Local Students Rank Right Up There In Writing, Says National Evaluator

English teacher Tom Sullivan knows firsthand what it’ll take for his students to pass the Advanced Placement test next spring.

He read and scored roughly 500 AP essays in five days this summer, as an official “reader” for the College Board. It’s the fourth year in a row the Central Valley High School teacher has helped grade the AP tests, which come from students across the nation and abroad.

“I’ve seen my kids do writing that is every bit as good as the best” papers he scored in San Antonio this June, he said.

He works to pass that confidence on to his students. Returning the first paper of the year, an analysis of a British poem, “Toads,” he told one AP class, “You’re all bright people. We know that already. If you did really well on this paper, you can pat yourself on the back. If you didn’t do so many good things on this paper, you will on future ones.”

Sullivan said that reading so many AP essays each June starts out as a delight. “They’re intelligent, well-written and offer sometimes novel ideas.”

Inevitably, sameness sets in. “By the second or third day, you really have to focus,” he said.

The soft-spoken teacher comes away from the experience each year refreshed by working with “some of the best minds in the country, the best statisticians, the best test-makers.” And, he said, he’s been relieved to discover that the College Board, the organization responsible for AP tests, SATs, graduate school entrance exams and more, is made up of competent, compassionate people.

“They want to give credit for things kids do right … When you think of it, the College Board is an incredibly powerful organization - kind of like the CIA,” Sullivan said, with a grin.

Plum jam champions

Michele Kent’s third-graders at Progress Elementary won big with their first-day-of-school project - making plum jam.

Their entry won Grand Champion - Youth Division, beating out all canned goods entered by youths in the Spokane Interstate Fair.

“It’s real life learning” for the children, Kent said.

“For a lot of children, they don’t get to experince those kinds of things, things we all remember being so exciting: grandmothers canning jam and just the experience of entering something and having it picked - a job well done.

“Not to mention the lessons of measuring and reading and written language as we write about our jam and the fair.”

Plum jam has become a tradition for third-graders at Progress. Kent and Sharon Naccarato and Craig Johnston, who is new to Progress this year, couple the project with the book “A True Story: Plum Jam” to start the school year.

Over the years, said principal Jim Berry, the jam entries have progressed at the fair from red ribbons, to blue and, finally to this year’s grand championship.

The kids “can hardly wait to get their ribbon back,” Kent said.

Science Club

Sixty boys and girls watched, open-mouthed, as Keith McElroy dropped a flaming piece of paper into a short glass.

McElroy then cupped the glass against his bare arm. The glass hung from his forearm. Boys gasped; girls oohed.

And McElroy’s point, that hot air expands and cooler air contracts, was made.

McElroy is an assistant professor of science education at Washington State University. On Wednesday, he met with Ness Elementary School’s Science Club, in the first of a series of monthly meetings.

McElroy used simple household items: candles, hot water, paper bags, bottles and a quarter. “In the name of science, we do almost anything,” he said.

Ness Principal Tom Moore said more than 100 students applied to join the Science Club. He hopes McElroy’s graduate students will be able to join him in the afternoon meetings, to allow for more hands-on work for the children.

, DataTimes