Archived News Item

War of the Small Schools

Some quick notes:

• The events page has been updated. Let me know if you find any mistakes.
• I’m still looking for students interested in helping to update and/or maintain this site. If you’ve got any interest, send me an email at harrislapiroff@berkeleyhigh.org.

So, this is the first year that Berkeley High has four small schools (CAS, CPA, AHA, and SSJE) and the program Academic Choice.

This much I approve of. To be honest, I’ve been in favor of breaking BHS into small schools ever since I first heard the idea.

On the other hand it’s also the first year that they’ve used the lottery system to choose what schools students go into, and this I’m withholding judgement on for the moment.

There are obviously lots of issues and arguments on all sides of the small schools system—both for having small schools at all and for using the lottery system to select students for small schools.

Being a senior, I have very little direct experience with the lottery system, aside from my sister’s experience as a freshman. I’ve been in CAS and I’m remaining in it. For those of you who are freshman or sopomores (or the parents of such students), I’m curious to hear from the rest of you how the system has worked out. Did you get into the school that you requested? Is the school what you hoped it would be?

— Harris