As the County Office of Education and the San Benito High School District work toward a compromise on how to handle student performance at San Andreas Continuation School, they should remember the COE has taken care of these kids for decades and has the needed experience to drive them to excel.
State and federally mandated accountability requirements are at the heart of the issue – SBHS wants more control of student programs because their performance on standardized tests is reflected in the composite scores for the high school district. During the 2005 school year – the most recent results available – SBHS scored 696 out of 800 points and San Andreas scored 455 points on the Academic Performance Index. The district’s composite score is 681.
It’s understandable that the high school is concerned about the San Andreas effect on their scores and, potentially, sanctions if the high school fails to meet its growth target of 5 percent each year. Students at San Andreas performed worse on the test in 2005 than the “student with disabilities” subgroup by 14 points.
In addition to control of the programs, the high school also wants approximately 10 percent of San Andreas’ budget to administer the changes.
The County Office of Education, which has overseen San Andreas under a contract for the last 20 years, is correct in fearing the high school district will use dollars that should go to San Andreas classrooms.
“The elephant in the room here is really money,” COE Board President Joan Campbell-Garcia said.
We tend to agree with that statement. Let’s not forget that students at San Andreas come from the high school either by force or by choice and the district hasn’t been concerned with them until recently.
The high school district already has its hands full dealing with the thousands of students enrolled at SBHS and meeting the statewide API goal of 800 points. It makes little sense for their board to take on the additional responsibility of San Andreas’ kids – students who weren’t successful in a large high school environment. Meanwhile, the COE has been the shepherd for generations of challenged students at San Andreas.
Rather than allow this to become a heated power struggle that forgets about the students, SBHS Trustees should allow the COE to create a plan that will increase student performance on the tests by encouraging them to take it seriously and directing teachers to allocate more class time for preparation. Obviously the test scores must improve, but too many cooks in the kitchen will spoil the stew. The COE has the expertise when it comes to these students and the track record for looking out for them. SBHS’ goal is simple here – they want higher test scores – and we believe the County Office of Education can provide them.
