Principals meet to standardize tests

Jeff Benson

Principals from every school met one-on-one with district

administrators this week to lay out their site plans for improving

standardized test scores and to discuss school problems.

For most principals, it was an easy meeting because of sparkling

test scores, good attendance and parent involvement. But three

Newport-Mesa Unified School District schools are fighting an uphill

battle.

Pomona and Whittier elementary schools and Estancia High School

failed an annual state review for the second year in a row.

There are 12 schools in Newport-Mesa that fall under Title 1,

which provides federal dollars to help children who live in high

poverty areas and are most at risk of failing to meet state

performance standards.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires that all Title 1

schools be evaluated each year on standardized test scores, how

minorities perform and participation rates. If a school fails that

review, it is dubbed a “year one program improvement school.”

When that happens, school officials must notify parents of the

status, allow students to transfer to another school and pay for

their transportation. Each consecutive year a school fails its

review, its status level heightens to year two, year three -- until

by year six or seven schools stand to lose funding.

Pomona, Whittier and Estancia each failed its review in August.

The schools’ principals are putting together action plans to improve

in the next year. “Any school can slide in and out any year,” Supt.

Robert Barbot said. “Our goal is to make sure that none of our

schools slide. Yes, we’re going to focus on schools like Pomona. But

if we do it right, all of our students should do really well.”

The board attributed many of Pomona’s problems to the language

barrier. Nearly 80% of the students are English learners. Other

difficulties rest in the school’s search for a permanent principal to

replace Julie McCormick, who left because of illness in 2003 and

later resigned.

“You’ve probably got a good idea of our anxiety surrounding Pomona

at this point, but we’re all working together to fix the problem,”

Assistant Supt. for Elementary Education Susan Astarita said.

Principals each spent 20 minutes addressing the school board and

other district officials to explain each school’s needs. For Rea

Elementary School, the focus was on intervention programs,

English-learner programs and staff development.

Rea Principal Jeff Gall was one of the most vocal presenters

because he felt his school narrowly avoided becoming a Program

Improvement school. One of the school’s saving graces, he said, was

its Accelerated Reader program, where kids who’d fallen behind a

grade level can make up two or more years of growth in one school

year.

District officials said many principals lauded the district’s

reading and math programs, which included a greater emphasis on

writing strategies, reading comprehension and the installment of the

$1.5-million Houghton-Mifflin reading core curriculum for

kindergarten- through sixth-grade schools.

“In the lower grades, they’re learning vocabulary and phonics,”

Astarita said.

“In the upper grades, they’re decoding textbooks and keeping

journals.

“In other words, they’re learning to read in the primary grades

and reading to learn in the upper grades.”