Principal leadership, teacher acceptance of best practices are
the keys to Brownell and South Valley improvement
The current situation with Gilroy middle schools demonstrates the law of unintended consequences.
Because two of Gilroy’s middle schools – Brownell and South Valley – failed to meet federal annual progress improvement goals, in theory all students could request transfer to the third school, Solorsano, under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
If Gilroy had a second high school that was meeting its Adequate Yearly Progress goals, students from Gilroy High School could also demand transfers, because GHS also failed to meet its federal goal.
This year, 100 students requested transfers to Solorsano, but due to space constraints, the district could only accommodate 38 students. But under No Child Left Behind, space is not a valid reason to deny the transfers.
Therein lies “the rub.”
It’s impractical to believe that flooding Solorsano with 100 or several hundred students from Brownell and South Valley will improve their educational experiences, or have a positive impact on Solorsano students.
Yet, the intent of the law – to provide competition and pressure for lower-performing schools in a district to improve – is understandable and laudable. There should be pressure for Brownell and South Valley, particularly from parents, and certainly from Superintendent Edwin Diaz and the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Trustees.
Understanding why Solorsano is excelling is perhaps the best route to improving Brownell and South Valley. What factors are key to Solorsano’s success? How can those be replicated at the other middle schools? Certainly the fact that Solorsano is a beautiful new school is a factor, but that is only a small part of the equation.
A crucial element of any school’s success is strong leadership from the principal. It’s hard to overstate the importance of a leader who inspires staff. Solorsano’s Sal Tomasello has done just that. He is a tireless organizer and motivator who sets goals, takes great pride in his school and shows up for everything. His example is a textbook lesson in what it takes to get the job done.
Next, talk about best practices. Teachers at Solorsano should share their techniques with co-workers at Brownell and South Valley. Mentoring is key. Yes, it implicitly recognizes that not all teachers are interchangeable units, but that’s simply reality.
Teachers, administrators and parents, no doubt, have more ideas. But we have a caution: Everything must be on the table. Cold water should not be thrown on an idea because it doesn’t dovetail with a particular agenda – whether that’s a pet education theory, a current teacher contract clause or just the way things have always been done.
Two middle schools and our only high school don’t meet federal educational improvement standards.
Academic excellence must be the highest priority and everyone’s agenda must fall in behind that, or failure is certain.
