The Revolutionaries of San Mateo

Kevin Rodriguez often confides in his English language development teacher, Kennet Santana, and admits he would likely have dropped out of school if it weren't for this critical connection. The 17-year-old nearly failed out of his last two public high schools, and started hanging with gang members. "I just never cared before, but now, there are teachers here like Mr. Santana who make me want to do better," says a soft-spoken Rodriguez, whose parents are immigrants from Mexico. He lives in an apartment near the racetrack with his mother, a manager at a dry cleaners, and his extended family.  "Mr. Santana helps me. I never had that before." Rodriguez may be a grade behind, but he is now passing all his classes and is on track to graduate in 2009.

Dean Tayara, a senior who transferred into the school in 10th grade from San Mateo High, wasn't failing his classes, but he wasn't thriving either. He was "just sort of there." "I was insignificant," says the 17-year-old. "I felt really lost, no real connections. I asked my mom if I could transfer out to Hillsdale because a friend told me he really liked it. She wasn't so sure because this school used to have a bad reputation. But my GPA has gone from 2.5 my last semester at San Mateo High to 3.8 my first six weeks of  Hillsdale. The only drawback is sports, like the football team still kind of sucks, but we're working on that."

But Hillsdale is scoring plenty of points elsewhere, such as in its advisory classes. Hillsdale core academic teachers also run a daily class where the focus is their pupil's academic progress, emotional standing and even social skills. As adviser, the teacher is also in charge of liaising with families of their 25 pupils and helping them plan for college. They serve as a mother hen for two years of the teen's school life until the student moves onto a new adviser for 11th and 12th grade. The advisers, students say, know everything: what they did in third period, who their friends are, how their weekend went. And what the student doesn't tell them, they pick up in conversations with the other kids in their house. "It can sometimes get embarrassing," says senior Tayara. English teacher Chris Crockett says the teachers, in turn, feel more invested in their kids: "There's just a greater sense of accountability," she says, "and it's self-imposed. You just never want to lose track of your kids."

Hillsdale's core teachers like Crockett also hate losing students to daydreaming, which is why the curriculum calls for assignments based in special projects. The mock WWI battle is one example, as is the students' re-enactment of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation trials. "I had to defend an African who had been attacked," says Sydney Ellison, a freshman. "It was really sad, but I learned a lot about apartheid." Hillsdale doesn't track students by ability, so in classes such as biology or English, high and low achievers are in the same study groups. The advanced students help pull up the less motivated, but are challenged by extra assignments tailored for them by the teacher. Structural changes like these in the classrooms--and a more challenging curriculum overall--are why so many more graduates are now prepared to move on to a four-year college when they leave Hillsdale.
 
But for students of Greg Jouriles's freshman history class, college preparedness or educational reform are not half as important as trouncing the Germans on the "battlefield" adjacent to the school parking lot. They will succeed, they say, no matter how many water balloons it takes. Win or lose, it's a lesson they're not likely to forget.

© 2008