Principals: Motivation key to test scores

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- Motivation is the key factor in the fluctuation of

high school student test scores, principals said Thursday.

While the majority of elementary schools, with 20-to-1

teacher-to-student ratios, showed marked improvement on the statewide

Academic Performance Index (API) scores this year, Newport-Mesa high

schools were divided, with two improving and two plummeting.

Corona del Mar and Estancia high schools improved their scores by 28

and 23 points, respectively, but Costa Mesa and Newport Harbor high

schools scores dropped by 21 and 14 points.

Principals at the high schools attribute motivation, or a lack

thereof, to the schools’ success or failure to improve on the tests,

results of which were released Wednesday.

“I visited every room. Every student who was taking the test, I met

with them personally. I let them know I didn’t think the scores they had

already had were representative of their skills and talents,” said Tom

Antal, principal of Estancia High School in Costa Mesa.

“I implored them to really put their best foot forward on every day of

testing,” he continued. “I told them I wanted people to respect them and

I think they heard the message.”

The API is the system mandated by Gov. Gray Davis’ Public Schools

Accountability Act of 1999 that ranks each public school based on student

performance on the Stanford 9 achievement tests.

Besides personal visits to every class in the school, Antal turned the

school upside down at testing time to let students know it was a big

deal.

“We changed the school,” he said. “We had students in blocks of 25 or

30 in a room they don’t normally go to, with a teacher they don’t

normally have. We set up new classrooms. They got the sense internally

that it was an all-school effort.”

Antal said he also tried to create an optimal testing environment by

spreading the test over the course of five days,for only an hour and a

half on each, instead of cramming it into three days as many schools do.

He also sent newsletters home about proper breakfasts and the

importance of rest, as many elementary schools do.

But when it comes right down to it, Antal said, it was the teachers’

vigorous teaching and students’ focus that brought the scores up.

While students at Estancia were being convinced to dazzle the

community with their combined brilliance, some students across town at

Newport Harbor High School gave the Stanford 9 little to no credence.

This may a contributing factor to why the school’s score dropped 14

points.

When students at Harbor were asked in April if they were worried about

the upcoming Stanford 9 achievements tests, their offhanded responses

were worrisome to teachers and administrators.

“A lot of people think ‘it’s not going to affect my grades, so who

cares?’ But it reflects on the school,” Ian Lehr, a sophomore at Newport

Harbor, said last April. “I cared, but a lot of people in my class

didn’t.”

This cavalier attitude is one that greatly concerns Newport Harbor’s

new principal, Michael Vossen, who said he plans to combat it

aggressively.

“I think right there, those comments are troublesome to me,” he said.

“We need to come up with a new game plan.”

Vossen’s plan of attack starts with the 20% of Newport Harbor’s

population that has been identified as in need of help.

“A school is only as good as its weakest link,” he said.

Vossen plans to study the school’s existing programs and those of the

highest-achieving districts in the state.

From there, he plans to tackle the portion of the school’s population

that feels disenfranchised and attempt to instill in them a pride and

sense of school community.

“You also need to express how important and imperative it is that we

motivate both faculty and students,” he said. “I think they need to feel

it’s important and that they are linked to a common cause. What could

they possibly care if they feel the importance of it isn’t relevant to

them? We need to come up with something that says we are all in it

together.”