The news came out today that my kids' elementary school is NUMBER #1 in the State of California for test scores. It has been so for 6 YEARS RUNNING. There are 3 high schools in town and one of them scored NUMBER #1 in the state too.
If California were a country, it would be 6th largest in the world (as I've read somewhere based on $$, population or something).
So that just means my kids are UNDOUBTEDLY future world leaders.
Local news report details here:
So why are we so hot?? It is not just money for sure. I am not by any means hugely upper middle class. We are a solid middle class neighborhood. Our ethnic diversity tends toward Caucasion, but is certainly heavily influenced by Central America. There are African American, Muslim, and Asian all present in our everyday life.
It is a magnet school to be sure, and a math magnet at that. Parental involvement is likely much more prevalent, but there are plenty of 2 working parent households, and everyone has their story!! (Volunteer out of the classroom, homeschoolers, you name it).
State testing just finished a week ago and 2008 scores are not out yet. But I am confident we are going to be tops again. Thanks for reading.
May 22nd, 2008 at 04:02 pm 1211472175
Glad your kids have a school you are pleased with, but test scores don't mean everything! My kids school isn't #1 in California, but we only scored 2 points (937) below your school and we have double the English language learners and socioeconomically disadvantaged.
I am frustrated with the testing system! It gets this weird competitive thing going. And as a teacher, I can tell you that the year a bee flew into my classroom during STAR testing, but kids scored significantly lower than the class next door. But a child in the class next door scored REALLY poorly, despite high teacher expectations, because her dog had died the night before. So many things can affect the test scores.
Like I said, how wonderful that you are happy with your school.