Percentages of White High School Students Decline in Silicon Valley newamericamedia.org by, Ketaki Gokhale Posted: Jan 06, 2007 FREMONT, Calif. – Aside from the hurried footsteps of a straggling student (he has a good excuse), all is silent at Mission San Jose High School. Theres nary a trace of the habitual truant, or the hubbub of students with a free period. With its air of discipline and studious focus, its not hard to believe that this school, like many others in Silicon Valley, is one of the best in the state. Seven of the areas high schools have been recognized nationally in Newsweeks list of the top 500 high schools in the U.S., with Mission San Jose clocking in the highest at number 147. Ironically, this dazzling array of accolades has brought with it a great deal of negative press for the areas high schools, which have recently experienced declines in the numbers of white students enrolled. According to data from the California Department of Education, Lynbrook High School in San Jose has experienced a 34 percent decline in its white student body between 1995 and 2005. Over the same period, Monte Vista High School in Cupertino experienced a 15 percent decline in the number of white students enrolled, and the neighboring Cupertino High School has seen an 18 percent decline in white students. Mission San Jose High School, located in Fremont, Calif., has seen the largest drop in any white student body, with a 61 percent decline over the past decade. A Nov. 29, 2005 Wall Street Journal report called the phenomenon a new white flight, where, instead of fleeing districts that are failing academically, white parents are actually pulling their children out of schools because they are performing too well. The report found that many of these parents feel that the schools are too narrowly focused on academics, and on math and science in particular, at the expense of liberal arts and extracurricular activities. Instead of citing the absolute figures showing the drop in white enrollment, which are far from huge, the report cited the much more impressive statistics that show how the white student bodies have dwindled as percentages of the whole. The proportion of white students at Lynbrook has fallen by nearly half over the last 10 years, to 25 percent of the student body. At Monte Vista, white students account for under a third of the student body, down from 45 percent 10 years ago. At Cupertino High, the proportion of white students has also fallen by a third, from roughly 60 percent to 40 percent. The most drastic change has been seen at Mission San Jose, which, in 1995, had a student body that was 53 percent white. Today, the school is 20 percent white. White students are accounting for a smaller slice of the enrollment pie because of a combination of two factors - the declining number of white enrollees and the swelling class sizes that are the result of an influx of Asian Americans. It does help to have a lower Asian population, Mary Anne Norling told the Wall Street Journal a year ago. Norling is president of the PTA for Homestead High School, a Cupertino high school whose white student body has held steady at around 50 percent of the total for the past 10 years. I dont think our parents are as uptight as if my kids went to Monte Vista. A year since that interview, a lot has changed at the Fremont Unified High School District. For one, Steve Rowley, the district superintendent, was fired. Some, including Norling, think it was over his controversial comments to the Wall Street Journal reporter, and the incendiary letter he wrote to the Journal after the publication of the report. Another effect of the report has been that district officials and school administrators have fallen silent on the subject of white flight. District spokeswoman Cindy McArthur told India-West that no administrator could spare time for an interview in the foreseeable future. Norling told India-West that she could not comment on the subject of white flight, explaining, You get burned once and you learn your lesson. The Wall Street Journal report has faced much criticism from local residents, school districts, and even sociologists, who say that the news article is a biased report that misuses data and a few scattered anecdotes to support an argument that a new form of white flight is occurring throughout Silicon Valley. Many white parents are saying that they have chosen to move their children to different schools, not out of fear of competition with Asian students, but due to a desire for less of a focus on academics. In the midst of an online furor over the white flight report, one Cupertino resident who used the screen name soccer dad, posted on a message board, There are a few local families that dont send their kids to Monta Vista, and I think the WSJ found them all. Most often its because the kids have special needs; only a handful leave over simple racism. Those administrators who are still willing to talk about the rapidly shifting demographics at Silicon Valley high schools say that they are not the result of white flight, but rather a reflection of the burgeoning Asian American communities in Silicon Valley. These people finger the San Francisco Bay Areas real estate boom in the mid to late-1990s as a turning point, when many longtime residents of Silicon Valley chose to reap fast rewards by selling their family homes. Asian Americans, who boast the highest median household income in the U.S., then moved in by the droves to places like Fremonts Mission San Jose District, where the median home price is $760,000. West San Jose has seen such a boom in its Asian American population over the past decade. Today, the area is about two-thirds Asian. Lynbrook, the local high school, is about 72 percent Asian. Similarly, the town of Cupertino, which was 23 percent Asian American in the 1990 census, is now 44 percent Asian. The three local high schools - Cupertino, Monte Vista, and Homestead - are 49, 67, and 33 percent Asian, respectively. On average, Cupertinos schools are half Asian. A short way up 880 North, the Mission San Jose District of Fremont has the largest concentration of Asian Americans in the city. The area is over 50 percent Asian American, according to the 2000 census, and at the local high school, Mission San Jose High, Asian Americans account for an astounding 77 percent of the student body. Mission San Jose principal Stuart Kew is convinced that the dramatic transformation of his schools student body is not the result of white flight. There was a time when I worried that there was a flight going on, he told India-West. So, I sat down and looked at the data. Looking at all the students that left us, I saw that there wasnt a huge discrepancy in ethnicity. Asian students were leaving the school at nearly the same rate as white students. When questioned as to why the percentage of Asian Americans at Mission San Jose High exceeded the percentage of Asian Americans in the attendance area, Kew replied that the local Asian American families tend to have more children than white families, thereby magnifying their presence at public schools. Its true that the schools demographics have been gradually changing, Kew told India-West. If there had been a sudden, precipitous drop - like, it was 90 percent white and dropped by 60 percent in three years - then Id think there was something more going on. But this gradual change is just a reflection of the new community around here. Kew sees it as just another chapter in the schools history. This school was predominantly white at one point, he recalled. Those students graduated, matriculated, left the area. Many other white people sold their homes and relocated to areas with lower costs of living, and people of different ethnicities have moved into those homes and into the new developments. There are others who are not convinced that the changes seen in the schools demographics are the result of the local economy. Tiffany Chiang, a parent of a sophomore at Mission San Jose, told India-West that, in her opinion, there is a strong possibility that white flight is occurring. She cited the predominance of Asians and its effects of the schools atmosphere as the leading reasons. Even Kew admitted that the schools culture has transformed since he began working there in 1972. Academics have come to take center stage and athletic programs that were once strong now languish. He said that, as a result of there being a large Asian student body, ancillary sports like badminton flourish, while, one year, the football program had to be cancelled because of a lack of interest. Most of all, he says that the culture of the school has changed because of students parents, many of whom are recent immigrants from China and India. Their parents come from a different cultural point of view, one which is still prevalent in mainland China, he said. In this system, people are weeded out into elite colleges or vocational tracks based on early test scores. Theres a great deal of emphasis on performance. These parents dont know of any other avenue. When I look at some of the students, he mused, I wonder about childhood experiences. High school is supposed to be for exploration and experimentation. Studying math and science is not a bad thing, especially because our country lags in those fields. But when are they going to take something fun? Chiang said that even she, a first generation Chinese American, is concerned that the school is predominantly Asian. A 16-year-old Indian American, a junior at Mission San Jose who asked to remain anonymous, told India-West that she has no doubt white flight is occurring. She went so far as to say that the schools administration has actively undertaken a campaign to push white and black students out of the school. Theres a lack of fairness in how they deal with situations like a fight between an Asian American and a black student, she said. The office will always take the Asian students side and suspend the black student. She added that many white students have left the school, not only because of its academic rigor, but also because of its unhealthy atmosphere and rampant cheating. But for every person who believes in the white flight thesis, there is at least one who does not. Rupa Sethna, a parent of two Mission San Jose graduates, said that, while the school is uncommonly rigorous, it is very much a normal high school. She said that, because of the schools excellent performance, it attracts the interest of many families, regardless of ethnicity. But the cost of living has skyrocketed, and housing has become unaffordable for white people, Hispanics, and African Americans, she said. Basically, youre left with Asian families, who tend to buy houses where schools perform well. From my personal experience, white flight is an overstatement. All my sons friends were with him throughout, whether they were Caucasian or any other race. Those kids have performed very well, and are very good athletes too. Her son, Jay, 18, is a recent graduate of Mission San Jose and is currently a first year student at DeAnza College, a community college in Cupertino. He thinks that the reports of white flight are an example of people giving in to stereotypes about both Asians and whites. Most of the people I know that left [Mission San Jose] left because their families moved, or because high school wasnt for them, he told India-West. My white classmates were some of the best students. Tim Collins, 16, stands out at Mission San Jose because of his pale skin and light hair. He is currently a junior here and has no complaints. I dont think that white kids are being scared away by the academics, he told India-West. The sports are bad, I guess, but thats not a reason to leave the school, unless youre looking for a sports scholarship. The only reason why a person would want to leave this school would be the cost of living. I have to help my family out with living expenses with an after-school job. Thats how we can afford to live here. news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=374b95c244fe32eef88c9a48c306bbb2 Leave high grade with high stress, build more confidence for academic study
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 03:38:07 +0000
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