GILROY
– Gilroy’s charter high school, which recently received regional
accreditation, is looking to continue improving test scores and
recruit a full freshman class for its fourth operating year.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Gilroy’s charter high school, which recently received regional accreditation, is looking to continue improving test scores and recruit a full freshman class for its fourth operating year.
El Portal Leadership Academy, chartered by the Mexican American Community Services Agency, received accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in December.
“It was very important for us to receive accreditation because the (University of California) is now requiring that any new school that wants their courses to count toward the UC system, they have to be WASC accredited,” said Principal Noemi Garcia Reyes during the high school’s mid-year report to the school board.
According to WASC, the primary goal of accreditation is self-improvement. All accredited schools have demonstrated they meet set criteria for planning, organization, curriculum, assessment and student support; provided resources for delivering the schools programs; and are successfully promoting student performance. El Portal’s accreditation runs through June 30, 2006.
The school’s lowest-performing students are improving their scores in reading as well as math, although at a slower rate, based on state standardized tests from 2002 and 2003.
The number of students from the class of 2005 scoring in the lowest of five levels on a state language arts test was 26 percent lower last year than the previous year. Thirty percent more students were scoring at the third, or “basic” level – 21 students in 2003 compared to 8 students in 2002.
In math, the improvement continued but was less drastic. Thirteen students improved, moving out of the lowest level. Most of those improved to the second level, while 4 percent more students reached the third level.
“We have a long road ahead of us in terms of math,” Reyes said.
The next step, Reyes noted, is to increase the number of students performing at the top two levels. Two students scored above basic in reading last year and one in math.
El Portal students are also taking a standardized test, administered to GUSD students three times yearly, that measures individual progress in reading, language and math.
The current freshman class, which will be the first from El Portal required to pass the high school exit exam, showed a decrease in Measure of Academic Progress assessments between spring 2003 and early this year.
Based on matching scores from 45 students, the median percentile for reading was 22 last spring and 20 this winter. The median percentile in math last year was 24.5 versus 19 this year.
School representatives also pointed out that there was no staff turnover during the 2002-03 school year. The majority of staff did not stay at the school between its first and second years of operation. Two El Portal teachers are fully credentialed and the other five are in a credential program, to be completed in 2006.
The school is making an effort to recruit a full freshman class of 80 students next year.
“The major focus of our recruitment will be in the eighth-grade classrooms here at South Valley and Brownell,” said Adrian Ramirez, director of student services.
A mailer providing information about El Portal, including a breakdown of its student assessment data, will be sent out to each eighth-grader’s family.
