SECTION IV. FACULTY INTERVIEWS 
by PETER JANA

Qualitative Summary and Analysis of Faculty Interviews

I’ve interviewed four faculty members on the Hoover campus associated with programs designed to help Hoover students pursue higher education. They include the directors of the Synergy and AV.I.D. programs, a counselor, and an AP teacher associated with the G.A.T.E program. From these interviews it has become clear that Hoover possesses a wealth of programs that are designed to help students prepare for the pursuit of a college degree. The majority of the interviewees seemed pleased with what their programs have to offer students, but also believe that the students and their families are not as aware of the programs as well as they could be. From the limited data I have collected, it appears clear that there is a disconnect between what Hoover has to offer and what the student/families are aware of or pursue. According to one interviewee, “the school goes out of its way [to inform students/families of programs] but it does not seem to be enough.”

All of the people interviewed stated that cultural differences are part of the problem. The family culture of many Hoover students is not oriented towards college or with the American high school system. One of the problems is that many families assume that college is out of reach, financially or academically. According to one of the directors there is a big problem in low attendance at open house events. She was quick to state that translators are often provided to bridge language barriers; but that many of the parents do not come from a culture where parents go to something called an “open house,” and are therefore less aware or proactive about the whole process.

Towards the goal of facilitating communication with parents the school provides a newspaper mailed to every family. It is called “The Link.” It has four different language versions: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and another that nobody interviewed knows.

Another problem is communicating with the students and competing with student culture. Synergy offers tutoring and college application assistance among many other things, but it is an after-school program and many of the kids would rather do other things after school. The counselors make an effort to visit various classes on a regular basis to present information on college opportunities, application deadlines, etc.. In addition, the counseling office has individual reviews with each student where the students are informed of the classes they would need to take to get into college. According to one of the counselors, the graduation requirements for Hoover are very close to the minimum requirements for California universities, so getting students to take the right classes is not a problem.

Funding is not an issue, although, “it can always be better.” It seems as though all the programs are well funded, except for test preparation, which according to a counselor is a big problem. There are no SAT prep classes because there is no money in the budget for that.

Concerning improvements: the main theme of the interviews is that parents need to be more involved and that the school needs to better inform parents. None of the interviewees had specific ideas on how this particular problem could be addressed, but they did have other ides. A counselor mentioned that more support from teachers would be helpful -- some of them are proactive in discussing these issues in class while others are not.

The Jana Interviews:
Interview 1
Interview 2
Interview 3
Interview 4