The next marked progress in GUSD test scores will take hard work
and constant assessment
News that Gilroy Unified School District students didn’t gain ground in recent standardized test results is certainly discouraging.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed there wasn’t more growth,” GUSD trustee Denise Apuzzo told reporter Christopher Quirk. “I hope this year is a better year.”
We hope so, too, but we also suspect that the next leap in test scores will be a harder road to travel. Changes currently under way in the district might take years to bear fruit. Changes that are implemented in early grades won’t show up in high school test scores, for example, for a number of years.
In the meantime, it’s possible to make further improvements in how Gilroy’s students are educated.
While the recently released test data takes a broad look at how Gilroy students are performing as a group, it’s important to remember that students are reached individually. For individual students to achieve, their individual needs must be met.
The rubber really hits the road on this issue in the classroom: Catering to each student’s needs. If a student is struggling with long division, for example, but has mastered vocabulary, that student’s classroom time and homework should reflect those strengths and weaknesses.
It might mean more homogenous groupings of students by ability, which some demonize as “tracking,” to better leverage teachers’ time to enable them to provide maximum individualized help to students.
It might mean embracing new ways of delivering teacher training – distance education, for example – to effectively and inexpensively provide continuing education to GUSD teachers from nationally known experts.
But it doesn’t mean that we should despair about the flat line on the GUSD test scores graph.
Perhaps Basha Millhollen, GUSD’s assistant superintendent of educational services, put it best: “I maintain that this district has a lot of incredibly strong structures in place to get the job done.”
It would be reasonable to expect our new superintendent, Deborah Flores, to set reasonable goals for the next round of test scores. The goals should be made public, and discussed frequently with school staffs and students. Setting goals is a key part of the accountability process.
As a community, let’s look to the future and keep working on ways to provide Gilroy’s kids with the best education possible. They are many challenges in our schools, but the path to improvement includes constant assessment and hard work.
