A School in Trouble from the Start - voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog

A School in Trouble from the Start - voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog

A School in Trouble from the Start

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  Photo by Sam Hodgson

  Students at San Diego High’s School of Communications clean up after doing a run-through of their student broadcast. School board President Richard Barrera wants to dissolve the school in order to integrate English learners into the rest of the downtown campus.

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From the Reporter

The Idea

The School of Communications at San Diego High was supposed to be a place for English learners, a haven for the students whose communication barriers present schools with some of their most bedeviling struggles.

What Happened

The school district forced the district to abort its mission right after it opened. Teachers wondered whether it was wise to separate English learners. So it rebranded itself, but the reputation stuck and test scores are low.

What’s Happening Now

School district President Richard Barrera is calling for the school to be closed. "It was a school that was designed to fail," he says.

Posted: Monday, June 13, 2011 8:20 pm |Updated: 8:23 pm, Mon Jun 13, 2011.

• By Emily Alpert

The School of Communications was in trouble almost from the start.

It was supposed to be a place for English learners, a haven for the students whose communication barriers present schools with some of their most bedeviling struggles. Its former principal, Cesar Alcantar, says the San Diego Unified School District told him the school could be exempt from the weighty labels and restrictions of No Child Left Behind,