Estancia looks to boost test scores

Deirdre Newman

COSTA MESA -- With the recent release of the high school exit exam

results, Estancia High School has the dubious distinction of scoring

lowest in the district.

Principal Tom Antal attributes the low scores to a high percentage of

second-language learners -- more than half the students are not native

English speakers. Antal said the school is taking active measures to

increase both math aptitude and literacy.

Last year’s freshmen were the first group that will have to pass the

exit exams to be able to graduate. Estancia students could only muster

30% in math and 60% in English compared with the county average of 54% in

math and 71% in English.

When Antal broke down some of the numbers, he found that

second-language learners had a 12% pass rate for math, while

second-language students who became fluent in English had a 53% pass

rate.

Antal said the 30% who passed the math portion directly correlates to

the students who took Algebra I as freshmen. The math portion includes

sixth- and seventh-grade standards, as well as first-year algebra.

Antal said it is imperative that feeder schools such as TeWinkle

Middle School, boost the number of math classes it offers so more

students have an opportunity to take algebra in eighth grade.

Estancia is also waiting for money from the state for a math academy

-- where students in the advanced math courses individually tutor

students who are struggling.

The school has also bought up-to-date, standards-aligned textbooks for

every math class in the school, Antal said.

In terms of the English portion of the test, 89% of the

second-language learners who became fluent passed, while only 35% of the

English learners did.

To enhance literacy, the school is sponsoring a literacy campaign and

has invested in an accelerated reading computer program in which each

student individually tracks his or her reading progress.