What would happen if North High were treated like a business? Sceptics always argue that you can’t treat a school like a business, but why not? We have employees (someone is giving me a salary), we have product (grades 9 through 12), and it takes money to run the day-to-day operations.
Many might assume that our customers are parents and the community, but maybe the customer is actually our “product,” the students.
Today, two students came to see me and brought up the subject of graduating early, as juniors who will have spent six semesters at school. Both plan on going to El Camino College in September of 2017.
Student One was told it could happen and planned her junior year around this process. She came to see me today because she now has been told she needs to be at North during her senior year. She followed the schedules her counselor laid out for her, was told earlier that taking these classes would get her what she needed, and now has been told it is not enough. She’s not pleased. She has nothing against North High–she just wants to start college early.
Student Two will be graduating early, after her junior year. She has taken the necessary classes, has a different counselor, and will be attending El Camino College next year. She’s not happy that she couldn’t take AP Statistics during her junior year, but even though we let students sign up for the class, and even though she had taken Calculus B/C as a sophomore and received a 5 on the AP test, our administration decided that NO juniors would end up being in the class because of scheduling. We tell students, implore them, coerce them, to take four years of math, yet when push comes to shove, we don’t let one of the brightest math students we have take a class because of scheduling.
That’s the deal here–why were those junior kids even signing up for AP Statistics? Those must have been some pretty good kids who had jumped through many math hoops and figured they would extend their math resume even more. By making them wait another year, one of the students will be gone, and others might change their minds. The AP Statistics teacher might have wanted them in the class, or have another section opened up for the demand, but that ship has sailed this year.
Back to Student Two, who wants to be an infectious disease doctor and work for Doctors Without Borders. When she told me that today, I wanted to go into a corner and weep happy tears. Instead I told her how awesome that was–Doctors Without Borders is one of my favorite groups who always seem to work tirelessly in places not always desirable–and how impressed I was. That’s who we’re losing. Someone who gets good grades, who takes mostly-senior classes during her sophomore year and OWNS on the AP test, who challenges herself with hard classes, and is involved in school.
In her defense, what does North have to offer her for a senior year? As a business who wants to keep their customers as long as possible, it’s tough to compete with Opportunities for Learning, or El Camino College, as both offer classes students need, free of charge. Taking classes at El Camino College not only gives students college credit, but high school credit as well. It’s tough to sell an AP Class that you have to attend for 180 days AND pass an AP test for college credit when you can just attend that college in the first place.
Our customers are starting to figure this out.