Guam students not making the grade with SAT-10

by Krystal Paco

Guam - Local students apparently aren't making the grade when it comes to meeting proficiency in SAT-10 scores. According to deputy superintendent for curriculum and instructional improvement Joe Sanchez, the island's schools are slowly improving, but not fast enough to keep up with rising proficiency standards.

He adds although teachers are asked to better align their instruction with SAT-10 expectations, the test is only one measure. "Another aspect of it is our criterion reference test that we're developing. That's a test that's actually designed to measure what's happening in the classroom," he explained.

Sanchez says that meeting proficiency is a problem nationwide as U.S. schools aren't passing 50% proficiency either. Most recently the nation dropped down to 5% proficiency in math, with Guam at 1%.