[quote jstoesz]I see the charter school movement as a big improvement with schools like High Tech High and middle school in Pt. Loma. I would like to see more of that sort of thing, but have it branch out into more than just science, and art, but philosophy and religion. [/quote]
I have mixed impressions of High Tech High. Some of their teachers have really impressive resumes, but they have some unusual ‘school policies’. For example, if a person is gifted in math, High Tech High does not allow them to take an accelerated program – or test into the next class of the sequence. The result can be a bored student, who is bored while taking the favorite or best subjects.

The High School I went to allowed you to take courses like you do in college. If you want to test into the next in the sequence, no problem. If you wanted to use summer school to accelerate, no problem.

Considering High Tech High’s API Base score of 797, and rank of 8, I’m not too impressed. The public high school I went to has a current API base score of 905 and rank of 10. Even the high school I went to is not top API rated which comes in with a Base API of 988. By the way, Poway High’s API Base is 850, LaJolla 831.

I would be careful of ‘branching out’ the scholastics beyond the fundamentals. One needs to make sure the fundamentals are not lost in the process.