The Big Three

My son Alex and I are setting out to see two of "The Big Three" of public middle schools in town. (The third of The Big Three is His Sister's Old School, mentioned in a previous post.)

Almost everybody in San Francisco who's in the market for a public middle school wants to get into one of the Big Three. These are the top-tier schools, the ones with the best test scores and the best music programs. If there's an Ivy League of public middle schools in our city, they're it.

They're as hard to get into as any of the private middle schools. The ratio is 4:1, applicants to openings, for all of them. I think one reason why The Big Three are so big is that the district keeps sneaking in more kids, trying to keep the vocal parents happy.

Selection is based upon a lottery, but not a pure lottery. We won't get into how this impure lottery works just yet — that's another whole kettle of fish. For now, we're just looking for the differences among the three schools, because on the surface they're very similar: gigantic, good test scores and on the west side of the city. We need to tease out the individual characteristics, parse the components, turn this into a science, so that nothing is left to chance.

The question for Alex and me is not shall we apply to the Big Three, but in what order shall we rank them on the application? The district allows, in fact encourages, families to list seven choices. That way, the odds are pretty good that families will get one of their choices. Also, if you put down just a few schools, say two or three, and you don't get any of them, the district will assign you to a school. Since we're going for individual choice here, the name of the game is to visit at least seven public middle schools and to figure out how to rank them.

Our first stop is the school I shall call Top of the Heap. This school is housed in a beautiful 75-year-old Spanish Revival building, complete with art deco interiors. That's the first thing that captures my attention on the tour. The second thing is the stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the downtown skyline.

Top of the Heap, just like the other two behemoths, offers an excellent music program of daily classes in band or orchestra. Any sixth-grader can take music — no prior knowledge of an instrument is required. If your child is not interested in music, there's the "Unified Arts" option, which is a rotating agenda of art, computer, drama, language (Spanish or Japanese), teacher or office aide, woodshop and home arts. What Top of the Heap offers that the other two do not are week-long outdoor education trips to Yosemite and Olympic National Park.

Overall, this middle school is very impressive, from the API score of 855 to the parent reviews on GreatSchools. Parents say such things as:

• "A terrific principal, committed teachers, excellent discipline, and terrific music and sports programs. The honors classes provide a solid grounding in language arts, math, and social studies for high school, and the band and orchestra classes show the results of excellent and dedicated leadership by their instructors. The school is safe and bully free, with a low tolerance for any kind of schoolyard problem."
• "This school has exceeded all our expectations. We selected it for its academics, and the fine teachers (many of whom have their own children at the school, an indicator of its quality). The academic program is very good. For three years, my son has also enjoyed the rewards of a great after-school sports program, and an excellent band music program."

Next, Alex and I head out to visit the school I've dubbed Number Two in the Test Score Wars. The first thing we notice is that the building is not nearly as nice as Top of the Heap's. It's a bland 1950s concrete affair, but it does have lovely views of the ocean and beach. Outside, the air is invigorating. Inside, there's a buzz of industry in the halls.

The principal's presentation at Number Two in the Test Score Wars is the most business-like I've encountered yet — a PowerPoint presentation, to be exact. After the PowerPoint in the library, the 70 or so parents on the tour are divided into smaller groups and assigned a student guide. Our tween guide didn't enunciate or speak up, so I missed a lot of information. I did glean that the principal used to be the Gifted and Talented Education coordinator for the district, and she firmly believes that it is not a good thing to segregate the GATE students from the general school population.

At Number Two in the Test Score Wars, the GATE kids are clustered into groups of four or five and then placed into general education classes. The teachers are expected to offer the GATE kids differentiated, accelerated instruction. Furthermore, kids might be GATE identified in math, but not in language arts, or vice versa, creating a more flexible GATE program.

Number Two's API score is 846, nine points down from Top of the Heap. The parent reviews on GreatSchools are very positive:

• "The principal is a caring person who runs a very tight ship. The counselors, who stay with a class throughout their 3-year career, do a pretty terrific job, especially considering the number of kids they are responsible for. The music program is justly renowned. We consider ourselves lucky that our son ended up here."
• "It's a great school with a good principal and staff. Best music teachers in the city."

Mentally, I compare these two behemoths to His Sister's Old School, which has an API of 840, 15 points below Top of the Heap. His Sister's Old School is another 1950s concrete montrosity, looking rather like a fortress on the outside, but inside it does have cheery yellow tiles on the walls.

The parent reviews on GreatSchools are interesting:

• "The music program is excellent."
• "Expect many hours of homework, some of it really tedious."
• "An overall great school with a near perfect curriculum."
• "This is a great school for dedicated students. If you want a school that expects a lot from your child and gives a lot in return you will be very happy here."

Wow, how do I differentiate these three schools? How do I choose the best one for Alex?

Alex is stumped too: "I don't know. One of them had holes in the walls that they stuffed desks into and called them classrooms. [Mom here: What??] I'd rather go to My Sister's Old School than the others because it seems better. It feels right for me, more than the other ones. I don't know why. Don't ask me any more questions."

Comments

[Bill Jackson]

Love your blog-journey! I'd suggest that you do some hypothetical conversation with Alex about how his day/week would be different at the different schools. The catholic alternative, high on his list, sounds like it would imply a very different schedule than any of the Big Three. Seems like a little imaginary "life in the week of" discussion might help him and you discern more of the differences and how they would affect you.

Thanks for sharing your journey with us!