Educationally Speaking June 2010 - List of college-bound students impressive

There is an undeserved opinion held by many adults that students earn an inferior education at Fallbrook High School when compared to students at other schools. For too many, the phrase “my mind is made up, don’t confuse me with the facts” means that they can hold these perceptions without being grounded in the truth.

I will acknowledge that Fallbrook High School is in No Child Left Behind Program Improvement. But, do you know why? It is because we have been unsuccessful in meeting achievement targets for English language learner students. Does this mean that all English learner students are unsuccessful or less successful than they should be? No.

One measure of a school’s effectiveness is the quality of post-secondary educational institutions that the high school graduates are able to attend. For the Class of 2010, Fallbrook High School students will be attending numerous prestigious universities. Consider this: Twenty-seven will be attending University of California schools, including two to UC Berkeley and three to UC San Diego. Seventy-eight will be attending California State University schools. Among the fifty-one attending private schools in and out of California, one is attending the US Naval Academy, another, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and one at Amherst.

These students are able to continue their education at these and many other fine institutions due to their individual knowledge, skills, and aptitude and due to the quality education opportunities provided to them at Fallbrook High School. If a student earns an inferior education at Fallbrook High School, the majority of the responsibility does not lie with the school.

So, when someone asks you about the quality of education at Fallbrook High School, be a name-dropper. Berkeley, MIT, US Naval Academy, Amherst. And those are but a few examples from the Class of 2010. This is also true for the Class of 2009, the Class of 2008.