Rod Kelley Elementary administrators and teachers hosted a motivational assembly April 20 to get students “egg-cited” about the start of the California Standardized Test, which begins this week.
With the theme, “We’re not chicken to take the CST,” Principal Luis Carrillo dressed as a chicken and joined teachers Julie Pretti, Paula Bower, Andrea Castro and Erika Padilla to lead the students in doing the Chicken Dance. The assembly was the culmination of months of preparation and motivation building including Saturday school, lots of practice tests, daily campus wide egg hunts for prizes, class poster contests and teacher-made chicken T-shirts.
Last year, Rod Kelley made the largest gain in the district on the CST with a 57-point increase, growing the school’s Academic Performance Index (API) score to 826. The API is California’s own accountability measurement of progress for students in 2nd through 12th grades. The state’s goal for all schools is an API of 800. To continue the momentum staff and teachers adopted the slogan, “8 is fine but 9 is DIVINE.” So Rod Kelley is setting its sights on a 900 API score.
