Education Week - October 2, 2013 - 10

Mostly Smooth Start
Greets Pre-K Launch
In City of San Antonio
By Julie Blair
Just weeks after the city of San
Antonio launched its innovative,
$248 million Pre-K 4 SA program
for preschoolers from poor and
working-class families, administrators
have already made adjustments
both large and small to improve
the system.
Parents and children were impressed
by the knowledgeable staff, a
curriculum that’s both high-tech and
high-touch, and sparkling new facilities
on opening day last month. But
the enrollment system, in particular,
proved cumbersome. That challenge,
in part, may be to blame for the 80
seats still unfilled at one of the two
preschools now in place, said Deputy
City Manager Peter Zanoni.
Mayor’s Brainchild
The citywide preschool program
is the brainchild of Mayor Julian
Castro, a high-profile Democrat
who pushed through an eighth-ofa-cent
sales tax hike to finance the
project. The objective over the next
eight years is to educate 22,400
4-year-olds who otherwise would
be ineligible to take part in other
school district preschool programs.
“Pre-K 4 SA is off to a strong start,”
Mr. Castro said in an e-mail interview.
“In the 10 months after voters
approved the program, we stood up
two centers, hired dozens of teachers
and support staff and, more importantly,
watched more than 600
4-year-olds begin their academic careers
in a high-quality environment.”
He added that he is “fully confident
that ... our relationships with local
school districts will mature in the
coming years to the point where we
reach every available child that is
hungry to learn.”
Ashley Johnson, the mother of twin
4-year-old girls who attend the preschool
on the city’s south side, expects
the program to encounter some growing
pains, but is happy with what
she’s seen so far.
“I think they’re going to be well
advanced when they hit kindergarten
next year,” she said of her
children. She cited friendly and responsive
teachers, spacious classrooms
with large windows, and
classroom iPads.
Meanwhile, the city is pushing
forward with the construction of
the western- and eastern-area preschools,
even as critics continue to
question the need for a program that
they deem too expensive and say duplicates
other preschool services already
offered in San Antonio.
San Antonio has 15 separate school
districts within its borders, enrolling
a total of 315,000 students. The seven
districts partnering in the preschool
program are each allotted a number
of seats based on their populations
and will receive professional development,
a chance to apply for competitive
grants totaling $5.4 million
and monthly on-campus workshops
for students’ families on literacy and
numeracy.
Assessing Demand
But the city has not done a thorough
needs assessment, said Jill C. Thrift, a
San Antonio resident and critic of the
program who has been a critic of the
program since its inception.
“My take is that, outwardly,
their marketing firm has done a
remarkable job of projecting an
amazing program,” said Ms. Thrift,
FROM ABOVE:
Mya, left, and Mia Johnson, 4,
practice a cheer with teaching
assistant Krystal Garcia at
Pre-K 4 SA’s Southside location
in San Antonio.
Children participate in an
interactive game during
the after-school program
at the school at Pre-K 4 SA.
who has a Ph.D in early-childhood
education. “But I don’t see the innovations.”

It’s also possible that the southern
preschool campus has open slots
because the poorest children took
assignments in Head Start or other
district-based programs, proof she
said, that Pre-K 4 SA is a duplication
of services.
Mayor Castro, however, argues
that while the federal Head Start
program and school-district-based
alternatives afforded a total of 3,400
San Antonio children preschool, another
2,300 were not served.
San Antonio is not the only municipality
offering city-run preschool.
San Francisco partnered
with its school district to offer a
comprehensive preschool program
called First 5 San Francisco in
2005, said Laurel Kloomok, executive
director. That program is open
to all 4-year-olds, without income
restrictions.
In San Antonio, those eligible for
Pre-K 4 SA include children whose
families’ income falls at or below
185 percent of the federal poverty
line (or about $42,000 for a family
of four); who are homeless or one-
time or current wards of foster care;
who are English-language learners;
or who have a parent who is a living
or deceased member of the U.S.
armed forces.
Program Eligibility
An additional 10 percent of the
seats are reserved for families who
belong to none of the designated categories
and are chosen by lottery.
The program begins at 7:15 a.m.,
Latest SAT Results Show No Change in Students’ Average Scores
By Caralee J. Adams
SAT scores remained flat for students
in the class of 2013, with just
43 percent performing well enough
to be considered college-ready—the
same proportion as last year, according
to results issued last week by the
College Board.
Yet, African-American and Latino
students in this year’s graduating
class saw slight gains. Also, a record
share of students taking the collegeentrance
exam—46 percent—were
minorities.
Overall, 15.6 percent of AfricanAmericans
in the class of 2013 who
took the exam met or exceeded the
College Board’s college-ready benchmark,
compared with 14.8 percent
in 2012. Among Latinos, 23.5 percent
reached that level, up from 22.8
percent the previous year.
The New York City-based College
Board, which administers the SAT,
released the results for 1.7 million
test-takers on Sept. 26. This total
represented a drop of about 4,400 in
the number of students taking the
exam from the class of 2012. Participation
had grown every year since
1990, except for a slight dip between
2004 and 2005.
David Coleman, the president of
the College Board, said he is concerned
about the volume of students
taking the SAT, but that the organization’s
deeper obligation is to provide
opportunity.
“We are not counting the number
of tests kids take. We are counting
the number of opportunities kids
actually pursue to advance [themselves],”
he said in a phone call with
reporters last week. “That is a newly
deep focus within this College Board
and everything we do.”
ACT Inc. reported 1.8 million high
school students took its college-entrance
exam this year, following a
10 | EDUCATION WEEK | October 2, 2013 | www.edweek.org
rise of 22 percent over the past five
years. In the same period, SAT testtakers
grew by 6 percent.
The College Board announced
plans earlier this year to change the
SAT in 2015 to more closely reflect
the Common Core State Standards
and what is taught in the classroom,
a shift welcomed by many collegeadmissions
officers.
Benefit of Rigorous Courses
Among SAT test-takers in the class
of 2013, the mean score was 496 in
critical reading, 514 in math, and
488 in writing, the same as in 2012
and generally consistent with performance
in the past five years. The
College Board set a combined 1550 as
the benchmark score it determined
students need to likely make a GPA of
B- or higher as college freshmen.
Overall, 43 percent of test-takers
met the threshold, with 52.7 percent
of white students and 60.2 percent
of Asian students scoring at least
1550 in the class of 2013.
While wide racial gaps persist, performance
by some underrepresented
minorities improved, including African
Americans and Hispanics.
However, 33.5 percent of Ameri-
can Indians met the benchmark
for the class of 2013, compared
with 34 percent the year before.
Performance among white
students was slightly better in
2012, with 53.1 percent meeting
the benchmark, while Asians
improved with 59.5 percent making
at least 1550 in the previous
year’s graduating class.
African-American, Latino, and
American-Indian students made up
30 percent of the SAT takers in the
class of 2013, an increase from 27
percent five years ago. In 2009, all
minorities comprised 40 percent of
SAT takers, and this year they repre-
“
We are not counting
the number of tests
kids take. We are
counting the
number of
opportunities kids
actually pursue
to advance
themselves.”
DAVID COLEMAN
The College Board
Photos by Jennifer Whitney for Education Week
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - October 2, 2013

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