Millikan High School’s freshman class will be wearing uniforms to school this fall. The Board of Education unanimously approved the uniform policy January 22 with the support of Millikan parents and staff. Millikan is the second high school in Long Beach to require uniforms.
Millikan’s uniform policy will phase in one year at a time until 2006 when it will include all students in grades nine through twelve. Students will wear khaki/tan or Navy blue pants, shorts, jumpers or skirts and Navy blue or white collared shirts or turtlenecks. Uniforms were requested by parents, who wanted students to look more professional. Staff at Millikan also voted in favor of uniforms.
The Long Beach Unified School District in 1994 became the first large school district in the nation to require uniforms in kindergarten through eighth grade. The decision sparked a nationwide trend, as schools found that uniforms helped improve learning and safety. In local schools, uniforms have resulted in fewer absences, tardies, truancies and behavior problems while raising grades and increasing achievement. Wilson High School became the school district’s first high school to implement uniforms in 1997. Since then, the school has seen a dramatic reduction in suspensions and behavior problems. Many parents have placed their children on waiting lists to attend Wilson, including hundreds of parents of students from private schools and from Millikan’s attendance boundary area.
“The comment we frequently hear from our parents at Millikan is that Wilson provides a private school education without any additional cost to parents,” said Millikan Principal Jeffrey Cornejo. “Parents and staff are excited about bringing uniforms to Millikan because it’s going to make us more competitive.”
In addition to wearing uniforms, incoming freshmen will participate in smaller learning communities. Statistics prove that dividing large schools into smaller learning communities has a significant impact on student performance, school climate and parent satisfaction. Teachers will work in teams and share the same students, providing a strong system of support and sense of belonging for students. The Long Beach Unified School District knows that uniforms are most successful when they are part of a larger plan to raise standards not only in dress, but also in behavior and achievement.
For more information about Millikan, call the school at
(562) 425-7441 or visit www.lbusd.k12.ca.us/millikan.