Tehachapi High School

first post: The teaching staff at THS is laughable at best. As a gate student, I started THS on the accelerated track. In all fairness I had an excellent array of teachers my freshman year: Henderson for bio, Mackie for geometry, Hansen for Honors English, Gaeta for Spanish. But it all stopped there, it in all seriousness it did. The next three years were a were a long drawl where I lost a lot of my enthusiasm for education. My senior year, in my AP English class my teacher recommended that I should drop out of her class because there was no way that I was to pass the AP test, the funny thing is, I did pass that test, not by any of her motivation. But the sad thing is many students listened to her and dropped out, didn t take the test that they were perfectly capable of passing. One student that she talked out of her class now goes to UCI.

As a THS alumni, I have been somewhat disappointed with the level of education presented by some of the teachers this past school year (09/10) as to when I attended. There are those teachers (Mr. Hansen-English) who are extremely enthusiastic about their subject matter & who reflect a genuine caring & purpose in developing a students critical thinking skill set. Then there was the science & health teachers who seemed to believe that just mundanely reading the material out of a textbook would suffice & enrich the student's learning. The Health/Driver's Ed teacher should not be assigned to a classroom, but should stick to the sports field as he was completely unavailable to students for questions, assistance, etc. Plain & simple, he did not want to be bothered. What has happened to entering into the teaching profession to enrich a student's life, especially a student who wants to learn?
--Submitted by a parent

Tehachapi High School has undergone a tremendous turn around with the hiring of the current principal, Cary Johnson. In just two years he has lead the school to the state's highest distinction - a California Distinguished School. He has a clear vision for student achievement and teacher accountability.
--Submitted by a teacher

I'm just at my first year at this high school, and so far it is very very hard to keep up on all of the work, there really is no point in homework, we go to school for 6 hours a day and they make us go home and do 2-3 hours of homework. Going home is our break from school. The teachers don't care about you, it is about their pay check I think. The rules there are ridiculous. Some teachers seem to care but its all politics. I'm a very intelligent student and going to this school it makes it look otherwise. I really wouldn't recommend this school.
--Submitted by a student

Tehachapi High School is really the best school I think I could be at right now. The teachers listen, and I believe myself to be friends with a few. There is a fair amount of courses to choose from. The best part is the school spirit, because we are the only highschool in town. Football is major thing, we just won CIF for the second year in a row. The only downside to that is if you play a sport during football season, all the attention and most of the funding goes to them. That aside, I couldn't be happier at Tehachapi High and am anxiously awaiting the day I can graduate and throw the skills I have learned here into a world outside of High School.
--Submitted by a student

This school is horrible. The teachers seem to care for no else but themselves. When i had left this school I got WAY better grades. To make it easy i say you choose a school like Lone Hill anything but this school.
--Submitted by a student

This school is horrible some teachers care but others have no motavation for their students.If you have a choice do not come to this school its horrible. Their is no motavation to do better in life but just to get through
--Submitted by a student

Some teachers are good, but most are there for the paycheck and check out as soon as allowed by their contract. They don't care if the kids learn as long as they can just push them on to some one else. The school board constantly turns over and is pretty much run by the TAT teachers union.
--Submitted by a parent

Teachers are disheartened, the administration turns over constantly, the support staff is overworked to the point of exhaustion. If you can choose, do not enroll your children there!
--Submitted by a parent

Since the new influx of administrators these kids and the teachers alike have been put on the back burner. This school by the stats is well funded but the kids actually have to pay to ride the damn bus! The sports programs do get most of the funding but only becuase they are the ones who bring in alot of revinue for the school. The teachers here are definitly sub-par. Many deal with the kids as problems and if it doesn't affect them then they don't care at all. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that all the teachers are bad but at least 90 percent of them are just there for a paycheck. Most of the teachers here have been teachers for more than 10 years only because you really need someone to screw up after there 10 year has been reached to fire them.
--Submitted by a parent