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Editorial: Bridgeport students, staff deserve spotlight

Tue., May 10, 2011

It will be a big deal if Bridgeport High School gets to host President Barack Obama as its 2011 commencement speaker.

And it will be a big deal if it doesn’t.

The real big deal, though, is in what the students and staff of the small Douglas County high school (200 students in grades 9-12) have accomplished on their own to be one of the three finalists in this year’s Race to the Top commencement speech competition. The others are in Memphis and San Diego.

Bridgeport, an agricultural community situated by Chief Joseph Dam on the Columbia River, expected to learn the decision Monday, but the White House stretched the suspense out at least until today.

But while the attention has been on the president, the attention- getting element of all this is what the school has done to achieve the essence of the president’s goal – namely for the United States to lead the world in college graduation rates.

Bridgeport High has 37 Mustangs and Fillies in its 2011 senior class. Thirty-seven of them will graduate. Thirty-seven of them will go on to college or some other form of post-secondary education.

It wasn’t by accident, and it wasn’t easy. All U.S. schools are facing criticism over the way they prepare American youngsters for the high-tech demands of a global economy. That criticism gets even sharper over achievement gaps involving minority and low-income students.

Bridgeport’s students are 90 percent Latino, and more than 80 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. But teachers and administrators didn’t buy into the stereotypes. They created a rigorous college-bound program, complete with college-level courses and lots of monitoring, mentoring and a strong safety net. The kids – many of whose parents didn’t finish high school, let alone college – responded to high expectations with self-affirming vigor.

The result? Positive national attention and maybe the spotlight of a presidential visit.

As a practical matter, the most important reward these students will receive is the solid education they get and the confidence to put it to good use. It would still be nice if the president of the United States could provide the pomp and circumstance.