Math

LA CRESCENTA — Elementary school students teamed up with unknown peers during a series of math competitions Saturday that produced the Glendale Unified School District’s representatives for regional contests. The fourth- through sixth-graders were randomly assigned to four-person teams made up of students from other schools to work alongside peers they had never met before in a quest for math supremacy, said DeDe Weber, organizer of the math field day and the district’s Gifted and Talented Education program coordinator.

GLENDALE — More than 86% of Glendale 10th-graders passed the state high school exit exam on the first try, according to the latest figures released Tuesday. While students can take the two-part English and math test until their senior year, the first try in 10th grade is used as the main benchmark. Seniors must pass the California High School Exit Exam in order to get their diplomas. Among Glendale Unified School District sophomores, 86% passed the English portion of the exam, while 90% passed the math section, according to the state Department of Education.

Unwrapping a Hershey’s bar, the first thing students noticed was that the bar is divided into 12 squares — four squares in three rows. Their first task of the assignment was to figure out how much candy was in one-third of a bar. Students in Tsolaire Aghamanoukian’s sixth-grade math class Monday morning at Chamlian Armenian School in Glendale worked in teams to isolate the correct portion of candy on their desks and write out the answer on their miniature white boards.

Alecia Foster GLENDALE -- Scholastic Assessment Test results offered a mixed bag for Glendale Unified high schools. The test is given to college-bound high school students. Results were released this week. Linda Evans, principal at Crescenta Valley High, was pleased by her school's scores -- both of which were higher than the state and national averages. "[The students] are really well placed to be accepted at top schools throughout the nation," she said.

The Glendale News-Press visited the sixth-grade Career Day and asked students, "What is the most important skill for all careers and why?" "Hard work and education. You need an education to start anything." Johanna Romero, 12 "Getting an education. If you don't have an education, you won't know how to do the things you need to know." Jerry Torres, 11 "I think reading. [In most] everything, you have to read things to know subjects and your career."

Judy Seckler DOWNTOWN -- Newly released Scholastic Assessment Test scores show Glendale's college-bound high school students continued an eight-year pattern of scoring higher than the state average in math and lower than the state in English. According to the 2000 results released Tuesday, Crescenta Valley scored an average of 516 in theverbal portion of the test and 571 in the math. Hoover High scored an average of 450 in verbal and 524 in math, while Glendale High scored an average 467 in verbal and 534 in math.

I don't understand math. I think 2+2=4, but for the city fathers, including smarty Gomez and the people handling (not managing) The Alex, it seems 2+2=3. Let's see: News-Press, "Alex needs 200K to survive." One week later, News-Press, "Free shows at The Alex." Please explain that math to me. Yes, children need culture, but make the parents pay -- no children allowed without a parent or adult who must pay. Now, why not rent The Alex to future filmmakers for shows, festivals, film classes ... you could get some much-needed revenue.

Glendale Community College will offer classes in electronics and robotics this fall. The electronics math class will cover math used in electronics and computer technology courses, including math theory and applications for circuit analysis. The electronics circuits class covers the principles of direct current and resistive circuits. Electronics classes meet from 2:30 to 3:31 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The robotics technology class and the automation and production control class are eight-week courses that study industrial robots and techniques used in automated manufacturing processes.

There is good news coming from our public school campuses, and it's not that a new school year is about to begin. Once again, our high school students outperformed their peers on statewide testing. The percentage of high school sophomores in Huntington Beach that passed the California High School Exit Exam in 2005 was 88% on the English test and 89% on the math, equal with the previous year, higher than in the rest of the county and a full 12% to 15% above state averages.