Troy Triumphs Again

Troy High School’s principal and about a dozen star students missed out on celebrating the school’s latest award Monday, but with good reason: They were still out of town after nailing another prestigious national award over the weekend.

The school was among five in Orange County to receive a Blue Ribbon award Monday from the U.S. Department of Education. It added that accolade to a weekend victory in the National Science Olympiad, Troy’s second in a row.

The other local Blue Ribbon schools were Aliso Niguel High and Aliso Viejo Middle schools--both in the Capistrano Unified School District--as well as Laguna Hills High and Newport Harbor High.

The award, which alternates between elementary and secondary schools each year, recognizes schools with high student achievement, strong parental involvement and strong arts and technology programs.

“These two incredible accomplishments are a statement about the entire Troy program,” said assistant principal Maggie Buchan. “It’s such a reward for the teachers and students to be recognized from the outside.”

Troy’s name has become synonymous with excellence through its Troy Tech program, a rigorous, four-year sequence of course work that emphasizes science and technology.

The program, which includes 1,500 of the school’s 2,100 students, attracts entrants from 95 Southern California middle schools. Last year, about 960 eighth-graders took the entrance exam for 350 available freshman spaces, said Gee Gee Walker, Troy Tech’s coordinator.

But the school has another side that often gets overlooked--a special education program that gives students with severe and multiple handicaps hands-on job training as well as instruction in core subjects.

The school finds jobs at bookstores, restaurants and local companies for about 40 disabled students, said department chairman Rich Hess. Students use the money they earn to fund field trips like the one they’re leaving for today: a four-day excursion to Yosemite with teachers.

Still, science and technology education is the hallmark of Troy’s overall program, and its continued success in national competitions--the Science Olympiad victory was the school’s third in five years--makes it a natural model for other educators. Even among the many science magnets nationwide, the school continues to stand out.

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At a time when education officials are concerned about America’s low ranking in science, Troy’s accomplishments provide some interesting lessons. Certainly, it helps that Troy can test and pick its students, a motivated group who work hard and have supportive parents and highly trained teachers.

But the school also goes out of its way to teach the practical applications of science that can spark student interest by placing mundane concepts in a real-life context. Students here don’t just listen and take notes; they also build and create.

Troy Tech students start ninth grade with Introduction to Computer Technology, where they learn about circuits and switches and eventually build their own simple calculators to add and subtract single-digit numbers.

After two years of advanced computer science classes, seniors apply that knowledge to internships in varying fields, including physics, engineering and medicine.

“I think the prime thing Troy exemplifies is that if you put passion and knowledge in a context that has meaning, you have a dynamic program,” said Ed Rodevich, a coordinator for math and science at the Orange County Department of Education. “They have a dedicated teaching staff that’s constantly looking to make connections with applications for the real world.”

And students in the selective magnet program, which grants admission based on entrance exam scores, are not computer “geeks.”

Many students opt not to do their internships in science fields, deciding instead to teach, give piano lessons or work for law offices instead.

In Craig Steele’s sixth-period advanced placement computer science class Monday sat students who are not only programming whizzes, but also have musical talent and own trophies from debate and journalism competitions.

For these students, who aren’t the attention-grabbers of the Science Olympiad team, the Blue Ribbon award confirms their accomplishments.

“It makes us feel special to go to a school with such standing,” said junior Ashley Chuang, 16.