Chris Amico: Journalist

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LANCASTER — A state-appointed trustee with veto power over the principal’s decisions will take up residence at Antelope Valley High School in the coming weeks as part of the long-troubled school’s efforts to boost student achievement.

The decision follows a blistering report issued last month on the state of education at the Valley’s oldest high school and three years of state monitoring. State Superintendent Jack O’Connell handed down sanctions for six schools around the state, including two in the Antelope Valley and two in Kern County.

The other two schools that will get trustees, both in Kern County, are Alicante Avenue Elementary School in Lamont, and Compton Junior High School in Bakersfield.

“The lack of consistent academic improvement in these schools is unacceptable,” O’Connell said. “We have provided significant additional funding and technical assistance to help these struggling schools. I am very disappointed that they are not making consistent gains in student achievement. I am required by law to hold these schools accountable. We owe it to the students attending these schools to make major changes that will help improve their academic performance.”

The Antelope Valley Union School High School District’s superintendent, David Vierra, spoke with state officials Tuesday morning and said the decision was not surprising, given the alternatives.

The district previously has a state-appointed trustee overseeing its finances, but this is the first time one has stepped in to monitor a specific school’s academic performance.

“This is all new territory,” Vierra said.

The state’s other options included closing the school or turning it into a charter school run by parents. State officials said neither of those avenues seemed a good fit. Appointing a trustee and mandating that all teachers be highly qualified seemed much more palatable to most school staff.

Indeed, many in the district, including Vierra, treated the decision as good news.

“A good part of it’s good news. They’re not closing the school and they’re not turning it into a charter,” Principal Karen Patterson told teachers at an after-school meeting.

Spanish teacher Jason Wells shared Patterson’s relief. “I was expecting to hear we were under different management or control,” he said after the staff meeting. “To hear that we’re not is refreshing.”

The trustee, who will have the power to block the principal’s decisions, according to state education officials, will stay at the school until test scores improve for two consecutive years.

All six schools receiving sanctions Tuesday will continue with some kind of monitoring. Three, including Wilsona Elementary School in Lake Los Angeles, will have new assistance teams installed. Those teams, like the one that has worked with AV High since 2003, can recommend reforms, but the districts’ school boards can accept or reject the recommendations.

All six schools must ensure that every teacher serving at AV High is “highly qualified,” meaning they hold a full credential and are teaching in their specialized subject area. The state also mandated full access to supplemental instruction for any students who need it.

In a teleconference with reporters, O’Connell spoke of the six schools much as a disappointed parent might, with both hope and dissatisfaction.

“The bar was set low,” he said. If the schools had improved by one point on their Academic Performance Index scores two years in a row, they would not be facing sanctions today.

“I hope to not have to make this kind of announcement again,” he added.

Antelope Valley High became a monitored school in 1999 when it signed up for the state’s Immediate Intervention for Under-performing Schools Program, which offered funding on the condition that test scores improve.

Only once since 1999, when California began using the Academic Performance Index, has AV High met its growth target. In only two years has its score improved at all.

The Academic Performance Index measures improvement; each school aims for an individual target based on last year’s performance.

Scores range from 200 to 1,000, with a statewide goal of 800. The score is derived from a complex formula based on students’ performance on several standardized tests. Each school’s growth target is equal to 5% of the difference between 800 and last year’s score. So in 2000, when AV High’s base score was 545, its challenge was to raise that score 13 points.

The school’s API grew by 11 points that year, to 556, two short of its target.

In 2003-04, the first testing cycle since the school hired five new administrators, AV High’s score grew 50 points, exceeding its growth target of 13 for the first time.

The achievement was short-lived, however; the school’s API score actually dropped 19 points in 2004-05. In all other years, the school’s API score has dropped, sometimes only a little, sometimes as high as 25 points, that in the 2001-02 school year.

AV High agreed to be monitored by the state in the 2002-03 school year. A school assistance and intervention team audited the school’s academic process and performance, looking for anything that would help students achieve more.

The monitors’ most controversial decision called for removing Principal Mark Bryant and four other top administrators.

Bryant moved to the district’s special education site, Desert Pathways, then to the district office, where he oversaw charter schools. He subsequently was named principal of Quartz Hill High School.

The new trustee will probably arrive in the next few weeks, but the other two fixes — more supplemental instruction and a highly qualified staff — did not come with firm deadlines.

Vierra said the school already provides access to tutoring and extra help for every student, and more efforts will be made. The trustee’s role will be a matter of collaboration and negotiation, but much may already have been decided by the state.

The question of highly qualified teachers is more complicated.

At the moment, at least 81% of AV High’s teachers meet the “highly qualified” standard, according to Assistant Superintendent Tim Azevedo, who oversees personnel. He and Vierra said they have not decided what will happen to the remainder, although they are hoping the state will allow some flexibility.

Federal law requires every teacher in the state to be “highly qualified” by September, so the school and district could face additional sanctions if the requirement is not met.

Wendy Harris, one of the state officials who visited schools in December and January, said the staff changes should happen as soon as possible, “and certainly before next school year.”

Vierra, Patterson and school board President Donita Winn met with the teaching staff Tuesday afternoon to discuss the news. Most seemed relieved, although many stared at the floor and the room was quiet as the superintendent paced around cafeteria tables, explaining the next steps.

Winn appeared near tears as she tried to reassure teachers.

“All of us as board members felt like we got hit in the stomach with the (state) report,” she said. “We know what you’ve done. We know how hard you’ve worked. Maybe the state just didn’t see it.”

Several teachers questioned Vierra about whether the district would start moving teachers to and from AV High. Vierra wanted to say no, but couldn’t give an absolute answer.

“I’d like to stay away from involuntary transfers,” he told a teacher, but he added, “I can’t rule out anything at this time.”

Some teachers expressed anxiety, but most were just relieved that Antelope Valley High School will stay open and governed by the district that bears the same name.

One teacher said: “It’s in God’s hands.”

Tags: av high, avuhsd, education

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 15th, 2006 at 3:17 am and is filed under Antelope Valley Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.