Gilroy
– At South Valley Middle School, it’s the typical scene before a
big game – chalked sidewalks, pumped-up students, raffles at lunch,
and teachers and students competing to wear custom, black T-shirts
for the most days in a row.
Gilroy – At South Valley Middle School, it’s the typical scene before a big game – chalked sidewalks, pumped-up students, raffles at lunch, and teachers and students competing to wear custom, black T-shirts for the most days in a row. But it’s not a time of year for homecoming and the fanfare is not about the football team – it’s about standardized testing.
The school has been gearing up for the California Standards Tests – administered in early May – which are used to calculate a score out of 1,000 on the Academic Performance Index. On this index, South Valley has been within striking distance of 700 – the equivalent of all students having basic reading, writing and mathematics abilities – since 2002 and has closed the gap during each of the past two years.
With a score of 688 last year, the school has the chance to clear the hurdle of 700 this year, said Principal John Perales. While the state only asks for the school to post a 5-point gain, the school managed to improve 23 points last year and could do it again, he said.
“We are positioned perfectly to do well,” he said. “What we’re after is to build some excitement around CST testing.”
The difficulty in doing so is that the test scores do not directly affect the students. The scores do not factor into the students’ grades – in fact, they are not even released until August. Instead, the students have to understand the indirect effect, Perales said.
“I ask them to have pride and show what they know,” he said. “Defy the myth that how much money your parents make (or) where you live will dictate how well you do on these exams, or how well you do in life.”
The Eye of the Tiger
To generate fervor among students, the school has created black T-shirts with a paw of a tiger – the school’s mascot – slamming down on a book. “Break 700 API,” it challenges. Teachers, too, have a challenge – to wear the shirt, washed or unwashed – every day until the end of testing in mid-May.
Together, the school has been pumping itself up at lunchtime events, such as a quiz game – titled Are You Smarter Than a South Valley Teacher? – and a paper airplane-building contest. These events and daily raffles will continue throughout the testing.
To get the message home, Perales has been visiting each of the school’s 30 classes during the week leading up to the test.
“This is probably the most important talk we’re going to have this year,” he began in a speech to a sixth-grade class, the 16th he had visited at that point. “The bottom line is people think a certain thing about you because of these scores. People think a certain thing about South Valley because of these scores. They don’t know who you are, who Mr. Perales is, what an awesome school you have – it’s a number.”
The prospect that Gilroyans have low expectations of these students has motivated the kids.
“A lot of people think our school’s not going to make it to a high score,” said eighth-grader Joseph Guillory. “I used to hear it in elementary – that this is a bad school and that a lot of bad kids go here.”
The test is an opportunity “to prove people wrong – that we can do stuff, that we’re not just here to mess around,” he said.
Teachers also agree that a high score is a priority for the school.
“It just says a lot to the community,” said Kristin Weiss, who teaches regular and accelerated core classes to seventh-graders. “That the students here are great, enthusiastic and extremely capable.”
A Ticket to Ride
Although he will not be taking the test and he is not teaching the students, Perales shares in the excitement. His pride stems from his long history with the community. A former student at South Valley, Perales is a member of several area organizations and his parents reside just one block away from the school.
“I’m tied to Gilroy deeply,” he said. “This means a lot to me.”
High student achievement could bring the school out of Program Improvement – a federal designation for underperforming schools that could result in the federal intervention. Last year, South Valley was slapped with the label for the third consecutive year because too few English language learners met proficiency requirements on the English Language Arts portion of the CST. The hype about the test could bring improvement across the board, including in this subgroup.
While tests can be a measure of student knowledge, the focus is ultimately on student learning and its link to success later in life, said Perales. Sometimes schools forget what their priorities should be, he said.
“We recognize the sports, but what about academics?” he asked. “I played football all my life, but I’m not in the NFL.”
Education, not sports is the ticket to a better life, said Perales.
“How many Jeff Garcias are there,” he said. “Very few kids get to that level. It’s about getting an education, breaking the cycle of poverty.”
