High Test Scores Due to Hard Work
* Shame on Stephen Krashen for implying that the outstanding spring 2000 Stanford 9 test scores at San Juan Elementary School are the result of statistical manipulation or even cheating (Letters, Aug. 6).
Why impugn the efforts of these students and their teachers because of a debate over methodology? Shouldn’t we put the children first and simply be pleased that regardless of methodology they are gaining literacy in the English language?
I know for a fact how San Juan Elementary School students improved their test scores: hard work.
Equally impressive gains in student achievement at San Juan Elementary School were noted on the district’s own CORE Level tests, corroborating the Stanford 9 results.
According to the measure utilized by the California Department of Education, 99% of students at San Juan Elementary School were tested. Krashen’s conspiracy theory boils down to this: Out of 674 second- through fifth-grade students, only one was absent and not tested.
AUSTIN G. BUFFUM
Deputy superintendent
Capistrano Unified School District
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