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# Students, teachers flying high
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/students-teachers-flying-high/
- Published: 2006-08-31T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T21:21:19.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*By Daily Press staff*

Students throughout Santa Monica and Malibu schools have posted double-digit gains in proficiency tests for English and math at nearly every grade level.

Harry M. Keiley, the head of the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teacher’s Association (SMMCTA) hailed the dramatic rise in district test scores, saying the test results are “an extraordinary achievement for the area’s teachers and students.”

For Keiley, the test results were almost as much a validation for the district’s teachers as it was for their students.

“We all acknowledge that class sizes are way too big from fourth all the way up to 12th grade,” Keiley said. “We all know that there’s been tremendous turnover in terms of school administrators. We’ve gone through superintendents, interim superintendents and schools without principals. That our teachers and their students brought back those results in the face of all those obstacles was like a runner winning a 10K race while carrying a bowling bowl.”

Overly large class sizes have been an even bigger problem in area high schools where a typical teacher will instruct as many as 150 students a day.

As pleased as Keiley and area teachers are about the recent test results, they still take the results with a grain of salt. The union strongly opposes what many see as an over reliance on standardized testing.

“In a technological society, teaching children to think independently and critically is much more important than teaching them how to take any particular test,” said Sarah Braff, SMMCTA’s vice president.

Still, the marked improvement in the district’s scores comes at a good time for area teachers, who are set to begin contract negotiations with representatives from the district, a fact that Keiley acknowledges with a smile.

“Our teachers have certainly produced results,” he said. “Now it’s time for the district to step up and pay them like the skilled professionals we know they are.” CLARE looks for friends

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 31, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/083106.pdf?ref=smdp.com)