10. And the administration and counselors tried to force me to pass her. When I refused, the principal passed her over my objections. Illegal? Yes. Routine practice at urban schools in San Diego Unified? Yes.
As far as this student, Ms. Shabazz, feeling that it is unethical for SDSU to require 'local' students to meet the same requirements as all other entering students...well, that is just a typical example of the ridiculous sense of entitlement that many urban students have. What is truly unethical is for these 'local' (euphemism for minority) students to be allowed special accomodations that admit them despite having inferior academic qualifications.
For the most part, these students grades have been padded at the urban schools they are attending, their SAT scores are below par, their academic qualifications are deficient. What is unfair is that academically deficient students are being admitted to SDSU while more academically qualified students are being denied admittance.
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myumyu // February 6, 2010 at 10:48 a.m. ― 2 days, 22 hours ago
As an example of how severe the grade inflation is at urban schools in San Diego Unified, here is an example of how a student at my old school could pass an advanced math class with no skills whatsoever. One of my previous students came to visit my classroom and told me he was enrolled in an afterschool algebra II class. This is what he told me about the class. It was being taught by the school's cheerleading coach. This man did not have a credential to teach math. Actually, he had no teaching credential whatsoever but he was the teacher for algebra II. The class was 3-4 weeks long afterschool. The students could come late and leave early. In fact, the student informed me that he regularly left at break time and didn't return but was counted as attending the full hours. No tests were going to be given in the class. Instead of tests, the grades for the class were based on homework. I asked whether the student actually had to do the homework. He said, no, all he had to do was pretend to try on a couple of problems and he would be given full credit for the homework assignment. So that is how you get a passing grade in higher level math at an urban school in San Diego Unified. You get a cheerleading coach to just give everyone a passing grade in a short after school class with no tests and no requirement to complete or understand the homework either. Does this sound like a joke? The sad thing is that this is not a joke. This really happened.
And San Diego Unified is offended that SDSU no longer wants to admit every student with a C average from the school district? Ask SDSU what percentage of San Diego Unified's students have to take a remedial course when they start at SDSU (70 percent or more?). Ask SDSU how many of San Diego Unified's students drop out the first year of college because they have no academic skills and no work ethic because their grades have always been inflated in a school system that is rotten to the core. I am not making any of this up. I witnessed it first hand. I personally saw student after student with below basic and far below basic scores on the state STAR tests but with A's and B's in their classes at the school.
Why is it unfair for SDSU to want the students they admit to their college to actually have the academic skills to be there? It is about time that SDSU stopped this outrageous Compact for Success. San Diego Unified School District needs to stop pointing the finger at everybody else and clean up their filthy, unethical, joke of a school district instead asking the local colleges to take their uneducated students.
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myumyu // February 6, 2010 at 10:49 a.m. ― 2 days, 22 hours ago
I have a message for San Diego Unified School District--stop inflating grades of your students. Stop breaking the law by forcing teachers to inflate grades. Abide by California state laws. Require your students to meet minimum course competencies before you pass them. SDUSD--YOU NEED TO INSTITUTE DISTRICT WIDE COURSE FINALS AND YOU NEED TO REQUIRE TEACHER'S AND SCHOOLWIDE GRADES TO BE IN LINE WITH THE RESULTS OF THESE FINALS!!!!!
It is not unreasonable for one or a few students' final exam results to not reflect their true level of knowledge. But it is not reasonable for most of a teacher's students exam results to be an F while the majority of students receive an A, B, or C. Same goes for an entire school. SDUSD turns a blind eye to the grade inflation and lack of accountability in their schools. Grossmont School District uses district wide exams exactly for the purpose of accountability. However, the idea of accountability is unknown in San Diego Unified School District. Is it really unfair that San Diego State University is fed up with accepting students with inferior study skills and inferior academic qualifications? Yes, the budget crisis probably is an excuse to end this failing program. So what. Good riddance to a program that is truly a travesty to justice. Academically qualified students should not be rejected in favor of academically unqualified students. California voters unanimously chose to reject affirmative action because it is not fair. It is about time that SDSU (a state funded public university) abided by the law and stopped using backdoor affirmative action. No matter how much lipstick you put on this pig, an academically unqualified student has no business in college.
Academically unqualified students should go to community college and learn the study skills and the academic basics necessary to succeed in college before they are admitted to San Diego State University.
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myumyu // February 6, 2010 at 2:32 p.m. ― 2 days, 18 hours ago
I meant overwhelmingly not unanimously and I left an apostrophe off 'students'...thanks. By the way, can you tell my time with San Diego Unified was a walk in hell.
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