By: Andrew Dinh
MUSD was recently named as a top 20 school district in the Bay Area, according to an online article published by SFGate reporter Mike Moffitt. MUSD ranks highly in the quality of its academics and diversity, but lacks in areas like clubs, activities, and health, Moffitt said.
Niche, a ranking and review website, compiles and releases rankings of Bay Area public school districts annually, Moffitt said. Their rankings are based on data compiled from the U.S. Department of Education, alongside millions of school reviews and survey responses, Moffitt added.
“The local list changes little from year to year — only one newcomer [MUSD] broke into the top 20 for 2019,” Moffitt said. “Still, the differences between the No. 20 and No. 1 are less than earth-shattering. Every district received either an “A” or “A+” in the critical college prep category.”
MHS has contributed greatly to the improvement of MUSD’s overall ranking, Assistant Principal Skyler Draeger said. Over the past several years, MHS has added a variety of new programs and A-G approved classes, Draeger added.
“We have done a lot to make improvements at the school site overall in the last couple years. I know we’ve seen a number of principals but we’ve also been working on a number of new programs,” Draeger said. “Overall, we’ve been working on systemic change throughout the campus.”
Overall support for struggling students throughout all grades is one factor behind MUSD’s improved ranking, English Teacher Tonichi Lorenzana, who has taught at both Rancho Milpitas Middle School and MHS, said. MUSD has a variety of programs targeted at helping English learners become classified and move on to mainstream English classes, Lorenzana added.
“At Pomeroy Elementary School, there is a program called SEAL (Sobrato Early Academic Literacy) and so a lot of the things that they’re doing is trying to work on best practices for literacy,” Lorenzana said. “Literacy was actually one of [MHS’s] top priorities to the point where social studies, science, and math were doing constructed responses and short readings because we really wanted to make sure that students got that reinforcement for reading and writing skills.”
Though MUSD is a top 20 Bay Area school district, MHS is not a top 20 Bay Area high school, according to rankings on the Niche website. MHS is ranked as 59th out of 191 Bay Area public high schools for college prep, Niche reported.
MHS’ highly diverse student body has contributed greatly to Sophomore Isabella Kellas’ high school experience, Kellas said. However, having such a large and diverse student body brings concern with the level of attention teachers can give individual students, Kellas said.
“MHS values diversity by showcasing different forms of them through noon time activities, performances and clubs,” Kellas said. “I think MHS can improve their ranking if there was a smaller student-to-teacher ratio in the classroom. This would allow students to comprehend the content easier, and develop a stronger relationship with the teacher as well.”
Senior Nandini Singh believes that there are many barriers to the school’s overall progress, Singh said. MHS’ faculty has room for improvement if MHS is to be ranked higher in the future, Singh said.
“Limiting the number of AP classes students can take severely restricts students academic potential. The school should also better supervise teachers and what they do in the classroom,” Singh said. “One of my teachers last year would just hand out useless worksheets and do nothing in class, after one of my friends complained to [an administrator]. [The admin] did nothing and instead started defending the teacher and her ‘teaching style.’”
MHS will eventually need to consider the implications of a constantly growing enrollment on the school’s academic strength, Lorenzana said. The school does not have the facilities to house the sheer number of students that will be coming to campus and simultaneously provide students with a quality education, Lorenzana continued.
“We’d like to think that we could have smaller class sizes so that the students can have more access to teachers, more of that personalized attention,” Lorenzana said. “The conversation of ‘How do we expand Milpitas High to accommodate these students, or do we make a second high school?’ to make sure that all the students are getting a fair and equitable education becomes a bigger priority moving forward.”
MHS could use more classrooms but that may be the only improvement it needs to make, Social Studies Teacher Michael Cummins said. But there is not necessarily a way to rank a school, Cummins added.
“Kids try here. They haven’t given up. I don’t know of too many extra entitled kids that feel like they don’t have to try, like you might find in Palo Alto or my own alma mater in Saratoga,” Cummins said. “I think we’re all doing the best we can with what we have. Could we bust the Milpitas population over to Palo Alto, and would we instantly be more successful? I would say no.”
Regardless of what ranking MHS is prescribed, its students will thrive, Cummins said. The campus diversity plays a large role in the success of MHS and its students, Cummins said.
“When you leave the bubble of Milpitas, you’ll realize that the rest of the world does not have this many different people all shoved together trying to get along,” Cummins said. “If you’re going to try, you’re going to try everywhere. You guys are using all of your tools here at Milpitas like you’re supposed to.”
MHS will always have room for improvement, Draeger said. Creating both personalized connections and pathways for students in such a large campus is a difficult task for the administration, Draeger said.
“We have a lot to offer. We do have so many programs that sometimes, almost like a shotgun effect, you get lost in the shuffle,” Draeger said. “The problem is conveying that in a way that makes sense to people. I think the bricks are in place.”