WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers YES!—Park View Center Elementary School fourth-grader Rutwick Tipireddy, 10, is happy with himself after scoring well on a spelling quiz while working at a computer station during one of the school's READ 180 intervention classes. On the way to class at Park View Center Elementary School, a student runs up to Principal Tony Karch to pose a question.

"Are we going to play soccer today?" he asks Karch, who reminds the boy that the fields are still damp from that morning's rain.

"Not today," the principal says. "Tomorrow."

But in the classroom, Karch and his staff do everything they can to help their students today.

One of four Title I schools in the Simi Valley Unified School District, Park View is making strides to reduce the learning gap between native English speakers and English language learners, a group that makes up 48 percent of the school's 366member student body.

A Title I school has a high percentage of students from lowincome families and receives intervention programs and funding from the U.S. Department of Education.

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers READING UP—Blake Armstrong, 9, a fourth-grader at Park View Center Elementary, gets some extra practice with reading and comprehension in his READ 180 class. In 2007, English learners at Park View scored an average of 642 on their statewide Academic Performance Index (API) test, compared to a schoolwide average of 725, a difference of 83. This past year, English learners narrowed the gap to 71, scoring an average of 676 compared to the schoolwide average of 747. The state goal is 800.

Although the school improved its overall API scores by 22 points over last year, Karch noticed an alarming trend: In the past eight years, whenever Park View improved its API scores, it suffered a drop in test scores the next year.

Karch, in his first year at the school since leaving Katherine Elementary, hopes that trend will end this year.

"We have to maintain our progress," said Karch, who received a Lew Roth Award for academic excellence while at Katherine. "We can't go backward. We expect to go forward."

In its ongoing effort to give extra help to the students who need it most, Park View employs 10 part-time Title I teachers, who work with students on various language arts and math skills.

In a class called "Read 180," for fourth, fifth and sixthgraders, students work in groups focused on the written and spoken word.

"We want them to be reading independently so they feel comfortable picking up a book and reading it on their own," said Joy Barkyoumb, who has taught at Park View for 29 years, including the last three as a literacy coach.

Karch said it takes students new to English from three to six years to grasp the language.

That's why the various intervention classes are vital to getting students back into their regular classrooms, he said. The principal said fourth grade is often a pivotal time for students.

"Right around fourth grade, they're right on the cusp of becoming proficient in English," Karch said. "That's when we want them to turn their corner."

Simi's Title I schools, which include Berylwood, Abraham Lincoln and Santa Susana elementary schools, each have a literacy coach who keeps track of the progress of socioeconomically disadvantaged and/or English-learning students.

For the past year and a half, Park View has offered a federally funded after-school program for first- through sixth-graders.

The program is designed for students with two working parents. It provides, from 2:30 to 6 p.m., art and science instruction, homework support, crafts and snacks. There are around 80 students in the program.

On Mon., Nov. 24, Park View plans to launch another afterschool program that is expected to help more than 90 students.

Four classes will help kindergartners learning English to improve their language development. The other eight classes are geared toward math

Barkyoumb said she thinks Park View will change its cycle of rising and falling test scores.

"I think that's going to change," she said. "Our staff has honed in on deficient areas for individuals and for populations of kids."

It's not about test scores, reading and math all the time at Park View. There's also time for fun.

The school is in the midst of a three-week soccer tournament. Karch and a couple of fathers from the newly formed Dads Club are helping out as referees. Students will also shoot hoops in a basketball tournament later in the year.

Between classes, groups of students run up to Karch and Barkyoumb, giving each of them big hugs.

"The students are respectful here," Karch said. "They're hardworking kids, and they're grateful kids. They really are. They're aware of the help they're getting, and they are grateful for that."