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State Sanctions High School Trustee to Be Hired to Oversee Antelope Valley

Posted on: Thursday, 16 March 2006, 00:00 CST

By Karen Maeshiro\ Staff Writer

LANCASTER - The state will require Antelope Valley Union High School District to hire a trustee to oversee Antelope Valley High School for failing to improve standardized test scores.

Avoiding more drastic state sanctions such as closure or conversion into a parent-run charter school, Antelope Valley High will get a trustee - hired through the Los Angeles County Office of Education - with authority to overrule administrators' decisions.

"We are looking forward to collaborating with LACOE, assessing that support they can give to the school site and using funds to improve areas that we need to improve on," Superintendent David Vierra said. "It doesn't come as a big surprise to me. When you look at what the options were, it was somewhat expected."

The state also is requiring Antelope Valley High School to ensure that 100 percent of the school's teachers possess the proper teaching credentials and that tutoring and other services are accessible to all students who need them.

"I certainly see a trustee as a partner," Principal Karen Patterson said. "Research shows when you have a task to accomplish, it's best if you have a team approach. Having a trustee as a partner is only going to be a benefit."

Antelope Valley High School and Wilsona Elementary School in Lake Los Angeles were among the first six schools in the state to face more serious sanctions because their test scores have failed to improve consistently.

Antelope Valley High School and two other schools will be assigned trustees to work with them. Wilsona and the other two remaining schools will work with a second team of outside educators to focus on areas of weakness.

In a letter to the high school district, state education officials said they would be discussing with the district in the near future what the specific duties of the trustee would be.

State Schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell told reporters in a conference call that the trustee's role would be one of making suggestions and giving directions.

"It's meant to work in a collaborative manner. It's to help improve quality of educational opportunities for the students," O'Connell said. "We do want the trustee to work collaboratively with the principal on site. At the end of the day, we are holding the trustee accountable and responsible. The trustee will be on the front line working to improve services for students at these schools."

As for who the trustees will be, O'Connell said they will look for people who "are familiar with these types of schools, people with experience, to make recommendations, improve student achievement and change the culture at these challenging schools."

At Antelope Valley High School, more than 80 percent of its teachers are considered highly qualified, meaning they either have an intern, preliminary or clear credential.

The deadline to have all teaching staff highly qualified is by next fall, state officials said.

Antelope Valley High School's Academic Performance Index score for 2005 was 582, down 19 points in a year and the third lowest score in the Antelope Valley for a conventional public school, state test records show.

The high school failed to make API improvement targets in four of the past five years, the one exception in 2004, when the school posted a 50-point gain.

Wilsona's API score was 704, down from 708 the year before - but still higher than about two-thirds of local schools. The state's goal is 800.

The state began monitoring the six schools not because their scores were especially low, but on account of their API scores dropping or staying the same for two years in a row.

Audits of their instructional programs were conducted by outside educators. The auditors, called School Assistance and Intervention Teams, recommended steps to improve academic performance.

With the improvement plans, the schools were required to improve API scores for two years in a row between 2003 and 2005 but did not do so. That made them subject to the next level of sanctions.

Targeted schools that improve for two consecutive years exit the so-called three-year SAIT process and are no longer monitored by the state. Piute Middle School in the Lancaster School District and Shadow Hills Intermediate School in the Palmdale School District are in their second year of the SAIT monitoring process.

This school year, three more Antelope Valley schools were designated as state-monitored: Littlerock High School and El Dorado and Joshua elementary schools in the Lancaster School District.

Karen Maeshiro, (661) 267-5744

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

Source: Daily News; Los Angeles, Calif.

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