LETTERS SCHOOLS ARE FACING MANY CHALLENGES.If you are capable of reading this letter, you can thank a teacher. Perhaps your progressive parents outfitted your home with a variation of a phonics phonics Method of reading instruction that breaks language down into its simplest components. Children learn the sounds of individual letters first, then the sounds of letters in combination and in simple words. game or you were surrounded by books. Somewhere, a teacher planted that seed. I am writing in response to the Tuesday, Jan. 22, headline ``A.V. High facing changes.'' A better title might have been ``A.V. High facing challenges.'' I have been on staff at Antelope Valley High School Antelope Valley High School is located in Lancaster, California and is part of the Antelope Valley Union High School District. It was founded in 1912[1]. It is located in the Mojave Desert. for the last six years. I was not new to the profession, as I have come through the ranks of public, private, substitute, full-time, challenged and gifted assignments. We at A.V. are moving closer each year to becoming a Title I school. In lay terms, that means we are close to having half of our population experience some form of need. In addition, we are at 20 percent inclusion, meaning 500 of our 2,500 students had been diagnosed with a learning disability. It would be a conservative guess that at least another 20 percent could benefit from special services. These are not excuses, just variables to be considered in any evaluation of our quality. The state has issued standards for every discipline. The district has certain expectations of each comprehensive school site. Each site has its own expected schoolwide learning results. Each classroom teacher has interpreted curriculum into unit lesson plans befitting be·fit·ting adj. Appropriate; suitable; proper. be·fit  ting·ly adv.Adj. 1. a 20-week semester. The standardized tests A standardized test is a test administered and scored in a standard manner. The tests are designed in such a way that the "questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent" [1] (PSAT PSAT Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test PSAT Puget Sound Action Team PSAT Particulate Source Apportionment Technology PSAT Predicted Site Acquisition Table PSAT Princeton South Asian Theatrics PSAT Pacific Situation Assessment Team (DoD) , SAT, ACT, GSE GSE general somatic efferent system. , STAR) are pored over us like alphabet soup. Our students must pass a Writing Prompt to show proficiency. Some elect to take Advanced Placement exams Advanced Placement examinations are taken each May by students at participating Canadian, American, and international educational institutions. The tests are the culmination of year-long AP courses. . The High School Exit Exam and the senior project are inevitable. What does this mean? More responsibility on the administrators, the teachers and the students. The problem? Being in compliance for one does not mean preparation for another. Those who watch from the outside are only focusing on the accountability. You have to give the juggler juggler Entertainer who keeps several plates, knives, balls, or other objects in the air at once by tossing and catching them. The art of juggling has been practiced since antiquity. time to get all of the plates spinning before you begin to count how many fall and break. We need time to align state, district, school and classroom into one standard. We need materials which match the expectations and in an adequate supply. We need to plan to level the playing field for any cultural or economic bias there might be in standardized tests. We need the support of the media and the community in encouraging our students to try, and our teachers to stay. Those who can, do teach. We are doing our best to meet the challenge. Beverly Dawn Whatley Antelope Valley High School |
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