PD Editorial: Park it

<p>We’re tempted to write-off the dust-up over parking spaces at Santa Rosa High School as much ado about nothing. But there is something there.</p><p>Principal Jim Goddard has decided that rather than award the coveted 50 “senior” parking spaces at the Ridgway Avenue lot on a lottery basis, they should go to those seniors who have posted top scores in the STAR tests — or are showing significant improvement.</p><p>What’s wrong with that?</p><p>Nothing, except for the fact that, before now, the STAR test has been virtually meaningless to high school students.</p><p>And there’s the rub.</p><p>For all the attention STAR test results get each year, there’s little at stake for students individually — while, for the schools themselves, everything is at stake.</p><p>For students, the tests aren’t calculated in their grades, their advancement or their graduation. It’s one of the arguments why STAR tests should not be used to evaluate teacher performance. <i>Why should teachers be judged by a test that is meaningless to students?</i></p><p>It’s a fair question.</p><p>Certainly, we would like to believe that all students would give their best effort on a class test regardless of the purpose. And some do. But older children aren’t much different than adults on this score. Without rewards or consequences, some will take it seriously and some won’t.</p><p>Goddard might have been able to avoid this controversy entirely had he made the new parking policy clear before juniors took the test last spring. That would have left seniors this year with little to squawk about.</p><p>Nevertheless, he’s on the right path in wanting to come up with incentives to motivate students to take these tests more seriously. If he and other educators succeed, it may encourage more parents to take the results of these tests — particularly for high schools — more seriously as a true gauge of how students are doing.</p><p>But it’s going to take a lot more than a parking space to make that happen.</p>