the newspaper of Palos Verdes Peninsula High School 27118 Silver Spur Road, Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274
Federal standards alter district focus
www.pvphsnews.com
Vol. XXXIII Issue 6 5 Apr. 2013
All schools are equal, but some sCHOOLS are
more equal than othERS
By VALERIA PARK PEN NEWS WRITER
CHRISTOPHER MICHEL/THE PEN
The federal government decided to implement a new set of standardized testing starting in 2014. “The Superintendent for Public Education has suggested that the STAR tests be suspended until the new tests based on the Common Core are begun in 2014,” Chief Academic Officer Martin Griffin said. “The legislature has not yet acted on that recommendation.” The Common Core exam will replace the annual STAR test and will be staggered on a quarterly basis based on the subject. “We are developing a society of test takers, which in my opinion, is not what education should be about,” Principal Mitzi Cress said. “We want kids that can go deeper and look beyond the letter grade.”
“The new tests will include performance assessments and require more critical thinking and problem solving.” - Chief Academic Officer Martin Griffin Compared to the STAR test, the Common Core curriculum focuses on analyzing and places an emphasis on reading. “The new tests will include performance assessments and require more critical thinking and problem solving,” Griffin said. “They will require more writing and text-based explanations.” Disparities among states in their annual standards tests resulted in the hope that the Core would put every state on the same page. The Common Core tests, developed by Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, are expected to be computergenerated in order to get instant feedback. In addition, teachers hope to benefit from the narrowed focus of the Core exams and better organize their curriculum throughout the school year.
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Jerry Brown’s new school funding proposal would allocate money to different school districts based on criterion for perceived need, leaving well performing schools like Peninsula with a disproportionately smaller slice. By USWAH SHABBIR PEN NEWS WRITER
Proposition 30, a government measure to increase state funding for education, was passed on Nov. 6. After years of deep cuts in educational budgets, all public schools needed money to fulfill educational responsibilities and ensure student learning. Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget draft, however, favors and funnels a large fraction of these funds to select schools. The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District is currently deficit spending. Prop 30 was supposed to increase school funds in order
WENDY WEI/THE PEN
to relieve debts within school districts such as PVPUSD. Brown, however, intends to allocate more state funding to lower income districts while offering less relief to highincome districts. “I understand that there are districts which need extra support that need to be taken into consideration, but it should not be at the expense of students in PVPUSD,” PVPUSD Superintendent Walker Williams said. “We have to find a balance.” For the past two years, budget cuts have reduced the number of programs and teachers at Peninsula. Gov. Brown’s plan will force the district to deepen budget cuts, and may
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result in job terminations for approximately nine teachers at Peninsula. “They’re keeping us at a bare minimum,” Principal Mitzi Cress said. Brown’s new budget draft eliminates funding for the Southern California Regional Occupational Center, a resourceful facility at Peninsula and for high schools within the community. “I believe it was an overlooked error in the budget,” Cress said. “SCROC is such a big part of the school and surrounding districts and it is so beneficial in helping students towards a career path.” These SoCal ROC classes teach vocational skills to help
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students plan their future. Teachers who instruct SoCal ROC classes are at risk of losing their on-campus positions. “SoCal ROC offers beneficial programs for our students,” Williams said. “If these programs go away, this hurts our students. Until we see the final budget, however, we do not know the outcome.” Both Williams and Cress hope to maintain optimism throughout the draft finalization process. “We hope to continue what we are doing by providing an outstanding program for students to benefit,” Williams said.
JASON TRAN/THE PEN