Education

Mt. Diablo High School is the oldest school located within the Mount Diablo Unified School District.  Given through a grant by AW Maltby in 1905, the school has maintained many of the original buildings from the early '20's while still remodeling and keeping the rest of the campus up to date.  With a higher student population size compared to other schools withinthe Mount Diablo District (think ≈1,500 compared to Ygnacio Valley's ≈1,200) we found it surprising that Mt. Diablo High was able to keep its average class sizes significantly less than the state and district average.  Ygnacio Valley High, with its smaller total student population, boasts classes 1-2% higher than the district average (varying from 23-27 students per class) and Clayton Valley High is seen to be much the same way, making it difficult to account for Mt. Diablo's low numbers.
  

Throughout the years Mt. Diablo High School has been noted for its broad focus on student leadership programs; most notably their Digital Multimedia Academy and Serendipity, the student run restaurant located right on campus.  The international recognized and award winning Digital Multimedia program prepares this generations future leaders in producing, directing, programming, and a variety of other fields related to graphic media and computer science.  A three year program beginning in students' sophomore years, this course aims to provide students with the creative and practical knowledge in real-life professional fields; a fact we as a group were most impressed with considering the current shift of focus from the arts in today's educational standards.  Another interesting thing we noted was that the high school offers discounted BART tickets to students, posted on a sign in front of the main office.  This is a great way for the school to connect with its student population and also demonstrates their understanding of many students who may potentially struggle with transportation each day.  

We also found Serendipity, the student run restaurant located on campus by HERO (Home Economics Run Occupations) to be a practical guide to educating and preparing students for

Serendipity

life beyond high school.  Open to the public three days a week, the restaurant and bakery serve to provide students with the knowledge of how to not only learn and master the culinary arts but also the ins and outs of business management.  Through success in recent years they have expanded to catering thanks largely to funding from both district and private organizations.  

One aspect of the campus we noticed in particular was the amount of artwork (all in graffiti) on the walls. On the music building towards the back of campus there was a mural on the wall dedicated to a "Ms. Hausten and a Ms. P" and a "Home of the Devils" spray painted directly to the left of it.  

In fact, throughout the campus one can find many of these spray painted murals, all colorful, bright and intricate.  The designs and sheer amount of detail that clearly went into them obviously reflect a job that was not done in a quick amount of time.  We feel that these were done with administration permission, perhaps as a way for students to explore their artistic and creative talents in a way that more reflects their culture and community.  If this is the case, then administration has obviously found a way to identify with the largely varied student cultural population as well as an outlet for their abilities in a way that shows school pride.  If these were done without school permission on the other hand, it demonstrates the administrations recognition of true talent and student individuality by letting them remain on the walls.  Either scenario reflects an administrations understanding of a (perhaps however mildly) divergent education allowing for student creativity.      

One thing we noticed when reviewing SARC and general statistics from the past few years was the Mt. Diablo High has more than a 10% high suspension rate than the district average (11.23% compared to 24.07%), a number which when viewed in comparison to past years has steadily decreased by almost 10% a year. This may be attributable to a change in teaching style, reorganization and reform in curriculums and/or a larger turnover with underperforming teachers.  As we learned during out visit to the city, the high school has a new principal beginning this year, something which surprised us given the statistics and general feedback from community members that Diablo High has been steadily improving over the years.

It is also clear, according to the statistics below, that Mt. Diablo High has a significantly lower student to computer ratio as well as almost 300 more computers compared to Ygnacio Valley.  The reasons for this are unclear, both are located within the same school district and both are public high schools.      

Statistics
Mt. Diablo High                                    Ygnacio Valley High (for comparison purposes)
Total enrollment: 1,483                         1,523                                  
Students per computer: 4.1                    12.2
Number of computers: 359                    100
Classrooms with internet: 102                83

2009-2010 Graduation rate
        Mt. Diablo High: 71.95%
        District: 79.51%
        State: 80.44%