Obligated to succeed

Sterling Gates is all ready to ace the California Standards Tests this year. After all, it’s stipulated in his contract.

The Adams Elementary School fourth-grader, who began taking the annual standardized tests on Tuesday, recently signed a contract in class promising to use a helpful strategy on the exam. Each of his classmates, he said, had to promise to follow one testing method — underlining key words, not gripping the pencil too hard, avoiding guessing — and sign his or her name in cursive at the bottom of the page.

Sterling, 9, chose to look for key words in the test questions. Having a contract, he said, gave him a little more confidence for the exam.

“It kind of feels better because you know that you’re going to use that strategy, but you can use the other ones too,” he said.

The California Standards Tests, introduced in 1999, are the main benchmark by which the government rates schools’ performance. This year, seven Newport-Mesa schools are on the federal Program Improvement list and are counting on high enough scores to avoid sanctions under the No Child Left Behind Act. Most students, though, said they viewed the tests as they would any other: a lot of preparation, followed by a few intense days in class, then relief.

“We’ve been practicing for so long — finally we can stop talking about it,” Sterling’s classmate, Laura Griffin, 9, said.

For the last month in Newport-Mesa, teachers offered practice test questions and drilled students in English and math. The community’s after-school programs got in the act as well. The Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, which serves Pomona Elementary School students, held test cramming for the first time in history.

“The weeks leading up to the testing were pretty intensive with the studies,” said manager Shannon Santos. “We were going a little beyond the actual homework assistance.”

Eduardo Ahnatz, a fifth-grader at Wilson Elementary School, said he had prepared for the tests with a practice book that he inherited from his cousin. His classmate, Bobby Muniz, had devoted 30 minutes every day to studying for the test over the last few weeks.

“Sometimes I go online and look up all the vocabulary words,” said Bobby, 10.

Newport Elementary School third-grader Amber Smith said the test was no big deal after the material she had covered in class.

“It’s all the same questions,” Amber, 8, said. “It’s a little long, though.”