Educationally-Speaking -- Gay Geiser-Sandoval

Estancia High School’s Parent Teacher Student Assn. is presenting a

new fund-raising idea that it hopes will maximize the assets of our

community. The association is inviting community members to donate all or

part of the federal tax rebate they will soon be receiving to the new

PTSA Teacher Mini-grant program initiated this year.

Donations can also be designated to a specific academic program,

special activity group or athletic team. Just endorse the tax refund to

“Estancia High School PTSA” or “Estancia High School” (identifying a

particular program to which you wish it directed). Or, you may send a

personal check for a partial contribution.

...

If you are a longtime thespian who would like to pass along some

training to those who may not receive another opportunity to see

themselves under the lights, consider applying to be the drama coach at

Costa Mesa High School. Drama is taught after school or in the evenings

by staging a fall play and spring musical with a live orchestra. A

teaching credential is not required. Since the school teaches grades 7

through 12, your actors and stage crew will be 12 through 18 years old.

Catch videos of past performances on Channel 67, K-MESA.

...

If you have a child who was in grades 2 through 11 last year, you recently received your child’s individual results for the SAT-9 tests.

Those results have a score in each category as to how they fared in that

subject against the students who took the test nationally. As previously

discussed, the tests do not necessarily track our local’s school

curriculum or the year in which that curriculum is taught, making the

results less than reliable, in my opinion. If a high school student

receives a combined score that is in the top 5% of the state or the top

10% of his high school, he also receives the governor’s scholarship for

$1,000 a year for use at any college.

I just discovered that I was reading the school-wide results wrong

after three years, so I want to make sure you aren’t doing the same

thing. Since my daughter’s individualized scores are based on a

percentage score, I assumed the schools’ grade level scores were an

average of each student’s individual score in that subject. Thus, if a

school had a 96 in reading, I assumed almost all of the students scored

at 96% of the national average. I was truly amazed that a school could

sustain that kind of score.

It turns out the school-wide score means that 96% of the kids scored

at or above the national average, which would be an individualized score

of 50% or above. A score of 50 would mean that half the school’s students

were at or above the national average. There is no way to discern whether

a child got a 99% or a 51% to be included in that score. Likewise, for

those students not at the 50% level, the school-wide results don’t

indicate if those kids scored at the 10% national average or the 49%. In

my mind, it makes these group scores more useless than ever.

I got on the statewide Web site to compare previous years’ scores to

those just published in the paper. While the 2001 results aren’t on the

charts with the other years, it seems fairer to me to compare the same

group of students over a multiyear span, as compared to looking at this

year’s second graders compared to last year’s second graders. So, I

looked at scores of ninth graders in 1998, 10th graders in 1999, and 11th

graders in 2000 at the same school. What I noticed at the high school

level is that there was as much as 15% variations between the same group

of kids when they took the subject test in subsequent years. A 5%

variation was almost always apparent.

While I want kids to learn as much as anyone, I once again question

how the SAT-9 results are a good measure of accountability. Instead of

challenging teachers to work with each student to improve that student’s

scores, I’m surprised teachers haven’t bought bus tickets for the poorest

performers to get them to shuffle off to Buffalo.

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She may be reached by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .