One Roof, Two Schools | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

One Roof, Two Schools | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

One Roof, Two Schools

By American School Counselor Association on July 24, 2013

By Kwok-Sze Wong, Ed.D., Executive Director, American School Counselor Association (ASCA)
My daughter, Tori, attended two high schools. Like most of her friends, she was very active. She was in the National Honor Society, the Chinese Honor Society, the marching band, the orchestra, drama productions. She was the class secretary and took Advanced Placement and honors classes. Tori went to a school of engaged, enthusiastic and energetic students.
There is another school, however, existing under the same roof. In this school, students don’t participate in any extracurricular activities. They don’t take a rigorous course load. Students in this school have attendance and disciplinary problems. This is a school of unmotivated, unchallenged and disenfranchised students.
Many students in the second school come from low-income, ethnically and culturally diverse populations. They don’t see themselves in the same world, much less the same school, as their more involved counterparts. The different socioeconomic populations may be physically desegregated, but they were never integrated into one cohesive student body.
Unfortunately, many schools across the country experience this same “one-roof, two-schools”