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Bridgeport school gets high ranking |
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Thursday, 18 June 2009 |
Eastern Sierra Academy
featured in Newsweek
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 The Eastern Sierra Academy in Bridgeport has been ranked 132 out of 1,500 public high schools across the United States by Newsweek Magazine.
The academy has received the accolade every year since 2003, according to Roger Yost, principal since the school was founded 14 years ago.
The recent annual Newsweek review is not the important thing, Yost said in a phone interview.
“To me, the most important thing is if our kids are successful in college. And by taking AP [Advanced Preparation] classes, it provides the rigor to prepare,” he said. “We’re a college preparatory program. So by junior year, they’re taking AP classes.”
The Newsweek ranking is based the number of kids taking AP classes divided by the number of seniors. It’s the abundance of writing and reading that’s required to be successful in an AP class that really makes the difference, Yost said.
“Here’s a big difference in my opinion between a small school like ours and a large school: We can make our kids write a ton,” he explained.
“When they leave, they’re writing at a college level. At a big school, if you’re an English teacher with 150 students, how much grading can you do? It’s hard to prepare students at large schools because you can’t grade all that writing. To be quite honest, most of the students are very average kids who just want to work hard and prepare for college.”
Yost added that the school has a large number of students who will be the first generation in their family to attend college.
“This is a great place to do it. I have quality staff that help prepare them do it,” he said.
The maximum size of the academy is 25 students.
“When you have such a small number of kids and small class sizes, you can really focus on their weaknesses as well as enhancing their strengths.”
Sarah Taylor has been a teacher of English and dramatic arts at the academy for ten years.
“We’re an alternative school – almost like a charter school,” she said in a phone interview. “We take students from all different demographic backgrounds throughout Mono County.
Taylor and history teacher Jamie Godoy wrote an article for Newsweek last year that credited the academy’s success with innovative thinking, an unusual layout, integrated technology, a demanding curriculum, strong leadership, and determined students.
“We’ve made our limited size into our greatest strength,” they wrote.
A handful of students in Bridgeport and nearby choose to attend the academy instead of other more comprehensive Mono County high schools (giving up sports, lockers, varied electives, and traditional social opportunities) to tackle four rigorous years crammed into a three-room schoolhouse.
Above all, Taylor and Godoy credit the academy’s success to the climate of achievement and camaraderie cultivated there.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 26 June 2009 )
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