HIGH SCORES FOR HIGH TECH CHARTER SCHOOL ATTAINS PERFECTION ON EXIT EXAMS.Byline: Johan Mengesha Valley News Writer After passing the California High School Exit Exams The California High School Exit Exam (or CAHSEE) is a requirement for high school graduation in the state of California, created by the California Department of Education to improve the academic performance of California high school students, and especially of high school their sophomore year, the entire junior class of High Tech High School no longer has to worry about whether they'll get their diplomas or not. High Tech High School in Van Nuys has enjoyed the comforts of a technologically advanced learning environment along with small class sizes, and the results are showing up in its exit exam results. High Tech had a 100 percent passing rate on the exit exams among its juniors, who took the test during their sophomore year. The exit exam is divided into a math and an English Language English language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Spoken by about 470 million people throughout the world, English is the official language of about 45 nations. Arts portion. The High Tech juniors had perfect scores on both parts. The results were much higher than the combined passing rates for all 10th-graders in the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. . Only 59 percent passed the math portion of the test districtwide and 66 percent passed the English part. High Tech Principal Marsha Rybin said the small size of the school is the main reason it had a perfect score. ``Because we are such a small school, the teachers know the strengths and weaknesses of the students,'' Rybin said. This helps the students receive personalized per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. instruction in areas in which they need more help, she said. The average class size for High Tech is just under 21 students, compared with the LAUSD's average of almost 27 students per classroom. ``We can do things that can help them get on track and up to speed,'' said Randy Siercks, who teaches world history, humanities and English at High Tech. High Tech only has 260 students enrolled this semester and is not looking to grow much larger than a student population of 325, which is its target for next year. High Tech is a charter school located on the Birmingham High School Birmingham High School is a public coeducational high school in the neighborhood/district of Lake Balboa in the San Fernando Valley section of the city of Los Angeles, California. The school is a part of District One of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). campus and is only in its second year of operation. As the name implies, it is a very technologically advanced school. The $13 million campus features many technological goodies for both students and teachers. Each student has access to a laptop computer with wireless Internet connection while they are on campus. They also have personal e-mail, video-editing software and DVD players A stand-alone device that plays DVDs. It contains a DVD drive and the electronics to decode the digital video. The device may play only manufactured DVDs, or it may be able to play DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs. DVD players are cabled to a TV or home theater system for display. at their disposal. The teachers use interactive whiteboards An interactive whiteboard is a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer’s desktop onto the board’s surface, where users control the computer using a pen, finger or other device. , which can capture writing electronically. They can then save all the notes written on the board onto a computer that is connected to the whiteboard The electronic equivalent of chalk and blackboard, but between remote users. Whiteboard systems allow network participants to simultaneously view one or more users drawing on an on-screen blackboard or running an application. . It can also be used for many other tasks. ``(Technology) is a resource we can take advantage of,'' Siercks said. ``The kids get excited about using the technology and forget that they are learning.'' |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion