EDITORIAL

As usual, it’s hard to make perfect sense of the latest test score

numbers coming from our schools. The release last week of the Academic

Performance Index -- based for the first time on more than just Stanford

9 tests -- showed a number of Huntington Beach schools doing extremely

well compared to the rest of the state. At the same time, many of those

schools seem to perform less well when matched against schools with

similar socioeconomic demographics.

For the most part, school officials at all three districts were

unconcerned by the numbers, saying it was unwise to overreact to a single

set of scores. We agree -- for the most part. Numbers are both easy to

manipulate and rather limited representations of how students, let alone

schools, are performing. High schools, for instance, have a roughly 25%

change in student body each year as seniors graduate and freshmen take

their place.

At the same time, the disparity between how our schools rank statewide

and then compared to similar campuses is often extreme. Both middle

schools drop in the Huntington Beach School District, Dwyer from an eight

in the state ranking to a two, and Sowers from a nine to a two. All of

the district’s elementary schools also fared worse in comparison to

similar campuses. At the high school level, Edison, Huntington Beach and

Marina all dropped from nines to a two, five and five, respectively.

Are these results the equivalent of a four-alarm fire? No. But they do

suggest there may be a bit of smoke to put out on our campuses -- before

there are any flames.

Passing the school bond is one obvious key to improving our schools.

But it should not stand alone. Our school officials, teachers and parents

need to continue finding new ways to make our schools better, to stoke

the fire of our children’s education.