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Schools

Students Under Stress: The Hidden Costs of Academic Achievement

The documentary "Race to Nowhere" takes an intimate look at the pressures on today's students. School officials and parents discuss the film and its implications for local students.

Are students today achieving academic success at too high a cost?

That's the question explored in the film Race to Nowhere, which takes a critical look at the U.S. educational system.

It argues that a pervasive culture of competition and heavy reliance on standardized testing leads to students who are not only stressed, but who are unprepared for college and life when they graduate.

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About 15 parents of middle and high school students joined education officials Thursday night, March 3, for a discussion of the film and how it relates to the problems students face in Castro Valley schools.

Some parents had seen the film at its first Castro Valley screening in January. A repeat showing here on March 9 is sold out, but screenings in several Bay Area locations are scheduled throughout March. Check for details here.

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Superintendent Jim Negri led last week's forum and stressed the importance of parents communicating with their children to find the best balance of coursework and extracurricular activities for them and to be supportive of their goals for life after high school—even if those goals don't include immediately enrolling in a top university.

"I don't know what's right for each and every one of your students. That's why you have to have discussions with them," he said. "How many different ways are they being pulled?"

Negri said his own son went to a small liberal arts college where he was much happier than he would have been at a large school.

Assistant Superintendent Maggie MacIsaac agreed. “It’s not the end of the world if you don’t graduate high school and go straight to Stanford,” she said, adding that she has known many average students go on to successful professional careers.

Other topics discussed included the efficacy of homework (advocating against "busy work"), wanting teachers to communicate with one another so that students' workloads are balanced and access to better technology despite having no dedicated funds for that purpose.

Parents also gave examples of students facing problems not unlike those featured in the documentary—many of them from the Bay Area—who are burned out from the relentless pressure to succeed, doing everything from cutting down on sleep, cheating and piling on Advanced Placement to get ahead. Some rely on performance-enhancing drugs or become depressed.

The film's director, Vicki Abeles, who lives in Lafayette, has said she was inspired to make the documentary after her 12-year-old daughter became physically ill because of stress related to school.

She dedicated the film to Devon Marvin, a 13-year-old Danville girl who committed suicide in 2008 after doing poorly on a math test. In the film, her mother says her daughter regarded earning anything but straight As as failure.

Lost in the "Race to Nowhere" is room for students to think critcally and creatively, something the parents at last night's meeting were worried about.

Negri and MacIsaac said that the district's plans to adopt core standards is an effort to address the important of knowing how to think, not just how to memorize answers for multiple-choice tests.

“Right now we’re working in a state and national system of hundreds of standards” which place emphasis on breadth and not depth, Negri said. 

Redwood High Principal Suzy Williams spoke about the alternative curriculum offered there to students who may feel too much pressure in a traditional school setting or fall through the cracks of a large high school like Castro Valley High, where about 3,000 students are enrolled.  

"We offer a lot of project-based learning and opportunities for students to show their progress in non-traditional ways," she said.

Since Race to Nowhere was released in 2009, it has been screened across the Bay Area and the United States.

The school district, in conjunction with the Castro Valley Education Foundation and local parent teacher associations, first hosted a screening of the film Jan. 20 at the Castro Valley Center for the Arts.

Patch contributor Scott Ma filmed the question-and-answer session that followed, with director Vicki Abeles and local education professionals.

The large turnout led administrators to schedule a second screening for March 9, but that showing is also sold out. Negri said the film has been screened for teachers separately.

Parents who want to discuss the film and its implications for Castro Valley schools further can join a message board just for Castro Valley residents.

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