STAR Scores Show Costa Gains in Science

Students in the Manhattan Beach Unified School District have improved in almost every subject and grade, according to results from the 2010 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program.

Mira Costa Mustangs, in particular, made eyebrow-raising leaps in science.

"Our science scores have been going up every year," said Mira Costa's science lab assistant Karen Cunningham, who came on board four years ago. Department faculty point to her arrival as one of the tipping points.

In 2006, 65 percent of Mira Costa students scored as proficient or advanced on biology end-of-course testing. Four years later, 82 percent of students were in those scoring categories.

Earth sciences scores have improved even more. Only 38 percent of Mira Costa students were proficient or advanced in 2006, but by 2010, 74 percent of them were. A similar story applies to the school's test scores for chemistry, physics and life sciences.

The annually climbing science scores are the culmination of MBUSD's increasing focus on science and hands-on learning that starts when students are just beginning their elementary education, said Carolyn Seaton, the district's executive director of educational services.

Excellent teachers in the classroom and supportive parents at home are also a big part of student success, she added.

Elementary schools in MBUSD have science lab specialists who bring depth to science lessons, while middle schoolers take science classes in real lab environments, where they perform hands-on experiments. And Mira Costa high schoolers are doing more complex labs more frequently, Seaton said.

Many of these resources—the elementary science specialists, the high school lab assistant, and even additional teacher positions to ensure smaller class sizes—are funded directly by the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation, an organization founded by Manhattan Beach parents and community leaders in 1984 to raise money for local schools.

"We've grown from funding programs at $10,000, to providing 10 percent of the school district's budget," said Susan Warshaw, the foundation's executive director. "We raised $4.4 million last school year."

At Mira Costa, the foundation-funded addition of Cunningham to the science department staff marked the beginning of students' significant gains on annual science tests.

Cunningham's main purpose is to encourage and facilitate science labs. She researches and recommends labs to science teachers, does all of the purchasing and setting up of lab materials, and is an extra set of eyes and hands in the lab classroom.

"Karen is amazing," said Karl Kurz, an earth sciences teacher at the high school. "She makes my job easier; because of her, I get to explore and try different labs. I get to do more hands-on activities with the kids.

"Class can't be a boring lecture all the time, so I try to make [students] actively involved," he added.

Dan Sponaugle, a biology teacher who's been at Mira Costa for 23 years, thinks Cunningham is one of the best investments the science department has ever made.

"It's too bad that not all schools can afford to have a lab assistant," he said. "Kids learn by doing things. If you're just lecturing about theory, it gets really boring. Just the fact that we're doing more labs—that helps."

Improved STAR scores aren't the only result of all this hands-on science learning.

"We've had students who've gone on to focus in science at great universities like Stanford and Harvard," Cunningham said.

Related: State Releases 2010 Standardized Test Results