More than miles separate West, South side students

Gabrielle Barrera attends Bowie High School, a campus that sits in the second-poorest zip code in the city. Alex Newton is a student at Franklin High School, an institution that was built in the 79912 zip code, which has 958 millionaire households, the most of any concentrated area in the El Paso-Las Cruces region. Barrera, who is competing for a spot as the school's valedictorian, spends her free time working at a movie theater.

"I work to pay for the things I need for school, I pay the gas bill (at home), and I am saving to buy a car for college," the 18-year-old said. When she is not at school, Newton, who is in the top 2 percent of her class, volunteers in her community, attends kickboxing classes and goes horseback riding. Barrera has received a partial scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin.

She is the second person in her family to pursue higher education. Her older brother is at El Paso Community College. "Since both of my parents have master's degrees, in our family, college is a very high value," the 16-year-old said.

"Being a mechanic is not exactly an option. Our family places an important value on college education, but they also say that if I choose a vocational career, then they will support me." Despite efforts made by school districts to level the playing field and widen

students' access to education, poor and rich schools remain different. At Bowie -- where 93 percent of students were found to be economically disadvantaged by the Texas Education Agency last year -- students fared worse on numerous measures than their counterparts at Franklin, where only 29 percent of students are reported to be poor. Only 28 percent of Bowie students passed all their Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exams last year, while 61 percent of students at Franklin passed.

On the SAT test, the average score for a Bowie student, 828, was 182 points lower than Franklin's. Bowie's four-year graduation rate of 63 percent trailed Franklin's by 23 percentage points. A variety of factors, which include lower levels of parental educational attainment and lesser preparation in middle- and elementary-school for poor students, cause the income-based achievement gap at the high-school level, said Susana Navarro, executive director for the El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence.

"Certainly on the national level we've known for some time that into the education of poor and minority children we put much less of everything that works," she said. "Children of poverty come to our doorsteps not as prepared to learn as children from non-poverty and, mostly, the parental support that is provided to students makes a big difference," García said. "What happens at the schools where we have more poverty kids is that there could be the notion that, 'Well, the kids are not as well prepared to learn, so they can't achieve these great heights,' and that's where we, as educators, have really got to step in and provide the difference.

" Navarro said the primary reason the gap is not closed at high schools is that low-income students are often given less-experienced teachers and face weaker curriculum standards. "The work that is routinely expected in affluent schools, or schools with many white students, is far above those that have large numbers of minority or poor students," Navarro said. Franklin High School offers 42 Advanced Placement classes, two dual-credit classes and seven TAKS preparation classes.

Bowie's campus has 14 Advanced Placement classes, five dual-credit classes and 29 TAKS preparation classes. Alejandra Matos, a junior at Franklin High School, said she chose not to enroll at Bowie after observing classes at the campus. "I felt as if the teachers were being lenient," Matos said, adding that students were regularly allowed to turn work in late.

"If you're teaching your students to procrastinate, that hurts them in the future. "It was a completely different environment," the 16-year-old said. García believes that a proposed $5,000 stipend for nationally certified teachers who work at any campus that fails to meet federal or state standards will help close the academic achievement gap between rich and poor schools.

"It begins by establishing a culture of tremendous expectations for all students, and then helping our teachers to be able to deliver a strong, rigorous curriculum for all students. We have to provide a standards-based curriculum that does not have gaps in learning," García said. While Bowie spends more money per student than Franklin -- using funds it gets from the state and federal government because of its large proportion of at-risk students -- the West Side campus enjoys more parental and community support than the South El Paso school.

Franklin High School has 14 booster clubs. Its Parent Teacher Association raises about $45,000 annually, and its Football Booster Club alone contributes between $15,000 to $20,000 to the campus. Bowie High School has three booster clubs that together raise about $500 annually.

The Bowie PTA was inactive in 2006 and returned in 2007, but it has not conducted fundraisers this year. School officials were not able to provide the average annual amount that the PTA contributes. Franklin journalism teacher Jai Tanner said that after coming from a lower-income school, she understands the disparity that exists between schools whose parents have the means to contribute and campuses where parents struggle financially.

With the money that the yearbook makes selling advertisements to parents, Tanner was able to buy 20 computers for her program and use the money supplied by the district to buy additional cameras. The campus has seven cameras. "I was scouting this job for like a year," Tanner said.

"I really liked the students at Austin (High School), but it was so difficult to make ends meet. We could not sell enough ads to make a profit." The Bowie High School journalism room had only 10 computers for students last week, but teacher Denise Gelo said it usually has 14.

The campus has three digital cameras and two video recorders. "There almost needs to be a subsidy to keep journalism programs alive at the poor schools," Tanner said. "I love teaching here, but having come from a school with so many financial needs, I don't think I would resent if poor schools received a subsidy, because it's equal but it's really not equal.

" Zahira Torres may be reached at ztorres@elpasotimes.com; 546-6156. The West Side school has 2,975 students, of whom 29 percent are low-income.

The South El Paso high school has 1,284 students; 93 percent are low-income.

Football boosters give $15,000 to $20,000 annually to the program.