In fall 1999, UCSD went into the public school business. More than six years later, campus administrators have received the first detailed measure of success for students enrolled in the Preuss School, a campus-run charter school, and the numbers are mixed.
“This is a happy story, this is a good story, this is a success story,” said Hugh “Bud” Mehan, director of UCSD’s Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence.
Last December, C.R.E.A.T.E. staff released the first statistical examination of the first two graduating classes at Preuss, the university-run middle and high school that serves children of “desperate socioeconomic status” — mostly ethnic minorities, all of whom would be the first in their families to go to college.
Though there was little doubt that Preuss kids outperformed their peers in other San Diego schools, the challenge for Mehan’s team was to find a comparison group with similar drive and levels of parental involvement, among other factors. In the report, C.R.E.A.T.E. hoped to do just that, comparing Preuss enrollees with statistically identical children who had applied for admission to Preuss but were not accepted (the school uses a random lottery system when applications exceed available spots).
The story, though, was not as happy as Mehan suggests. Though the 2005 Preuss graduates completed many more college-prep courses, took more challenging classes, applied to more colleges and were far more likely to be enrolled in college — astoundingly, 100 percent of Preuss children enrolled in either a four-year college or a community college — than the comparison group, both groups had nearly identical grades and similar scores on the state’s standardized tests.
The study proves “that you can provide a rigorous academic instruction for students of low-income backgrounds,” Mehan said. “And if you support that instruction with academic support and social support, they can succeed at the highest levels.”
C.R.E.A.T.E. Associate Director Cecil W. Lytle, former Thurgood Marshall College provost and chair of the Preuss School’s board of directors, said he was similarly pleased with the results, explaining that the purpose of the school was to provide rigorous data for ways to improve public education.
“The true purpose of [UCSD], as for any institution with roots of a land-grant university should be, is to build models,” Lytle said. “Now that we’ve built the school, we’re starting to see results.”
In summary of the research, C.R.E.A.T.E. stated that “the study finds that attending the Preuss School causes students to complete successfully more college prerequisites and to attend college in greater numbers.” However, it’s unclear whether the study actually established the causality that the brief implies.
For example, both Lytle and Mehan conceded that differences in college attendance may simply indicate that that the comparison group students did not complete the courses necessary to be eligible for the University of California or California State University, and some in the comparison group said they didn’t know about the SAT II, a test required for admission to most top-notch schools. At Preuss, students are required to complete the full sequence of classes and to take the exam. Other than showing the success of the school’s “culture of learning,” Lytle said the study could not isolate which of the Preuss School’s innovations were responsible for the success.
“Some … things are happening at the school [that] we cannot capture in the numbers,” Mehan said.
However, it seems unlikely that some of the school’s methods, like the nearly 10,000 extra minutes Preuss children must spend in class each year, compared to the state requirements, would be responsible for raising college attendance without also raising grades and test scores. Without knowing which variables helped get kids into college, it’s unclear what lessons educators can take away from the school.
“I think the key is that the school has to have a single focus,” Preuss Principal Doris Alvarez said. “And that focus has to be known by everyone.”
UCSD’s current attempt to replicate Preuss’ success at Gompers, a middle school in one of San Diego’s toughest neighborhoods, will likely indicate if the Preuss model is exportable. One of the key barriers is funding: Preuss spends approximately $7,200 per student, compared with the state average of roughly $5,200 for middle schools and $5,500 for high schools.
Next year, Preuss may have an opportunity to show if it can achieve the same results with less money. Roughly 20 percent of the school’s budget, according to Lytle, comes from academic preparation funding provided by the UC Office of the President (the outreach money also funds C.R.E.A.T.E.). After spending two years trying to get the university to demonstrate that the state was getting the biggest bang for its buck, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed eliminating state support for UC outreach next year.
Mehan said he hopes the study will show state leaders that the money is worth it.
“I think that it’s part of the great debate in American society about public education,” he said. “How much do we invest in public education, and how much should we invest in public education?”
