Two recent articles about the new High School:
In the Diocesan Monthly newspaper:
http://www.austindiocese.org/newsletter_article_view.php?id=3324
and in the monthly newspaper for Northwest Austin, “Community Impact”:
http://www.impactnews.com/northwest-austin/impacts/2778-northwest-austin-impacts-december-2008
The official web site of the High School has some new pictures that show the great construction progress. See: http://www.saviochs.org/
With Christmas fast approaching, we should be thankful, which is not always easy with the usual frustrations of being a parent, and frenetic holiday schedules. So, in this spirit, are we grateful for specific things which our school provides? What do I like best about our children’s current school, St. Theresa elementary school?
1) Support of other Catholics. This became more obvious to me when I saw how the school community handled the death of relatives and family members of teachers and students over the past year. The support of the community, living out the gospel, is wonderful.
2) Community. Parents chatting at dropoff, Mom’s meeting for lunch, annual parties (for the parents) for each class, parents of each class competing in fun kickball and basketball tournaments. With parents from diverse backgrounds, building friendships among parents is invaluable. It even allows parents to get a different perspective, to get feedback on their children, and resolve problems earlier.
3) PSIA. The Private school competitions are a wonderful way for kids to compete in relevant areas (especially Creative Writing, Oratory, Vocabulary, Science, Math). It can encourage kids to push themselves in a way that is different than in the classroom, and can lead to them gaining valuable skills, and get positive reinforcement as they progress.
4) AIPL Sports. Everyone plays, the teams are divided by level and play other area schools in a variety of sports, their classmates like to come and watch, they have fun, they get some exercise, and the games are a lot of fun for the parents to watch … what more can a parent want?
5) Accelerated Reader. The single most important skill kids develop at school is reading … and the Accelerated Reader program, which tests the kids on books that they read, with points adjusted by the software automatically based on the book level, number of questions correct and length of the book, really helps. With prizes for everyone who participates based on how many points that they have earned, I have found that the kids will challenge themselves to read harder and better books than they would otherwise … and they read more (at least during the key years from Kindergarten through 6th grade).
6) Good communication with the teachers. Most teachers encourage email communication, and RenWeb helps parents notice academic problems early, and in general the atmosphere of trust helps make it possible for parents to communicate with teachers and administrators more easily, and less confrontationally than usual.
7) Challenging writing curriculum. Seeing the kids writing interesting poetry in 2nd grade, and surviving the tough grading of writing assignments in middle school gives me hope that most of them will be able to write well enough by the time they reach college (most US students are not well prepared for college writing, and yet it is essential)
8 ) Exciting 7th and 8th grade science classes which challenge them, and science fairs for most …
9) Wonderful Choir program
10) No bullying
11) Uniforms … no pressure from our kids to buy them $100 tennis shoes to look cool. No inappropriate attire adding to the normal problems as kids reach puberty.
12) Modesty in action … it is so reassuring to see that the 7th and 8th graders act relatively innocent (compared to others their age), despite the raging hormones. School dances are not full of grinding and freaking, and inappropriate touching among middle schoolers at parties is rarer than I expected, and at school is very rare.
As we look forward to Dominic Savio Catholic High School, how many of the things that you love about your current school, are likely to translate to the new school? I am hopeful. The school will have a new “culture” formed in large part by the first few classes, and they will have the opportunity to set themselves apart from other schools, and create a Christ-centered, accepting, positive, healthy, academically challenging culture.
With the foundation poured and above ground construction now visible, Dominic Savio Catholic High School now seems more tangible. Here are some pictures from a month ago:
It has become fashionable to bash the SAT test, so I decided to take the plunge and see for myself. With the materials sent out by the college board to the Duke SAT program participants was a sample SAT test. Comparing my experience taking the sample test now to taking the older era SAT in 1979 (at least what I can remember from this time long, long ago) was interesting. The current SAT test is surprisingly well thought out for its presumed purpose. For those cynical about the SAT, I would challenge them to try the current test (at least the samples) again.
First, the SAT does not test advanced Math knowledge. Many St. Theresa 7th and 8th graders have sufficient math background to take it now, long before 11th grade. I found two problems that could be challenging for those without much Algebra (factoring quadratics) but both could be solved by experimentation, and there were a few Geometry questions which could be hard (knowing/remembering that the sum of the angles in a triangle in degrees is 180 …) but most needed formulas that were listed at the front of the test. I even did the test without a calculator, but there were two problems (one of which I got wrong doing multiplication by hand) for which a calculator would have been helpful. A calculator would help the student do a few problems faster, but was not necessary. Finally the SAT math test does a miserable job distinguishing good math students from great math students – it requires almost perfect execution to score 750 or above, and since 1994 a lot more students now get 750 or above since the test is easier than it used to be. Someone with a great math background, but who makes as few as three careless mistakes is already at 750 or below. For those who can get 650 or higher, presumably a harder test, like the AP Calculus exam, would be better for top engineering schools like MIT, UT, A&M, Rice or CalTech to use for screening incoming students. On the other hand, the SAT math test is a great test to see who is “college ready” or to see if you have mastered the basics of middle school math and Algebra, and to see whether the student is ready to take Pre-Calculus or Trigonometry. Students who score below 600 on the SAT Math test would seem likely to have problems with Calculus and advanced math. There should be a more challenging Math test which more advanced students could take as alternative to the SAT Math test, but which is broader than the AP Calculus test.
The second section of the SAT is the Verbal section, and I found that harder than I expected, and very well chosen for its presumed purpose. A student who can score over 700 on the Verbal section of the SAT has demonstrated (at least based on the sample tests that I saw) that they are ready to understand complex passages similar to what college students are required to study in their classes. An 800 in the Verbal SAT test does not require perfect execution (you can get two or three questions wrong and still get an 800), but does require that the student understand three or four very different complex multi-paragraph passages, and have a good vocabulary. Obviously the more the student has read, especially mastering the content of complex, challenging books, the better. Success in the SAT Verbal section should correlate well with future success in college based on what I saw in the sample tests. I was impressed.
The biggest surprise to me was the Writing section, which is the newest of the sections, and not available when I took the SAT. I found the test a great mix of grammar challenges, writing style and indepedent writing. Although it seems like it is the “hardest” of the tests, and some questions required multiple reads to solve, few required advanced knowledge, rather they required applying the few simple rules of good writing style, and the rules of grammar, consistently and carefully. Someone who scores highly on the writing test seems to me to be well on their way to becoming a good written communicator, a skill essential in college and in later life. I was impressed with this test.
All in all, after taking the sample SAT, I believe that the College Board has done a good job. The SAT should be useful (perhaps even better than High School grades) for its presumed purpose of distinguishing students ready for typical college. Although it is obviously not an ideal tool for distinguishing which students (especially in Math) would be ready for the most selective universities, it seems a great tool for quickly assessing college readiness in writing, reading comprehension, and basic math skills, for the majority of college bound students. For the best students, such as those in gifted and talented programs, presumably Advanced Placement or IB tests are better predictors of success though. Colleges, including the SUNY system, are starting to rediscover the value of the SAT in accurately helping them select qualified students (see e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/opinion/18salins.html). Seeing the US doing something right in HS and higher education (the SAT in this case) is reassuring.
According to the recently released analysis of TIMMS data for 2007:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/mathscience/2008-12-09-math-sci-scores_N.htm
US scores in the international math assessment have improved for 4th and 8th grade, but we have a long way to go before we catch up to the better Asian countries. Unfortunately science scores for the US show little if any improvement though. Improvements in Science/Math education due to new innovative high schools like Dominic Savio can play a key role in improving our US Science and Math education (during the critical, formative, High School years). The official government report makes interesting reading for those who want the US to reclaim its lead in technology, improving in Math and Science. See:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009001.pdf
