Patricia Calfee really wants to help eighth graders. She herself is a successful public relations consultant now, but she remembers how she hated high school. (She graduated from McAteer in 1991.) She's a volunteer tutor at Francisco Middle School, and is hoping the kids there will have better information than she did about picking the school they want. Last year she started a program at Francisco, Everett and Horace Mann Academic middle schools. There is also a free online guide.

Jill Tucker interviewed her for the San Francisco Chronicle just as it started. "I knew they didn't know much," Calfee said. "But they barely know the names of schools. They don't even know they have a choice for high school. Calfee told Jill she created a takeoff of "Jeopardy" to get the kids engaged. In teams of four, students identified each high school by a description of a course or characteristic of the school.

"This school sponsors a trip to another country every year. Last year students went to Japan and Italy," Calfee asked. A student at Table 4 identified the International Studies Academy (which also offers an after-school skateboarding class).

"What's the school with monthly camping trips?" Balboa, another table, responded correctly.

"And the one with professional chefs?" John O'Connell High School, a third group, answered accurately.

A student interested in the music industry might choose Metropolitan Arts & Technology High, which offers training to create computerized music with Garage Band software and videos

Without this kind of introduction, they don't know what's going on outside their own little group, and they're unlikely to be really engaged in the process of making the right choice.

Families can go through the process together using the online guide. It speaks directly: know what you want from life, from school, to make you happy. It refers to the district's own site for school tours, enrollment fairs, paperwork requirements, and deadlines. Note: Lowell deadline for next year is December 7, 2007. School of the Arts admission is by audition only. Links to both schools are at the bottom of the district's home page. It might even be good to start talking about this sometime in seventh grade --- check out these resources and see what you think.