Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education trustees are questioning whether seniors are college ready when they graduate, following a lengthy discussion of standardized test results during Thursday’s regular meeting.
Barely more than a third of Gilroy high school students take the SAT tests necessary for most college admissions; many students are not testing “ready for college” on Early Assessment Program tests; and, while the number of students taking Advanced Placement tests has increased dramatically in recent years, the percentages of students who take and pass those tests continues to lag behind the national average.
“Our goal is to make all students ready for university whether they want to go or not. Those are low numbers. Those are embarrassingly low numbers,” said trustee Tom Bundros, surveying the results of the EAP.
The EAP is an optional test that assesses the English and math levels of high school juniors in order to see if they will need to take remedial classes if they are accepted into, and choose to attend a California State University.
Of the 2013 juniors who chose to take the EAP test, only 10 percent tested “ready for college” in math, compared with 28 percent at the county level and 14 percent at the state level. On the English EAP test, 22 percent of GUSD juniors tested “ready for college. At the county and state levels those numbers are 34 and 23 percent.
During the School Board meeting, GHS and CHS principals Marco Sanchez and Patricia Jolly presented plans and goals to trustees demonstrating how they plan to increase the number of students prepared for a four-year college or university by improving the academic culture at their respective schools.
At GHS, for instance, students will be required to take the AP exam if they want to have a weighted average, in which their AP class grades are evaluated on a five-point instead of a four-point scale.
Sanchez also cautioned trustees that EAP test scores should be taken with a grain of salt since the tests are optional and many students choose not to take them – or don’t take them very seriously. Those that do take the test must complete it after finishing the 77-question, mandatory CST test, which students in grades two through 11 take every year.
“I don’t think it’s a true reflector of students’ capabilities, Sanchez maintained. “They see the ‘O’ word (optional) and blow it off.”
The EAP test results don’t have any sway in the college admissions process, but for students who choose to attend CSUs, the EAP can get them out of remedial college classes in math and English.
The presentation also highlighted that barely more than a third of GUSD graduates took the SAT last year even though it is necessary for most college admissions.
In 2011-2012, 35.9 percent, or a little more than a third, of the GUSD senior class took the SAT. That’s close to 100 students more than in previous years, but that’s still not good enough for trustees, who eventually want to see all students qualifying for acceptance at University of California or CSU schools, where SAT tests are mandatory.
Comparatively, 44; 44; and 33 percent of seniors in the Morgan Hill Unified School District, Santa Clara County and state took the SAT during the 2011-2012 school year.
One effort GUSD is taking to get more students to take the SAT is exposing them to the Pre-SAT practice tests during class time, explained Superintendent Debbie Flores. She hopes the practice rounds will encourage juniors or seniors to take the official test before they graduate.
One thing that does please Flores is the number of students taking college level Advanced Placement, or AP classes. More than 300 students took 19 different AP tests last year; a great sign said Flores, who points out that touting 10 to 18 AP classes in a district “is an indicator of the rigor being offered at our schools now. Not that long ago we didn’t have many students taking these tests.”
The average percentage of students who passed each of the 19 tests last year was below the national average in almost all subject areas ranging from Statistics to U.S. History – with the exception of the Spanish Language test.
While the average number of students passing AP tests in Gilroy is generally lower than state averages, trustees are happy to see a growing number taking AP classes as well as the tests.
“When you look at the numbers of kids that are taking AP classes – they’ve more than doubled,” explained School Board President Jaime Rosso, of the recent growth in the number of tests taken each year – a number that grew by 41 from 2011 to 2013.
High school principals encourage their AP students to take the final test whether or not the students feel confident they will pass. Taking the test and receiving a score of one “not passing” is looked upon more favorably by college admissions teams than not taking the test at all, explained Jolly.
“A one is seen as higher. They are not going to get waived the course in college but they are going to have an advantage in (college) admissions,” she said.
Sanchez hammered on the importance of preparing GHS students for college, even if the students are unsure if they want to go.
“Our intent is to prepare every student for a college if they so chose so,” he said. “Not all will choose so, but definitely college is the focus.”
GUSD
-10 percent of high school juniors taking the test are “ready for college” math
-22 percent of high school juniors are “ready for college” English
County
-28 percent (math)
-34 percent (English)
State
-14 percent (math)
-23 percent (English)
