Should the Sacramento City School Board create a streamlined K-12 pathway for local families by adding grades 7 and 8 to Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions High School?
Our answer surprised us - and it may surprise you
Why This Matters:
Segregation - Trauma - Family Choice
Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions High School in Upper Land Park is a historically high-performing, under-enrolled school. The next door Leataata Floyd Elementary School is fully enrolled, but low performing.
The Sacramento City Unified School Board in Sacramento, California, asked us to study whether the district should begin the creation of a streamlined K-12 pathway on one block for local families by adding grades 7 and 8 to Health Professions High – a promising idea. The pathway could bolster low enrollment at Health Professions High while forging a better community education pathway for this historically underserved, low-income neighborhood.
Our research brought up questions about segregation, trauma, and family choice we didn’t anticipate. Our answer surprised us – and it may surprise you.
Conclusion
The answer: no. For reasons even we didn’t foresee when we began this study, the risks of the proposal outweigh the likely benefits unless the school board takes actions first.
We found there are other simpler, cheaper, more efficient, and less risky actions the Sacramento City School Board can take to create many of the benefits of the K-12 community learning center for Upper Land Park.
We recommend the District should not add middle school grades to Health Professions High School without first taking steps to:
- Help Health Professions High and neighboring Floyd Elementary work more closely together.
- Make sure Upper Land Park families know Health Professions High is an option available to them that graduated 98% of its 2016 senior class, and sent 85% of those graduates to higher education.
- Investigate the segregation and trauma reported by families and educators in Upper Land Park that undermine the fundamental learning and recruitment environment in and around those schools.
How We Reached Our Conclusion
A new K-12 pathway in Upper Land Park is unlikely to create an education pathway better than existing options, for three main reasons:
There is a risk of increasing segregation of Upper Land Park families.
Adding a middle school on the same block with Floyd Elementary and Health Professions High would attract families from the surrounding underserved communities (the same families that dominate Floyd Elementary), but is unlikely to be attractive to families from outside this neighborhood.
The result could be isolating Upper Land Park from other Sacramento City families in a school pathway that keeps students just blocks from their homes in this public housing for the majority of the first 18 years of their lives.
“You move those services… people that need those services will follow those services. Same with schools. ‘Sorry we can't meet your needs here. But let me give you [the Principal of Health Professions High’s phone] number, she’s really great’…. We make it so easy…. It’s gonna create segregation."
-Educator at C.K. McClatchy High School
It’s risky to force Health Professions High to manage several major school changes all at once.
Adding grades 7 and 8 to Health Professions High would force the school to deal with several big changes to school culture all at the same time, increasing the risk of implementing the new model well. The changes include:
- Adding 12 and 13 year olds to a high school campus;
- Adding programs and support for larger numbers of students from surrounding Marina Vista and Alder Grove public housing communities;
- Managing increased teacher workload and likely increased teacher turnover;
- Transitioning from recruiting 9th graders to recruiting 7th and 9th graders;
- Possible doubling overall students.
Each of these individual challenges is a heavy burden for a school to manage. Taken all at once, adding the middle grades at Health Professions High is more likely to cause problems than to solve them.
"If [Health Professions High] wants to be successful, they have to cater to those kids in that area.”
- Upper Land Park Community Member
It probably won’t increase Health Professions High enrollment.
Adding middle school grades does not address the top parent concerns causing Health Professions High’s low enrollment in the first place:
- Missing out on the “traditional high school experience” – Health Professions High is a small school with small sports programs, dances, etc.
- The safety of the Upper Land Park area;
- The narrowness of the health professions pathway.
Click here to download an interactive attendance model for Health Professions High School (MS Excel document)
Our Recommendations
Adding grades 7 and 8 to Health Professions High does not solve Floyd Elementary’s underperformance, or Health Professions High’s low enrollment.
And yet, another conclusion is also clear: the current situation in Upper Land Park is not acceptable.
This study urges the Sacramento City School Board take simpler, cheaper, and more efficient actions to create many of the benefits of the K-12 community learning center for Upper Land Park, specifically:
Encourage and support more cooperation and partnership between Floyd Elementary and Health Professions High.
Floyd Elementary and Health Professions High working together benefits Upper Land Park families. Working together also lays the groundwork for possibly adding grades 7 and 8 at Health Professions High later in time.
Click here to download more information about the paths Floyd Elementary and Health Professions High students take throughout their education in the Sacramento City district.
Work on Health Professions High branding & recruitment strategy, and consider broadening the linked learning pathway beyond the health profession.
Our report uncovered several actions the district can take to increase enrollment at Health Professions High, such as:
- Work with Health Professions High and its sister small schools to make a strategy for enrollment.
- Specifically target Upper Land Park families as a potential source of students for Health Professions High.
- Consider adding a second professional pathway at Health Professions High.
All of these steps can broaden the schools’ appeal to families across the district and region.
All these things I didn't know about the success... of Health Professions [High] students. I had no idea.
-Parent at California Middle School
[Health Professions High] - Is that a public school?
- Parent at Leataata Floyd Elementary School
Deeper study of Upper Land Park family & community needs.
The neighborhood around Floyd Elementary and Health Professions High has an outsize effect on these schools’ learning environments. Exploring the depth and impact of this neighborhood’s segregation and trauma – including asking the residents themselves in forums they are comfortable in - is an essential next step to creating the high quality education options Upper Land Park families want and deserve as American citizens.
This school was put here for a reason…. You put a school smack dab between two projects. What's gonna be the outcome?
-Educator at Leataata Floyd Elementary
Read the full report
Read the full recommendations delivered to the Sacramento City Unified School Board.
Don't just read the report - scroll down and learn how to take action.
Read More & Take Action
Read more
Read the full report, including its sources and data.
Download and read the full report
Take action
Make your voice heard.
Tell the School Board what you think! Contact your representative on the Sacramento School Board
Join a Sacramento City Unified School District event. See the calendar
View Charts & Data
Acknowledgements
Report commissioned by:
Sacramento City Unified School District
Contact:
Jay Hansen, Vice President, Area 1
[email protected]
Click here for a full list of report contributors.