RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2011 | Vol. 87, No. 77 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
INSIDE: Smackdown! Sports, A10
SWHS test scores beat state averages
django comes to town
Musicians, fans and devotees of gypsy jazz gather in Langley for annual festival
BY BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
LANGLEY — For the 13th year in a row, South Whidbey High School students outperformed the state average on standardized exams. Washington state high school students take a standardized test called the High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE) every spring. Students during the 2009-2010 school year were tested on reading, writing and science, along with end of curriculum exams (EOC) which replaced the muchmaligned WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning). South Whidbey science scores improved the most, from 54.3 percent in 2009-2010 to 66.7 percent in 2010-11. “I’m real pleased with our scores,” said South Whidbey John Patton principal John Patton. “You look at our math and science department and they really prepared our kids well.” One of the school’s science teachers, Greg Ballog, agreed that preparing students to take the exam was important to improving their scores. However, he made a distinction between educating students and teaching them for a test. “It’s fine to get good scores, but that’s not our focus,” Ballog said. SEE SCORES, A20
SWHS Test Scores Brian Kelly / The Record
The sounds of gypsy jazz have been wafting through the Village by the Sea this week since the five-day festival began on Wednesday. Whidbey Island Center for the Arts and Langley Middle School are hosting the DjangoFest Northwest concerts, though “djammers” have been gathering at locations all over town for impromptu music sessions. At top, Libor Michalak of Vancouver, B.C. plays clarinet at a jam session outside Useless Bay Coffee Co. with Peter Kim, also of Vancouver, at top right, and Larry Murphy of Calgary, Alberta and Chris Bonthron of Eugene, Ore., above, Thursday evening. Concerts, workshops and special events for DjangoFest NW continues through Sunday. For a complete schedule, visit www.wicaonline.com.
2009-2010
STILL TO COME DjangoFest Concert Lineup at Langley Middle School 3 P.M. SATURDAY: Gonzalo Bergara and Adrien Moignard, Howard Alden and Anat Cohen Daisy Castro
High School Proficiency Exam
2010-2011
10TH GRADE READING PERCENTAGE 8 P.M. SATURDAY: Antoine and Sebastien Boyer with Daisy Castro, Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing 3 P.M. SUNDAY Djangomatics, Lache Cercel Roma Swing Ensemble 7 P.M. SUNDAY Hot Club Sandwich and Grapelli Jelly All-Star Djam
89.1
85.8
10TH GRADE MATH 43.7
62 (Math 1 algebra EOC*) 91.9 (Math 2 geometry EOC)
10TH GRADE WRITING 94.1
92.4
10TH GRADE SCIENCE 54.3
66.7 *EOC: End-of-course exam.