SAMARA OSHIRO
STAFF WRITER
The class of 2019 helped Moanalua High School make it to the top of the charts on last spring’s Smarter Balanced Assessment in Language Arts. Moanalua reached its all-time high proficiency rate of 78 percent in English, which was also the highest in the state. It was an improvement from last year’s 74 percent.
In addition, the percentage of English Language Learners on track to reach proficiency skyrocketed to 40 percent, up from 24 percent the year before.
The math proficiency rate for the seniors was 44, a number the department has been hovering around for the past several years.
Language Arts Department Chair Liane Voss said the Expository Writing I classes have been using a writing curriculum from the California State University for the past four years. That, coupled with consistent teaching practices led to the increase in scores over the years, Voss said.
“Last year, we introduced SURF (silent reading) and ten-minute writing assignments in all of the grade levels because we wanted them to practice the skill of reading and writing frequently enough so that where they were not afraid of either one,” Voss said.
With the consistency throughout the year, students were able to learn new content as well as writing strategies that are essential for testing.
“As we continue to use these two strategies over the years, my expectation is [the students will] get stronger and stronger,” Voss said.
The math department said the teachers were not trying to focus too much on the test but instead teach the core math principles such as modeling and communicating their understanding.
Math Department Chair Jason Nagaoka said Moanalua students are not always familiar with the way the SBAC test questions are worded, so he collaborated with three other math teachers on Oahu to create a bank of SBAC test-like questions to “help students gain more familiarity, comfort, more understanding” of the test, Nagaoka said.
ELL Department Chair Jana Moore said her teachers are just “doggone good.”
“W.we hold the language learners to the same standards as everyone else in the school, but then we provide additional support to help them reach those same goals,” Moore said. “That additional support can come in many different forms: it might mean extra work with vocabulary or writing development, reading comprehension or speaking opportunities. Sometimes the students just need extra time to work on assignments. It really depends upon the student and where they need help to succeed academically.”
Moanalua High School Principal Robin Martin acknowledged that these numbers represent different classes and therefore different students.
She said the upwards trend shows that teachers and the staff are pushing students in the right direction. Moanalua remains consistent with its scores with gradual increases and is beginning to further close the gaps between the special education and ELL students.
“I’m happy to see that our language arts scores were up again and although our math scores aren’t up, we are still consistent. We are always looking for ways to improve,” she said.
“How you teach is more important that what you teach,” Martin said, adding that the entire school undergoes training throughout the year on effective teaching practices.
