Context of Redwood High School

Redwood Model Continuation High School (Redwood) is a part of the Sequoia Union High School District and was established in 1966 to provide a three-hour educational program for predominantly working students to continue or complete their high school education.  Redwood High School is located in San Mateo County on the border of Redwood City and San Carlos, both with some very affluent areas, about 25 miles south of San Francisco.  Feeder schools include Sequoia High School, Woodside High School, Menlo Atherton High School, Carlmont High School, Hillcrest High School, and Gateway High School.  Over the past three years the school has had a yearly average of 518 students walk through its doors.

The Redwood student population is very transient; the average school enrollment is approximately 335 students throughout the year.  The school demographics data demonstrates that Redwood High School has significantly higher Chicano/Latino students and significantly fewer White students as compared to the overall student population of the district.  The district has 46% Chicano/Latino students, while the same ethnic student groups makes up 80% of Redwood High School’s student population.  Similarly, the district’s English Language Learners is 18%, while Redwood population is 54%.  Student achievement data follows to show that students that enroll in Redwood struggle to attain the academic markers of their peers in the comprehensive sites.

The topic for this project,  Career, College and Life Readiness, addresses the mission of the school.  The design of the educational program is outdated and can better serve students to truly be career, college, and life ready, given longitudinal data shared by a local community college, Cañada College.  Of approximately 98 students that enrolled in the fall of 2009 only 1 Redwood student earned his/her 2-year Associate of Arts (AA) degree.  In addition, the notion that students that need the greatest amount of academic support, as demonstrated by low achievement data, are best served with a state mandated minimum180 minute instructional of school day is antiquated.  The economic demands for a longer formal educational preparedness is clearly articulated by the regional economic focus of technology.  Silicon Valley is a ripe place for innovation and career opportunities.  One can make the argument that Redwood students do not receive the kind of academic preparedness to make them truly career, college and life ready.  The immediate goal of earning the high school diploma must be expanded to include greater and more comprehensive career and college readiness skills.  The aim of this project is to aid the school in selecting and implementing the best practices to better prepare students with 21^st century skills to be career, college and life ready.  The task to do so with some of education’s most challenging students is the moral imperative of the school.  Its educators are charged with finding effective solutions.  In its most pressing form the ultimate aim of the school is social and economic justice for students, families and the greater community Redwood serves.