Carnival meant to motivate students for test

Students enjoyed a day at the fair after high STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) scores."Last year the student government put together an inspirational promotion to motivate students to do their best on the STAR test," said Renee Jonas, a junior in Vista del Lago's student government. "As a result, Vista jumped from having the ninth highest API (Academic Performance Index) scores to being the second highest scoring school in our tri-county region."Jonas said as a motivation to students for STAR testing this year, the student government put on "Resisting Mediocrity at Vista" week.The week included a professional speaker and motivational themes and ended with a "STAR Carnival" last Friday with about 1,000 students participating."Our hope for the carnival is to motivate those students who did not do well on STAR testing to do their best, study up, sleep well and prepare themselves for the testing on Monday (this week)," Jonas said. "Our goal is to continue increasing our API scores for years to come, and eventually be the top ranking school in the tri-county region."Vista students who attended the carnival enjoyed the day."We are getting ready for STAR testing next week and this is to help motivate us to do better," said Bianca Guzman, 17, junior at Vista. "This gets everyone pumped up."Janice Johnson is an English teacher at Vista and worked at the carnival."This is a celebration for how well they did on STAR testing last year and to get them pumped up for this year," Johnson said. "This is student funded and student run to promote the test for each other."Sophomore Justin Carter, 16, enjoyed spending the afternoon outside."I'm here today to enjoy a carnival and get ready for STAR testing," Carter said. "It's fun getting our of class today."Vista's Activity Director Heidi Schultz said the day is meant to motivate students to do their best."Our theme is to always try your best. Students struggle with trying with STAR testing because it doesn't affect their GPA," Schultz said. "We are doing this carnival because of our job well done last year. Vista students try their best."Students understand the importance of trying their best."We are proud of our academics, but know we can always improve and that is our objective," Jonas said.