Parking-spot envy erupts at Santa Rosa High

Santa Rosa High School seniors are miffed that long-coveted parking spots will be awarded only to seniors who have posted standout marks on last spring’s standardized tests — a policy at least one parent says runs afoul of confidentiality requirements.

This issue highlights a burgeoning debate over whether more should be done at the state level to press students to try harder on tests that affect schools and districts but mean little to individual students.

The 50 spots in the Ridgway Avenue lot closest to campus have long been reserved for seniors who have registered their vehicles — in recent years paying $70 for the privilege.

But this year, Principal Jim Goddard said only seniors who have posted top scores or significant improvement on the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program they took last spring as juniors will get access to the spots. The rest will pay $3 annually and have to find a spot elsewhere in the 200-space lot.

“They deserve to get a kudo. Why not? We do it for all kinds of other things,” Goddard said.

But one parent claims the plan discriminates against students on the basis of test scores that she believes are required to be anonymous.

“Legally, that standardized testing is not supposed to be used for anything” other than academic purposes, said Brenda Flyswithhawks, whose daughter Romajean is a senior and did not get a spot. “Santa Rosa High School is discriminating.”

“Myself and other parents have a problem with that,” she said.

Seniors who scored either proficient or advanced on both the math and English portions, or who posted enough of a gain to advance a level, earned a parking space in the new arrangement. The remaining 14 spaces not yet reserved will be announced Thursday after drawing from students who posted top scores or gains in just one category, Goddard said.

Some students and parents complained the deal was announced after seniors had taken the test last spring as juniors — essentially taking away a prize they deserved by rite.

Goddard is "making a consequence this year for something that has already passed,” said Andrew Walzer, senior class president who did earn a spot with his scores. “Everyone feels a little bit cheated.”

State officials said it was unclear whether rewarding students for tests they take by student identification number and not by name runs afoul of secrecy regulations.

“This is something that is kind of new, so I’m not sure exactly where we stand on it. Could it be a violation of confidentiality? It’s pushing the line,” said John Boivin, administrator for the state department of education’s STAR program office.

“The word ‘confidential’ is nowhere in the law as it relates to STAR testing anyway,” Boivin said.

A state attorney affiliated with the department of education was not available for comment Monday.

Students at Santa Rosa High were notified they had earned a parking spot by a list posted by student identification number. The list did not differentiate between students who earned the spot by scoring proficient or advanced, and those who earned the spot by improving their scores significantly.

Goddard expressed frustration that the issue was generating any pushback.

“There are reward systems for all sorts of things, whether it’s your grade point average, or your National Merit Scholars, for doing well academically — it’s no different,” he said.

Attaching a reward to STAR testing gives juniors a concrete reason to focus on doing well — something the test has lacked for years because students are neither rewarded nor penalized for how they score even though schools and districts are monitored closely for those same results, he said.

“If the kids blow it off, is there a penalty? Really, no. But it hurts the school and hurts the school’s reputation,” he said.

Santa Rosa High earned a 770 on its 2009 growth Academic Performance Index — the state measure of student learning. Among Santa Rosa City Schools high schools, only Maria Carrillo High scored better with a 842 out of 1,000. The state target is 800.

“We test these kids to death. We beat up the teachers for teaching content standards and everything else,” Goddard said. “You know what? We have good kids on this campus who can do very well, who don’t — probably because it’s not an incentive-based test.”

Students admitted as much.

“If they would have told us that ‘Oh, it’s going to reflect on whether you are going to get a parking spot,’ I think people would have tried harder,” said Romajean Flyswithhawks, who did not get a spot. “People would be like, ‘OK, I actually have to try.’”

The concern over students feeling little or no vested interest in test scores is a concern that is gaining traction at the state level, Boivin said.

“There isn’t really a lot of incentive for kids, so there is discussion for providing greater incentives, especially for kids in high school,” Boivin said. “STAR test results as part of your transcripts — that is being discussed over in the Legislature.”

That is too late for senior Meagan Barnard, who said she won’t be getting one of the 50 spots.

“It’s just a parking spot, but for me I was crushed because I always wanted to park there,” she said. “All the seniors hang out there. You work your way up there and you work your way up to those spots. It’s silly, but it’s important to the seniors.”