"Well, Dr. Shalvey, I'm not perfect but parts of me are excellent!"

That astute comment was made by one of our Aspire students in response to my question about his student exhibition. It could just as easily been a statement about our performance this past year. Aspire Public Schools is far from perfect, but by all standards we had an excellent year.

Consider the following...

1. Every single Aspire school exceeded its state target on California's state testing program... for the second straight year. That's a 100% achievement rate compared to the state rate of 65% last year and 63% the previous year.

2. The average Aspire school grew 45 points while the state average growth was 11 points.

3. Five of our schools have now exceeded the state performance target of 800 and the others are well on their way.

4. In June, all 52 graduates of Lionel Wilson College Preparatory
Academy earned admission to at least one four-year university. The impressive list of universities included UC Berkeley and the other UC and CSU campuses, Grambling, Spelman College, USF, Santa Clara, Bethune-Cookman and many more.

5. These same 52 students also earned over $1,000,000 in scholarships. We expect similar results this year both at Wilson Prep and with our first graduating class at Benjamin Holt College Preparatory Academy in Stockton.

6. In our annual parent survey, 92% of our parents scored our schools with a Grade of "A" or "B," as compared to the national average of 70%.

7. Our Leadership program with San Jose State awarded 19 Aspire staff members with Master's degrees and Administrative Credentials, and four of these candidates earned principalships in our schools this year.