“Feminism” TIME Magazine’s annual poll revealed that “feminism” is the most disliked word of 2014. City High students react on page A5.
The
LittleHawk
Iowa City High School • Iowa City, Iowa • Vol. 73 Issue 2 • Friday, November 6, 2015 • www.thelittlehawk.com ifuckedyourmom
College Scorecard Introduced to Simplify Search for Schools
By Nathan Cremers
Liberty High School is in Phase I of the construction plan, which is set for completion in 2017. PHOTO BY MAX GRUBER
A Few Steps Closer to Liberty In the midst of a growing student population, the School Board seeks to manage its numbers through the implementation of a third comprehensive high school. By Molly Liu
Ever since student enrollment in the Iowa City Community School District began to increase, the issue of overcrowding has moved to the forefront of discussion in school board meetings. In order to accommodate the district’s ever-expanding numbers, the school board is looking to the construction of a new high school, Liberty High, as a solution. “It’s going to be a tremendous opportunity for all of our high school students and the community, and I’m really looking forward to seeing all of the benefits,” School Board President Chris Lynch said. “I’m optimistic [about Liberty].” Liberty High School, located in eastern North Liberty, will be constructed in a three-phase plan. Phase I of the plan is set for completion in 2017 and will include the main classrooms and infrastructure, serving 1,000 students. Phase II, set to be completed in 2019, will include the athletics complex and extracurricular facilities. The third and final phase will be completed in 2022 and will provide 20 additional classrooms for the integration of 500 additional students, bringing Liberty’s total enrollment to 1500. The City of North Liberty and the ICCSD have partnered with
SVPA Architects Inc. to create the master design of the school. Inspired by elements of contemporary architecture, Liberty will feature a 800-seat auditorium and a 2000seat competition gym. A spacious central commons area, surrounded by the academic and athletic departments, will also be a key aspect of the design. “The central commons space is going to be very unique,” President of SVPA Architects Vitus Bering said. “It’s going to have great daylight and views, and it’s going to be a signature feature of the building.” SVPA Architects has also worked to incorporate modern safety technology in the construction of Liberty; the building of an additional auxiliary gym will feature storm safety structures designed to withstand wind speeds of over 160 miles per hour. “It’s going to be really beneficial for the students to have access to a modern, 21st- century school environment,” Bering said. The implementation of Liberty
will cause enrollment to decrease for both of the ICCSD’s comprehensive high schools, City High and West High. Numbers are projected to lower to 1500 students per school, which will contribute to the overcrowding solution, but will also cause the schools to lose some of the benefits of a larger institution. Nevertheless, City High principal John Bacon is ge ne r a l ly positive about the new high school. “There are some competitive advantages and opportunities from [being a bigger school], but having three high schools with 1500 students is going to be very nice,” Bacon said. “It is large enough to provide all of the programming options that you see at a large, comprehensive 4A high school in Iowa, but
“IF I DO DECIDE TO GO TO LIBERTY, I’LL BE EXCITED ABOUT BEING THE FIRST FRESHMAN CLASS TO START THERE.” CALEB HANSEN ‘23
not so large that accessing activities is difficult and intimacy is lost.” Superintendent Stephen Murley is also looking forward to increased opportunities for students. “I think the greatest benefit [of building Liberty] will be for the high school students, who will be able to attend schools that are less crowded, providing more opportunities for extracurricular participation,” Murley said. Murley predicts that Liberty will not only provide tremendous benefits for students, but for the Coralville and North Liberty communities as well. “For the cities of Coralville and North Liberty, the school will allow a progression from elementary through junior high school, and onto high school within their city limits,” Murley said. “I presume that this will be very attractive to current and future residents and may spur additional growth for both communities.” Caleb Hansen, a sixth grader at Lincoln Elementary anticipates Liberty’s opening. “If I do decide to go to Liberty, I’ll be excited about being the first freshman class to start there. I’ll also be excited about things being new and clean,” Hansen said.
This past year, in an effort to ease the college search process for students, the Department of Education introduced a program called the College Scorecard. The College Scorecard aims to provide a single resource for high school students to sort through the many options they have in post-secondary education. “Anytime you can provide a tool that helps students sort out the various types of schools that might meet their needs based on basic elements such as cost, location, two year versus four year, it can be helpful,” Brent Gage, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management at the University of Iowa, explained. The College Scorecard uses information like average annual cost, graduation rate, and salary after attending that college to help students find schools that fit the specific qualities they look for . “Hopefully it can make the process more efficient as it will help students create groupings of institutions that meet their needs so they can take a closer look at each school.” Gage said. Although a system that compares two colleges by the same, basic statistics allows for an easy way to sort through colleges, Gage warns that this should not constitute the worth of education at that college. “I think using any single measure to judge the wide range of US college and universities is a very difficult task. Institutions have different missions, serve different populations and while they all provide postsecondary education, there a many ways to accomplish this successfully,” he said. Another potential problem with this system is the pure amount of schools that it covers. On the College Scorecard website, one can search through 3,587 potential schools. A collection this large can make finding the right college a daunting task. “I didn’t find (online resources) that helpful because it was so overwhelming, I didn’t know specifically what I wanted in a college so I gave some generally guidelines and it ended up giving way to many results,” Sy Butler ‘16 said. Additionally, there is some concern that these websites that sort schools with the aid of statistical information cannot provide the type of experience that will tell a student whether that college will fit their personality. “We hope this is not the only information a student is using when looking at colleges, as there are so many factors that are essential to a student making the right choice to fit their needs,” Gage said. With the extensive information available to sort through the myriad of options after high school the College Scorecard allows students to easily sort through information to choose the college best suited for the student to continue their education. “As with any complex decision, there are many sources of information available,” Gage said, “ and it is our hope at Iowa that this would just be one more way in which students can get as much information as possible to make the decision that is best for their educational future.”