Scores alone shouldn't be the litmus test for school closures

Let's not put each other down to promote the virtues of our schools. We feel strongly about our schools and want the students, parents and staff to be proud of their efforts to bring quality, value added education to students.

Attempts to compare the quality of schools using API scores or to suggest closing schools on the basis of API scores are misinformed ventures. It would be helpful for the public to understand that schools with lots of students learning English while they're trying to conquer the California academic standards are fighting two battles simultaneously.

Battle No. 1 is helping those students master English Language Development (ELD) standards in listening, speaking, reading and writing and measured by the CELDT test taken annually by these students. These ELD standards are measured on a 1 to 5 scale like the California academic standards.

Until students are proficient in these skills in English, it's very difficult for them to be as competitive on the California standards tests as their peers.

Battle No. 2 is helping all students in the school- regardless of their background- to learn and apply the skills measured in reading, writing, mathematics and science by the CSTs. Standards and instruction aren't "watered down" because ELD students are in classrooms. Those students get support from extra personnel. They often spend time before and after school, getting additional instruction to keep up with the pace of instruction mandated by the academic standards.

Those of us learning a second language would feel "behind the 8 ball" if we were asked to take our written driver's test in that second language.

Yet, that's what we ask of the students who must take the CSTs when they aren't yet proficient in English. They struggle to perform well on a test that determines the all important API scores.

When those API scores are used to make arguments that denigrate the efforts of the students, parents and staff of schools that have these challenges we are all distracted from the responsibility schools face in moving all students toward proficiency on the standards. Mandy Nygren Daellenbach Park Oaks Elementary School