In an article in Adolescent Medicine, Paul Hill explains why most large, urban high schools are not only ineffective but actually harmful to adolescents - especially low-income and minority students - and what can be done about them. These schools are widely known to be plagued by low standards, poorly qualified teachers, frequent leadership changes, violence and a lack of decorum, but Hill argues that what is most lethal is the fundamental disconnect between what happens inside the schoolhouse and what happens afterwards when students move on. Students can pass through the doors of these mammoth institutions, meet all their requirements, and still face the same dead-end jobs - or worse - upon graduation that they would have faced had they dropped out of school. That's because the schools are weak, divided and isolated, "worlds unto themselves that maintain few meaningful links with outsiders, including parents, community organizations and employers." Teachers cultivate a disdain for the business economy and act like college professors, focusing on their own subjects and letting others figure out if there is any real use for the material they teach. Is the situation hopeless? Hill says no and describes three types of high schools - Catholic schools, career magnet schools, and new small public schools - that have had remarkable success in educating and motivating poor and minority students. These successful schools tend to have a specific vision, standards and goals; a unified approach to instruction; a commitment to personalization; links to "external validators" (alumni, employers, and college admissions officers); school-level autonomy; and - most important of all - family and teacher choice. According to Hill, there is "almost no exaggerating the importance of family choice. The fact that families can choose forces schools to say what they will provide and make sure they deliver." Choice, while no panacea, "appears to be a necessary condition for the creation and survival of high schools that effectively link disadvantaged urban students to positive adult futures." For more, including brief recommendations for health professionals on how to help adolescents traverse high school safely, see "High Schools and Development of Healthy Young People," Paul T. Hill, Adolescent Medicine, October 2001.
