Letters to the Editor

Balboa on the ropes: The article "A Study in Size" [May 3] gave an inaccurate picture of the situation regarding small schools in the San Francisco Unified School District.

While small schools are a fine setting for some students, it is not accurate that they are posting superior performance to SFUSD's traditional schools, or that many students are fleeing traditional schools to take refuge in small schools, or that small schools are superior to the "small learning communities" model within larger schools.

It is untrue that small schools are in such high demand that SFUSD is remiss in not replicating them. June Jordan School for Equity had only 77 first-choice requests for its 100 openings for fall 2006, and the school's high attrition rate provides sufficient openings midyear to accommodate further demand.

The report gave a figure of 94 students for June Jordan's 11th grade (class of 2007). SFUSD data shows 54 students. The article did not explain the discrepancy, which also calls into question the reported percentage of 11th-graders who have passed the California High School Exit Exam.

In reporting that the small middle school Aim High is in jeopardy, the article neglected to mention that Aim High has failed to meet its mandated Adequate Yearly Progress targets as required by federal law. The article relied on California's similar schools API, a controversial ranking comparing schools to counterparts with similar demographics or challenges. The article reported Aim High's similar schools ranking as a 9 out of 10. California has just recalculated all statewide similar schools rankings due to an initial error. In that recalculation, Aim High dropped from a 9 to a 4.

The article inaccurately stated that June Jordan students outperform students at Balboa High School and gave further misleading information about Balboa and John O'Connell high schools. We are not disparaging June Jordan or Aim High. But the portrait painted by the article of shining successes being ignored by an uncaring bureaucracy is inaccurate.

Caroline Grannan
Dana Woldow
Parents of SFUSD students
San Francisco

Ryan Blitstein responds: After reviewing the letter writers' detailed critiques — available at http://www.sfschools.org/ 2006/05/errors-in-sfweekly-article-on-small.html and http://www.sfschools.org/ 2006/05/sfweekly-critique-part-2.html — I stand by the facts and conclusions of my story. In describing the article as "inaccurate," the writers either claim I wrote something I didn't write ("shining successes being ignored by an uncaring bureaucracy," which ignores the story's more than 1,000 words of skepticism about small schools), or charge me with factual errors when our disagreements result from differences of opinion. For example, June Jordan itself had only 77 first-choice requests for fall 2006, but when charter schools are included, small school enrollment has nearly doubled in the past three years, evidence of demand for small schools in San Francisco.

Winner: Best Way to Stick It to the Man: While many people may think that the Safeway Club Card ["Best Surveillance Technique" award, Best Of San Francisco®, May 17] is a means for loss of their privacy as to what they buy, I take the opposite tack: I not only use it every time, but swipe it for the persons ahead of and behind me in line if they don't use theirs, thus helping me to earn those airline miles that much quicker. In fact, if anyone does not want to have their purchases tracked, they can punch in 415-959-1122 on the screen where it asks for their phone number: They'll get the discount, I'll get the airline miles, and Safeway won't know what they're buying.

Harvey Grosser
Oakland

Winner: Best Landmark Ruling: Landmark Theatres and Embarcadero Center Cinema are very excited to be named one of San Francisco's Best. We would like to point out a couple clarifications: The parent company of Landmark Theatres is 2929 Entertainment (since fall 2003); and while our lobby is open to public access, the entrances to the auditoriums are monitored by our ace ushers, some of whom are happy to be thought of as geeks. Thanks for the compliments.