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6A Daily News – Thursday, December 12, 2013 Opinion High school's test scores not at a standstill DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes letters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submitted will be considered for publication. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong community newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehicles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its communities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the residents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 This letter is in response to the letter in the Opinion section by Rhonda Johnson dated Nov. 20. While I will not address many of the claims Ms. Johnson made because I no longer work there, I do want to address the claim she made toward the end of her "Guest View." In the last paragraph, Ms. Johnson stated that "The testing scores for the entire 8 years I was a board member were at a standstill." I worked at Red Bluff High School from 1983 to 2012 as a math teacher for 18 years and Associate Principal for 11 years. Part of my job as Associate Principal was to oversee testing for Red Bluff High School. Ms. Johnson served on the school board from 2004 to 2012. I want to give the real facts of what happened with student test scores during the 11 years I was in charge of testing from 2002 to 2012. Please bear with some of the tediousness of the numbers, but what you will see is that student test scores were far from being at a standstill when you look at all the evidence. The main measure of student test scores the state of California uses is called the Academic Performance Index (API for short), which is a number assigned a school based on a compilation of various student test scores. The API can vary from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000 with the goal of schools being 800. In 2002, the API of Red Bluff High School was 618. By 2012, the API of Red Bluff High School was 770, for an increase of 152 points. During that same time period, the average API for high schools in the state of California increased from 664 to 751, a net increase of only 87 points. During that time period, Red Bluff High School's API increased every year except for one by between 8 and 35 points each year. The 152 point gain during that time period was one of the largest increases by any high school in northern California. Another measure of student test scores is the percent of students scoring proficient and above on the California Standards Tests in English, Math, Science and Social Studies. In English, the percent of students scoring proficient and above for Red Bluff High School from 2002 to 2012 increased from 33% to 49%. During that same time period, the state average for percent proficient and above for English increased from 34% to 49%. In math, the percent of students scoring proficient and above for Red Bluff High increased from 74% to 87% in School from 2002 to 2012 English and from 76% to 89% in math. For the state increased from 18% to of California during 25%. During that same time period, the state Guest View that same time period, English passing average for percent John increased from 75% proficient and above to 83% in English and for math increased 74% to 84% in math. from 25% to 27%. In Therefore, what science, the percent of you can see from this students scoring proficient and above at Red Bluff data is that Red Bluff High High School from 2002 to 2012 School's test scores, far from increased from 30% to 64%. being at a "standstill," actually The state average increased increased more than the state from 30% to 45% during that average in every category and same time period. In social stud- often times significantly more ies, the percent of students scor- than the state average. I shared ing proficient and above at Red this information annually with Bluff High School from 2002 to the Red Bluff Joint Union High 2012 increased from 20% to School Board of Trustees, of 46%. The state average which Ms. Johnson was a memincreased from 31% to 46% dur- ber. The teachers in the Red Bluff ing that same time period. Finally, a third major student Joint Union High School Distest is the California High trict are a dedicated, caring and School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) hard-working staff doing what in English and Math. A key is best for students, keeping measurement that is looked at them as their top priority. If Ms. for schools is the percent of stu- Johnson can be so far wrong dents that pass the test the first with her information on student time they take it their 10th grade test scores, it might be prudent year. The first time the CAH- look carefully at the other inforSEE was given that really mation she puts out as facts. counted was in 2004. From John Burch is superintendent 2004 to 2012, the percentage of of the Corning Union High students passing the CAHSEE for Red Bluff High School School District. Burch Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 5583160; E-mail: governor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202-2253076. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 3930710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Commentary Obama's epiphanies about governing WASHINGTON -- The education of Barack Obama is a protracted process as he repeatedly alights upon the obvious with a sense of original discovery. In a recent MSNBC interview, he restocked his pantry of excuses for his disappointing results, announcing that "we have these big agencies, some of which are outdated, some of which are not designed properly": "We've got, for example, 16 different agencies that have some responsibility to help businesses, large and small, in all kinds of ways, whether it's helping to finance them, helping them to export. ... So, we've proposed, let's consolidate a bunch of that stuff. The challenge we've got is that that requires a law to pass. And, frankly, there are a lot of members of Congress who are chairmen of a particular committee. And they don't want necessarily consolidations where they would lose jurisdiction over certain aspects of certain policies." The dawn is coming up like thunder as Obama notices the sociology of government. He shows no sign, however, of drawing appropriate lessons from it. Big government is indeed big, and like another big creature, the sauropod dinosaur, government has a primitive nervous system: Injured in the tail, that fact could take nearly a minute to be communicated to the sauropod brain. Obama, of whose vast erudition we have been assured, seems unfamiliar with Mancur Olson's seminal "The Rise and Decline of Nations," which explains how free societies become sclerotic. Their governments become encrusted with interest groups that preserve, like a fly in amber, an increasingly stultifying status quo. This impedes dynamism by protecting arrangements that have worked well for those powerful enough to put the arrangements in place. This blocks upward mobility for those less wired to power. Obama, startled that components of government behave as interest groups, seems utterly unfamiliar with public choice theory. It demystifies and deromanticizes politics by applying economic analysis -- how incentives influence behavior -to government. It shows how elected officials and bureaucrats pursue personal aggrandizement as much as people do in the private sector. In the public sector's profit motive, profit is measured by power rather than money. Obama's tardy epiphanies do not temper his enthusiasm for giving sauropod government ever-deeper penetration into society. He thinks this serves equality. Actually, big government inevitably drives an upward distribution of wealth to those whose wealth, confidence and sophistication enable them deplored growth that "has to manipulate government. The day before Obama flowed to a fortunate few." But the monetary policy he shared with MSNBC favors -- very low his conclusion that big interest rates, driving government defends its money into equities in irrationalities but is search of higher yields insufficiently big, his -- is a powerful engine speech du jour of inequality. Since deplored today's the Dow closed at increasing inequality 7,949 on Inauguration and distrust of governDay 2009, it has doument. He seems oblivibled, benefiting the 10 ous to the mutual caupercent who hold 80 sations at work. percent of directly Of course Americans distrust one anoth- George F. owned stocks. The hope is that some of er more as more and this wealth will trickle more factions fight one down. another for preferential Suppose there were treatment by government. Of course government not 16 government agencies "to becomes drained of dignity, and help businesses, large and small, becomes corrosive of social in all kinds of ways." Suppose cohesion, as it becomes a bigger there were none. Such barnacles dispenser of inequality through on big government institutionalbenefits to those sufficiently ize the scramble for government clever and connected to work its favors; these agencies are a standing incitement to bend levers. Obama correctly says that not public power for private advanonly do we "tend to trust our tage. Hence they increase disinstitutions less," we also "tend trust of government, diminish to trust each other less." Of social solidarity and aggravate course there are parallel increas- the most indefensible inequality es in distrust: Government's dig- -- that driven by government disnity diminishes as government pensations. Obama's solution to the probgrows to serve factions of those sophisticated at manipulating its lem of the 16 is to "consolidate" allocation of preferences. Social them, replacing 16 small subsolidarity is a casualty of gov- tractions from good governance ernment grown big because it with one big one. Progressives recognizes no limits to its dis- consider this progress. pensing of favors. George Will's email address Obama's speech denounced "trickle-down ideology" and is georgewill@washpost.com. Will