Improved marks for Napa schools

State academic exams beat average; Mt. George leads pack

By NATALIE HOFFMAN
Register Staff Writer

Napa students are above average when it comes to English, math, science and history.

That’s the bottom line in the results of the most recent California Standards Tests, released last week.

Summaries of California Standards Tests — the most heavily weighted component of a series of Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests — reveal that proficiency rates of Napa Valley Unified School District students surpass state averages by more than 4 percent in English, nearly 3 percent in history, one point in math and almost four points in science.

“Our first look at our results is very encouraging. ... We see growth in so many areas,” said Elena Toscano, NVUSD assistant superintendent of instruction. NVUSD’s English scores are up from last year for all English learners, socio-economically disadvantaged students and special education students, she said.

As in the 2006-07 school year, Mt. George Elementary School had the highest overall CST scores in the district, followed by Vichy Elementary School.

Janine Burt, principal of Mt. George, said that its class sizes are comparable to other schools throughout the district, with about 20 students per teacher from kindergarten to third grade and approximately 30 students per teacher for its higher grades. Approximately 7 percent of Mt. George’s 190 students are English learners, she said.

Burt identified several factors for Mt. George’s high scores, including collaboration between teachers, parents and staff, a high level of parental involvement and becoming an International Baccalaureate candidate school in 2007.

“It’s a huge benefit that we are a small school, because we can have that personal touch. ... But all the schools in the district work very hard, do great things and every school has unique programs and features,” she said. “Sometimes, achievement can be measured in lots of ways and this is only one measure.”

Gaining ground

Harvest Middle School showed a marked improvement in the 2007-08 California Standards Tests, gaining five percentage points from the previous year for students performing at proficient and advanced levels in math, according to the California Department of Education.

In algebra, the school saw a 12 percentage point gain from the previous year’s CST score — a jump from 33 to nearly 45 percent of tested students performing at proficient and advanced levels.

“I was delighted,” said Linda Beckstrom, principal of Harvest Middle School. “When I checked the scores, I basically did a happy dance. Then we shared them with our teachers and they were equally delighted.”

In addition to the hard work of teachers and students, Beckstrom credited the school’s introduction of a supplementary math program from Folsom-based Pacent Learning Solutions in the middle of last year.

Harvest’s recent success comes on the heels of the California Board of Education’s recent decision to test all eighth-grade California students in algebra by the fall of 2011, forcing many of the state’s school districts to modify their curriculum accordingly.

Toscano said in recent years, NVUSD teachers began teaching age-appropriate “algebraic thinking” curriculum to younger students, preparing them for the course before they entered the eighth grade. Still, she said, the mandate will present substantial funding and staffing challenges.

NVUSD Superintendent John Glaser said another of the district’s ongoing challenges includes narrowing the so-called “achievement gap” — a term describing discrepancies between the lower scores of the English learner population and the higher scores of their native English-speaking counterparts.  

Glaser called high-stakes accountability mandates “a double-edged sword.” New mandates present more funding challenges at a time when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget would reduce the district’s funding by about $5 million next year. Still, Glaser said, “it’s forcing us to own the success of our neediest students and our staff are doing that with increasing effectiveness.”

While NVUSD’s summary scores are above state averages, Toscano said the latest STAR results “indicate a decrease in proficient (and) advanced math scores after fifth grade. So we are concentrating on support for middle and high schools for sixth grade and up, including Algebra I.”

Last year, NVUSD’s summary test averages beat the state’s by four percentage points in English, five percentage points in history, three percentage points in math and more than three percentage points in science.

Administered annually to students from second to 11th grade, STAR tests reflect results of California Standards Tests, California Alternative Performance Assessments, California Achievement Tests, Standards-based Tests in Spanish, California Modified Assessments and Aprenda Tests.

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