Tassajara Preparatory High School hosted a contest at their Day on the Glen booth this past weekend that invited folks to guess the number of round-trip traffic signals between Lorenzo Court in east Dublin (in the magnificent Positano community) and Dublin High School. There are 61 total traffic signals from Lorenzo Court to Dublin High School: 31 going to Dublin High School and 30 on the return trip. The extra traffic signal is at Sybase Drive.

While none of the contest participants were able to guess 61 traffic signals right on the nose, three participants guessed 60 and another three participants guessed 62. With the six-way tie, all six tickets were thrown into a hat with five winning tickets randomly chosen. The first ticket randomly selected won the Grand Prize, the second ticket selected won the first 2nd place prize, etc. Here are the winning tickets:

• Grand Prize: $100 Blush Gift Card – 621631 (C. Hong with 62 traffic lights)
• 2nd Prize: $25 Extreme Pizza Gift Card and $25 Blush Gift Card – 621593 (L. Silva with 60 traffic lights), 621569 (K. Pond with 60 traffic lights)
• 3rd Prize: $25 Blush Gift Card – 621620 (A. Tsang with 62 traffic lights), 621581 (S. Punnamin with 60 traffic lights)

The graph shows the distribution of the guesses. The median guess was 46 traffic signals. Winning ticket holders can email admissions@dublinlearning.org to set up a date and time for prize-pickup at Blush Organic Frozen Yogurt in the Waterford Plaza.

Special thanks to Blush Organic Frozen Yogurt and Extreme Pizza for generously donating gift cards for this year’s Tassajara Prep Day on the Glen contest.

A review of the EdSource 2008 California Charter School Performance Update provides a very telling and positive assessment of charter high school performance. The 2008 scorecard uses data through the 2006-2007 school year. Here were some of the highlights:

• There were 617 charter schools in California representing 6.4% of all public schools and 3.6% of all students (225,095 kids).
• Of the 617 charter schools, 40% were high schools. In fact, there are more charter school students in grades 9 -12 than any other grades.
• After adjusting for differences in school size and characteristics, classroom-based charter high schools scored 44.6 API points higher than non-charter schools.

Please click here to review the entire EdSource California Charter School 2008 Performance Update.

Independent and impartial, EdSource strives to advance the common good by developing and widely distributing trustworthy, useful information that clarifies complex K–12 education issues and promotes thoughtful decisions about California’s public school system.