Fretz stresses importance of testing at Samo

Prompted by perceived student apathy regarding California Standardized Test (CST) scores, the Samo administration is attempting to raise the school’s CST scores through increased student knowledge of why the scores matter, extra practice on CST questions and rewards for high-scoring students.Principal Laurel Fretz said she created a presentation in order to dispel student and parent beliefs that the CSTs do not matter. The presentation, which was delivered along with certificates and drawstring bags for high-achieving students on April 19, outlined the importance of Samo’s Academic Performance Index (API) score, which lands at 805 (just above the state’s recommended minimum score of 800). Fretz said she wanted to make sure students understood that their CST scores had an impact on their college applications.“Around this time of year, I am often asked the following question by students: ‘Why are results from the CSTs important to [me] since they are not reported on transcripts?’” Fretz said. “All high schools update a school profile each year to send to colleges. This profile lists everything from the size and diversity of a school’s population to its course list, percentage of dropouts, API score and more. While college admissions officers are considering applications from students with similar academic histories, activities, GPA and AP courses taken, they may also look at the high schools’ profiles.”According to Fretz, the presentation stressed that, although Samo has raised its API score above 800, it still trails behind nearby schools like Mira Costa, which has an API score of 911. Fretz said that school profiles come into play when colleges are considering two students with similar strengths.AP Language and Composition teacher Jennifer Pust said that many students do not realize how much their CST scores can affect them.“When I gave the presentation, I heard students saying things like, ‘Now I understand why this matters,’” Pust said. “They’ve been told in past years that their scores affect them, but not many of them understood the specifics of how colleges see the API and similar factors until we gave the presentations.”English teacher Chon Lee said the reason the presentation and rewards could be helpful is not because of the tangible prizes, but because of the acknowledgement that students are performing to standards.“Overall it’s good that our leap to over 800 API is being recognized and I think students will understand why CSTs are important with the presentations and the acknowledgement that they’re doing a good job,” Lee said. “I think it’s helpful across the board and it can’t hurt us to be reminded that we’re doing well.”Freshman Thomas Lin, however, believes that low-scoring students could have been discouraged by not receiving the prizes, while the high-scoring students got an ego boost they did not necessarily need.“The certificates and bags can be helpful because they make students feel good about their scores, but they make the students who don’t receive them feel unhappy, which might make them study less,” Lin said.  “I also don’t think the prizes will help that much, because no one is really going to be that motivated by a bag or certificate.”However, according to I-House Principal Renée Semik, though some students do not appreciate the rewards, the main purpose was to recognize the students who did well on the CSTs.“The goal of the CST awards and bags was to show that we, the staff at Samo, find the CSTs valuable and we wanted to reward the students that did well, moved up levels, and tried hard,” Semik said. “The response has been overall positive – teachers reported that they have seen the students using the bags handed out and have seen some students trying to trade with other classmates in order to get a bag if they did not receive them.”According to math teacher Steve Rupprecht, besides giving presentations to students, many teachers have also tried to improve students CST scores by reviewing sample CST questions in class.“I gave my class released sample questions from previous years in order to help them prepare for CSTs,” Rupprecht said. “I allow students to work together and we go over all the answers in class so that students feel prepared for the test.”Rupprecht said that this was his first year making the CST practice a requirement.“In past years, it used to be an optional assignment,” Rupprecht said. “When announced that it would be required this year, there were a few groans, but students started to like the idea once they realized that there would be no new lessons or homework for that week.”According to Samo math teacher Marae Cruce, the reason the school has such low CST scores might be that it is not possible to cover all the material on the test before the test itself.“Some questions on the CST asked about things my class hasn’t covered in depth, such as circles,” Cruce said. “I have to change the way I normally teach so that I talk about the most likely tested areas first and have given students sample questions all year. But there were still a lot of questions they did not know how to do. It’s not possible to cover all the material on the test beforehand.”Cruce said that she has to choose which areas to teach in depth based in part on whether they will be tested, but there is still not enough time to learn everything.“Ideally it would be great if they were later in the year so that we could cover all the curriculum and not have students guess some questions,” Cruce said. “But unless they move the test back, we have to try to give them the algebra tools to figure problems they don’t know out on their own.”According to Cruce, some students do not want to take the time to figure problems out on their own, which often leads to lower scores.“A lot of students will just guess or skip problems they’re not familiar with because they think they can’t figure it out,” Cruce said. “I warned them beforehand and told them to use problem solving, but it makes it a lot more difficult for them to have to figure things out on their own.Sophomore Caleb Redmond thinks the presentations are a step in the right directions for Samo, and that the school should continue its efforts to bring CST scores up.“I think students don’t understand the importance of the CST and see it as a waste of time,” Redmond said. “They’ve developed a cynical attitude towards it and that’s hard to get rid of, even with prizes and rewards for students. As a school, we don’t have a great API and it would help if students were more aware of the importance of the API score. The problem is that so many of them see the week of testing as a week of shorter days and will bubble in answers blindly to finish.”According to Fretz, the school is willing to put in the necessary effort to improve the API score, part of which will come from acknowledgment of past achievement.“We want the collegiate world to truly appreciate our students’ accomplishments and understand how great Samo is,” Fretz said. “There is no way Beverly Hills is a better school than Samo – we have the best students anywhere. It is time for us to start showing what it means to be a Samo graduate.”here. It is time for us to start showing what it means to be a Samo graduate.”jpitsker@thesamohi.com