Selective admission process suggested for PK Yonge high school

Some big potential changes to the University of Florida's PK Yonge Developmental Research School were suggested by a UF official at a recent Board of Trustees meeting.

On March 8, Penny Schwinn, vice president of PK-12 and pre-bachelor programs, outlined her goals and recommendations to make PK Yonge (specifically the high school) a top 10 school in the state. The school serves students in kindergarten through 12th grade with a mission to "design, test, and disseminate innovations in education through serving a diverse K-12 community."

The school's current student population is representative of Florida's racial and income demographics — something it prides itself on as a research and innovation school for Florida. However, this could change after Schwinn's proposal for a selective admission system at the high school.

The school currently has a total of 1,350 students, 520 in high school, 450 in middle school and 380 in elementary school. Of all students, 42% are white, 24% are Black, 23% are Hispanic, 6% multiracial, 4% Asian or Pacific islander and 1% American Indian/Alaskan Native. It also has multiple types of learners such as gifted students and those with individualized education programs.

Schwinn said in order to meet requirements of the Sidney Martin Developmental Research Act of 1991, the school has been thoughtful in ensuring it's reflective of the state population. The idea has been that since it's intended to provide research that can then be provided to the state, she said, it must look like the rest of the state.

PK Yonge's high school is currently #38 in Florida, Schwinn presented, and she voiced a goal to bump this into the top 10. She said 35 of the 37 schools ranked above PK Yonge have selective admission (minus two traditional public schools in high-income areas), meaning they don't reflect the state. Additionally, most of these schools are in large urban areas, meaning they are pulling students into those school communities from a significantly larger population.

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The suggested plan

"If we are thinking about PK Yonge being a top 10 high school in the state of Florida, it would require selective admissions," Schwinn said. "There really isn't a pathway at this point to have the admissions process that we've had to date without moving into a selective model, because every school essentially above us has a selective model."

She also said that admissions limitations at PK Yonge would be required, as the school currently operates as all public schools do and admits students as they come, regardless of grade level.

"If you are bringing in a student at fourth grade, and that student is two grade levels behind, that is a different type of work than if you have a selective admissions process where you are saying you have to hit certain benchmarks in order to be admitted into the school," Schwinn said.

Schwinn also suggested a larger K-8 pool of students, as those students would matriculate into the high school. She said K-8 could be more reflective of the state to align with PK Yonge's vision, but allow them to pull towards a more selective opportunity at the high school level.

This is important to talk about at the high school level, Schwinn said, as there are expectations regarding rigor, courses, pace and access to college classes at UF. She called 9th grade a "make or break moment" to move at a rapid pace in order to meet expectations of a top 10 school.

Schwinn said most of the weight for a top 10 school is its students taking and passing four AP courses — across subject areas. Additionally, the College Readiness Index (the percent of students who take and pass AP or IB exams), is indicative of a top 10 school. You get three times more points for passing than for taking, so Schwinn said the focus should be on passing.

Schwinn presented three options to consider to pave the path to top 10: dual programs, reflective K-8 and exclusive high school or to maintain structure and improve. With the current model, she said, maintaining and improving is not realistic because PK Yonge doesn't have selective admissions like the schools ranked above it.

Danaya Wright, a UF trustee, said she's concerned with PK Yonge becoming a selective high school because "if we really want to save public schools, we have to save it for everybody at the top and the bottom," she said.

"If we think about what PK Yonge is doing right to be in there and competing with those selective high schools, they're doing a lot that's good," Wright said.

Schwinn said in her selective high school plan there isn't any situation where families are exited from the school — her strong recommendation is to keep students already in the high school. UF President Ben Sasse seconded this.

"We're not talking about any change for anybody who's already in 9 to 12," Sasse said. "The debate we're having is, do folks who are not on a UF track learn that news between senior year in high school and freshman year in college, or might they learn that news between 8th and 9th grade? We're not making any decisions today, but the question before us will be about whether or not that selectivity moment moves four years earlier, but this isn't going to affect anybody who's today in grades 9 to 12."

Another idea, which Schwinn said she was less enthusiastic about, would be a dual program; creating two split schools with one selective high school and one representative high school. She said what usually ends up happening, though, is one school gets all the resources to bring it to the top 10 while the other school gets what's left. If this route is taken, UF would have to think strategically about funding, resource allocation and strategic planning for both schools.

Mori Hosseini, a UF trustee, backed up Schwinn's selective high school plan and instructed her to bring back a plan for the board to look at and potentially execute. He also said after executed at UF, they could take their ideas to benefit public schools across Florida.

When asked about Schwinn's presentation to the Board of Trustees over email, Steve Orlando, associate vice president for communications, said Wednesday that those were only preliminary discussions and the university has nothing to announce at this time.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: PK yonge suggested changes Penny Schwinn