Poor Schools Rich in Talent

It’s easy to guess which students will dominate the annual science fair--usually those from schools equipped with high-tech laboratories, those with educated, affluent parents to offer motivation and advice.

This year’s Orange County Science and Engineering Fair was no different. Irvine schools, with their science enrichment programs and students with high-income backgrounds, took home more than a third of the 224 awards after last week’s competition.

But Santa Ana Valley High School--where 60% of students have limited English abilities and most come from low-income backgrounds--popped up consistently during Sunday’s awards ceremony, garnering nine prizes for its entries.

And Acaciawood School, a small private school founded four years ago, won 19 awards despite teaching science courses in rented church classrooms without lab facilities.

Acaciawood and Santa Ana Valley High ranked below only University and Woodbridge high schools, Irvine’s two perennial science fair winners, in the number of prizes won in the senior division. Overall, 450 students from 56 schools participated in the competition.

“The awards just underscore how even though you may have some disadvantaged students, that doesn’t mean they don’t have the motivation and ability to work hard,” Valley High Principal Robert Nelson said.

The ambition to succeed appears to be an equalizing factor for these students, who rely on themselves and supportive teachers and parents to create winning science projects in the absence of classrooms with cutting-edge resources.

“These students come from really poor socioeconomic backgrounds, and they think education is the key to getting out of their situation,” Valley High chemistry teacher Cheryl Estes said. “They’re so self-motivated and self-driven.”

Valley High has only one classroom with a chemistry lab, and three teachers take turns using it when their students are doing experiments. Most of the sinks in the lab don’t work.

Students prepared their science fair displays using a computer that arrived on campus only two days before the projects were due, thanks to a state technology grant.

Money from candy sales purchased the cart the new computer sits on and the color ink-jet printer it’s hooked up to.

Estes said she has cases of beakers and other supplies on order after the school received a state science education grant last year.

“I just don’t know when we’ll get the money again,” Estes said.

The students who submit entries to the science fair know what they’re up against but choose to focus on their own work.

“We talk about how Irvine people won awards and how disadvantaged we are, but we like to compete and try our best instead of looking at other schools and judging how they did,” said Thuan Doan, who took first prize in the botany division. “Valley doesn’t have a lot of money or funding, but the teachers and students are what make a difference.”

Janet Yamaguchi, who oversees education at Santa Ana’s Discovery Science Center and has judged numerous district science fairs, said caring teachers contribute the most to student achievement. “The Santa Ana students so often don’t get help from parents who are university professors or high-tech employees,” Yamaguchi said. “The fact that they can compete and win in those types of fields is incredible. It’s the dedicated staff they have. That’s the only way that can happen.”

Indeed, Estes and other Valley High science teachers kept their classrooms open after school and on weekends so their students could work on experiments.

At Acaciawood School, which is looking for permanent facilities while renting space from an Anaheim church, chemistry students must use labs at nearby Cypress College and head for the local public library to do research.

Assistant Principal Hallie Williamson said the work ethic the school instills in its students is what translates into results.

“Our philosophy is that we are training the students’ character through academic rigor, so our program is very intense,” Williamson said. “We require a lot of homework every night. I think the reason our students had an edge is they work hard. They’re used to working hard and producing quality work.”