Gretchen Whitney High

Everyone outside the gates of Whitney has an unsolicited opinion about it. Some claim it has "gone down hill", though the API score and average SAT scores say the opposite. Others say it is too much pressure at a young age. But the truth is, Whitney is what the students and parents make of it.
Whitney is an excellent safe school that offers students academic challenges and college preparedness. It is not the school for everyone. Just like Ivy League schools are not for everyone.
Students need to be independent and seek out the many opportunities the school has. If you just want to study and get a 4.0, you are missing out on what Whitney really offers.

Continuation of previous post.

The staff of the College Connection Center of Whitney HS supported by Whitney Foundation travels to various campuses and sits down with admissions to find out how to effectively package our students for college entrance. Throughout the school year starting with Back to School Night, the Center hosts College Fairs and information session with different colleges and universities to provide both parents and students with college options. It also provides the student with an individual internet-based electronic portfolio valuable in college preparation. The center puts college information sessions, application deadlines and scholarship opportunities at the student’s fingertips via the internet.

Whitney HS has a policy of writing and guarantees each graduating student a maximum of three letters of recommendation sent to schools of his/her choice. If the graduating class size is 120 that translates to 360 letters. I must point out that none of these 360 are form letters. They are all individualized, personalized letters written by the principal, the counselor or a teacher as the case may be.

The staff and faculty of Whitney continue to be vigilant and zealously guard over the success of their students. Whitney HS continues to be the number one high school in California based on API scores and remains among the top nationwide. It has successfully met the demands of the current budget cuts brought about by a suffering economy without sacrificing the integrity of its scholastic programs. It successfully applied for and granted Prop 1D fund to build a multi-media training center that will bring its technology and arts programs into the digital age.

There is one thing sorely missing in the WHS community - involvement from its alumni. So, Albert, here's a challenge for you: can you change this situation? Can you extend two hands and assist your alma mater get ahead of other high schools? Whitney will certainly require a lot of help in the process of building its multi-media center. Maybe in the process, you might find the truth of your statements and allay your fears about the current staff and of Whitney HS falling behind other public schools.

Albert, you should have verified with admin the real reason the AP English Literature was cancelled instead of relying on the senior grapevine. Classes will remain open as long as there are enough students to fill a classroom and budget permits it.

The panel interview is a tool that Whitney uses to prep their students for future interviews. The student is notified ahead of when his/her interview and what will transpire. If the student comes out in tears it is because he was ill-prepared. He is expected to defend and discuss the relevance of his schools of choice through his knowledge of admission policies, financial requirements and curriculum as they pertain to his major. The panel supports Whitney’s mission to prepare students for admission to and success at best-match colleges or universities. Certainly not to “blatantly disregard and deride the ambitions of their students” as Andrew put it. The staff and faculty of Whitney do not spend six years building up a student only to tear him apart in a 15-minute interview. The interview offers alternatives based on reality.

Every other student wishes to be accepted to that elite or dream school. The reality is that if the acceptance does not come with an offer of a scholarship and the cost a college education falls on the student and his family, he will look elsewhere were he can get the most out of his dime. Acceptance to a college means Whitney did its job but enrollment is on the student. So, Andrew what was the reality of your source/s?

There is another repercussion that has to be considered here. Acceptance without enrollment in an elite school jeopardizes applications of future students who may have better chances at enrollment. Admissions tend to look at future candidates from the same school with jaundiced eyes. Why waste time in vetting an applicant who may not enroll based on past statistics? The staff of the WHS College Connection has to go in, interface with admissions for damage control to protect future Whitney applicants.

As of the 2008-09 school year, Whitney High school no longer offers AP English Literature. The school will only offer the standard level English for its seniors. The talk among most seniors is that this change was made to protect seniors who are not interested in pushing themselves by taking the hardest level classes available. By getting rid of AP, Whitney has essentially leveled the playing field but at the expense of not pushing the communities most talented students with the most difficult coursework.

Additionally, recent controversy has been stirring among the seniors about "Panel Interviews." During these "interviews," seniors must defend their college lists before a panel of faculty members, generally consisting of one counselor, a principal, and two teachers. During these panel interviews the Principal Hager and Mrs. Logan (counselor) have told numerous students that they should not apply to the most elite private schools and the counselors and principals are unwilling to write the counselor recommendations on behalf of the seniors because they do not want to sully the reputation of Whitney with the best colleges in the nation. Students often emerge from the panel interviews in tears.

I understand the need to advise a student to have a well rounded and safe school list. I also understand that students can be too ambitious. But what I cannot understand is how a school who prides itself on sending 100% of its graduating seniors to 4 year colleges can so blatantly disregard and deride the ambitions of their students. Most of these seniors have spent six years at Whitney, believing that their high school careers will culminate with applications to and acceptances from elite colleges. Most students, probably thanks to their educations, believed in at least trying, even if their chances of being accepted were slim. How can Whitney educate its students for 6 years only to tell them that they can't, shouldn't, or will not be made able to apply to their dream school?

Whitney's reputation was built years ago by better, more caring faculty and staff. If the school continues its current course, it will surely find itself behind other public schools.