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May 21, 2007

Palo Alto Unified School District Peer Streaming: Issues and Recommendations Report of the AAAG Peer Streaming Subcommittee. May 21, 2007. Statement of the Problem.

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May 21, 2007

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  1. Palo Alto Unified School DistrictPeer Streaming: Issues and RecommendationsReport of the AAAG Peer Streaming Subcommittee May 21, 2007

  2. Statement of the Problem • Currently, in order to balance enrollments at middle and high schools (per the P.A.U.S.D. School Board), El Carmelo and Palo Verde attendance area students cannot stream with their friends through the school system from K-12 like all other students in the District. This results in a loss of social support networks at critical transitions, as well as a loss of program integration (academic, athletic, performing and fine arts).

  3. Questions Examined • This problem prompts the following two questions: • Can El Carmelo and Palo Verde attendance area students move with their friends through the school system from K-12 like all other students in the District (“perfect peer streaming”)? • If the perfect peer streaming scenario described in (1) cannot be achieved, can these students at least be peer-streamed from middle to high school (“middle-to-high school peer streaming”)? • Lapkoff and Gobalet demonstrated to us that perfect peer streaming would lead to disparate enrollments at the middle and high schools (Jordan 50% larger than JLS, Gunn 25% larger than Paly). We felt that this scenario was not feasible, and therefore focused on answering the second question.

  4. Issues with the Current Lack of Middle-to-High School Peer Streaming • In order to balance high school enrollments, the JLS student body is split between Gunn and Paly. The students and families who are split lose critical connections in their support systems, unlike most other students in the District. • To exacerbate the problem, the JLS split is uneven, with fewer students attending Paly than Gunn. The transition to high school is especially difficult for this minority group feeding into Paly, because they have not only lost their middle school social network, they have also been merged with the majority who has been peer-streamed since kindergarten. • Although JLS has fed into both Paly and Gunn since Terman opened in 2001, prior to this year there have been few steps taken to integrate Paly into the JLS culture (administration, staff, and students).

  5. Additional Background Information • Because there are three middle schools and two high schools, AND because School Board policy places limitations on middle and high school enrollments, it became necessary to split one middle school (JLS) to achieve enrollment parity at the secondary schools. • The high school enrollment parity policy requires that JLS not be split evenly, since Jordan (feeding to Paly) is much larger than Terman (feeding to Gunn). The attendance boundary defining the smaller portion of JLS that feeds into Paly has been termed the “gray area.” • Until recently, all of JLS attended Gunn, and the culture at JLS reflects this. Many of the events at JLS involve joint collaboration with Gunn and similar collaboration with Paly has not been developed.

  6. Map of the “Gray Area”

  7. Achieved Percentage Split of JLS is Variable • Lapkoff & Gobalet determined that the current high school boundaries assigned 39% of JLS students to Paly. In Fall 2006, transfers effectively reduced the share of JLS graduates attending Paly to 25% (70/278). It is not known how many of these transfers are requested for programs (e.g., SI at Jordan, DI at Terman, German at Gunn) and how many are requested to achieve a middle-to-high school peer-streamed track. • Additional variation in the percentage split is due to students leaving PAUSD after 8th grade, and new students entering the District as 9th graders.

  8. Gray area residents who were 8th graders in Fall 2005 and 9th graders in Fall 2006

  9. 9th Grade Students in PV/EC Attendance Area Assigned to Paly Not Enrolled Gunn PAHS in Fall 2006 Total School in 2005-06 JLS 14 50 14 78 Jordan 0 14 3 17 Terman 2 4 2 8 Not Enrolled F05 4 12 0 16 Total 20 80 19 119 84 gray area residents would have attended JLS and then Paly if everyone in the “gray area” had followed the assigned JLS-to-Paly pattern. However, some of these may have attended schools other than JLS and Paly due to program availability (e.g., SI, DI, German).

  10. The 50-Student Question “We heard that last year 50 students who attended JLS were assigned to Paly this year, and were split from their friends who went to Gunn. Why can’t such a small number of students be accommodated? Either allow them to attend Gunn, or let them attend Jordan if they must go on to Paly. We think it’s important for children to be peer streamed.”

  11. The Short Answer to the 50-student Question • 50 “gray area”JLS students enrolled as Paly 9th graders in 2006-07. • If all 50 additional students/year were allowed to attend Gunn, the Gunn enrollment would increase by 200 students (50 x 4), and the Paly enrollment would decrease by 200, resulting in a 400-student difference. • If all 50 students/year had been allowed to attend Jordan rather than JLS, the Jordan enrollment would increase by 150 students (50 x 3), and the JLS enrollment would decrease by 150, resulting in a 300-student difference. • NOTE: These two scenarios give “worst-case” results; if “gray area” students were given the choice of attending Jordan/Paly or JLS/Gunn, the enrollment variations at the middle and high schools would most likely be less. • The 50-student “gray area” population is a number that will vary from year to year, meaning that these enrollment variations are estimates.

  12. Actions Considered by the Subcommittee To achieve middle-to-high school peer streaming: Allow everyone in the “gray area” a middle-to-high school peer-streamed path (Jordan-to-Paly or JLS-to-Gunn), relocating the middle school Spanish Immersion choice program to JLS if this helps equalize enrollments at the middle and high schools. AND To ameliorate the situation for current “gray area” JLS students: Increase the number of joint JLS-Paly events and emphasize awareness of the fact that JLS feeds into both Paly and Gunn. Send a larger share of JLS students to Paly to assure a “critical mass” making this transition.

  13. Middle-to-High School Peer Streaming: Assumptions • We modeled this middle-to-high school peer streaming scenario with the following assumptions: • Middle school enrollment = 2,700 (Jordan + JLS = 2,025; Terman = 675) • High school enrollment ~ 3,800 • There are 100 students in middle school choice programs at JLS who return to the high school in whose attendance area they live. We assume students are 50% in Gunn attendance area and 50% in Paly attendance area. • Net transfers from Gunn to Paly = 100 (25 students per grade) - this is a typical number

  14. Middle-to-High School Peer Streaming: Outcomes • If high school enrollment levels are kept to within ~100 students: • Jordan = 1,205 • JLS = 820 Difference = 385 students (Jordan 47% larger) • Gunn = 1,958 • Paly = 1,856 Difference = 102 students • If middle schools are kept approximately equal: • Jordan = 1,010 • JLS = 1,015 Difference = 5 students • Gunn = 2,234 • Paly = 1,580 Difference = 654 students (Gunn 41% bigger) • If we split the imbalance between middle and high schools: • Jordan = 1,110 • JLS = 915 Difference = 195 students (Jordan 21% bigger) • Gunn = 2,093 • Paly = 1,721 Difference = 372 students (Gunn 22% bigger)

  15. Middle-to-High School Peer Streaming: Likeliest Outcome • In the survey taken at El Carmelo in May, 2006, ~60% of gray area families expressed a preference for attending Paly and ~40% for attending Gunn. This suggests that the “split the imbalance” scenario might be the most likely if gray area families were given their choice of peer-streamed tracks. • Jordan = 1,110 • JLS = 915 Difference = 195 students (Jordan 21% bigger) • Gunn = 2,093 • Paly = 1,721 Difference = 372 students (Gunn 22% bigger) • NOTE: The Jordan enrollment (~1,100) would be comparable to levels before Terman was opened.

  16. Middle-to-High School Peer Streaming: Conclusion In order to achieve middle-to-high school peer streaming, the enrollments at middle and/or high schools must be allowed to vary in size; this variation would require a change in School Board policy.

  17. Ameliorating the Current Situation • Although they don’t achieve middle-to-high school peer streaming, we examined two possible ways to ease the current “gray area” JLS students’ transition to Paly: • Enhanced integration • Send a larger share of JLS to Paly

  18. Ameliorating the Current Situation: Enhanced Integration • The transition to high school for the current JLS “gray area” students who cannot peer stream could be improved by promoting the integration of programs at JLS and Paly (academic, athletic, performing arts, fine arts, social). • Make the District accountable for this, by, among other things, assigning a high-level staff member to work with a task force to establish a comprehensive strategic plan with milestones, and to issue periodic progress reports to the Board and the Superintendent. • Continue current efforts by administrators and PTAs to increase awareness and pride for all JLS students regardless of their high school assignment, and to promote the integration of programs at JLS and Paly.

  19. Ameliorating the Current Situation: Send Larger Share of JLS to Paly • We examined two ways of sending a larger share of JLS to Paly: • Redraw the high school boundaries, increasing the number of students in the El Carmelo and Palo Verde attendance areas who are assigned to Paly. • Have the District adhere to its policy regarding the granting of secondary school transfer requests (i.e., for siblings, medical, and program reasons only). This will result in a JLS split that is closer to the District’s target (40% to Paly/60% to Gunn).

  20. Ameliorating the Current Situation: Send Larger Share of JLS to Paly Modeling an Even Split of JLS: Paly larger & Gunn smaller Even enrollments at the high schools Allow net transfers to Gunn 1/2 JLS to Paly 1/2 JLS to Gunn + =

  21. Model: Even Split of JLS to Paly/Gunn • We experimented with Jordan being a little smaller than JLS, with net transfers assumed from Paly to Gunn, and different high school sizes. Here’s one example: • Jordan: 1,000 • JLS: 1,025 • Net transfers from Paly to Gunn: 150 (38 per year) • Gunn: 1,827 • Paly: 1,921

  22. Even Split of JLS to Paly/Gunn: Pros • Students would have a higher probability of being assigned to high school with at least one close friend, possibly resulting in fewer or at least a more balanced number of high school transfer requests. • A 50-50 split of JLS would facilitate a change in culture at the school, where historically JLS has been a feeder to only Gunn. • Sending more students to Paly will relieve the enrollment crunch at Gunn, which has been consistently overenrolled and forced to overflow.

  23. Even Split of JLS to Paly/Gunn: Cons • Student transfer requests from Paly to Gunn might reproduce the current pattern of a large share of JLS students wanting to enroll at Gunn, and developing equitable criteria for granting transfer requests may be difficult. • Middle-to-high school peer streaming might not be achieved to a much greater extent than at present. Students would not be guaranteed a transfer, and groups of friends could not be certain that they would all stay together. • High school boundaries would need to be changed. • We may not be able to get a net 150 transfers (38/year) from Paly to Gunn after boundary changes. • The number of transfer requests could be very large, especially if some JLS students transfer to Paly and others to Gunn in order to stay with their friends (a large administrative burden). • There may be unintended consequences that we do not now foresee, since this is a complicated solution.

  24. Even Split of JLS to Paly/Gunn: Conclusion • We felt that redrawing the high school boundaries to send a larger share of JLS to Paly would not necessarily improve the current situation, given the problems and uncertainties outlined previously.

  25. Ameliorating the Current Situation: Reduce Transfers from Paly to Gunn If the number of transfers from JLS to Jordan and from Paly to Gunn were restricted, a higher percentage of JLS would attend Paly. The District might consider this, if it is necessary to achieve a larger cohort moving from JLS to Paly. While a larger cohort is not a substitute for middle-to-high school peer streaming, it may perhaps improve the situation for current “gray area” students.

  26. Recommendations • If the El Carmelo and Palo Verde attendance areas must split, split them when entering middle school rather than high school. • Achieve middle-to-high school peer streaming by giving choice in the “gray area,” relocating choice programs if useful for equalizing enrollments, and allowing secondary school enrollments to vary (e.g., Jordan ~21% bigger than JLS and Gunn ~22% bigger than Paly). • In the interim, ameliorate the current situation for “gray area” JLS students by • achieving enhanced integration between JLS and Paly, making the District accountable for milestones and continuing current efforts by administrators and PTA. • adhering to the District’s policy regarding the granting of secondary school transfer requests. This will result in a JLS split that is closer to the District’s target (40% to Paly/60% to Gunn).

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