Cypress siblings ace STAR tests

HESPERIA • Cypress School of the Arts Principal Scott Sheffield thought his money was safe.

Last spring, Sheffield told his students that anyone who scored a perfect 600 on both halves of the state STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) tests would receive either an iPod or, if they already had one, $100 from his wallet.

At a school assembly later this month, he’s going to pay that out twice, to two members of the same family.

“The year before last ... we had a pizza party and the kids got $10 or $20 iTunes (gift) card,” Sheffield said Wednesday. Last spring, he decided to up the incentives: In addition to the iPod for perfect scores, students scoring a perfect 600 on either the math or language arts portion of the test would receive $50. “I didn’t think it was going to happen.”

For Ariana and Noah Stiber, the money was the big draw. Both of them — Noah’s a third grader and Ariana’s in fourth — have always been good at tests: The year before, Ariana got a perfect score in math and only missed one question on the language arts portion of the test.

“I worry about my test scores,” she said.

“I don’t,” her brother replied.

“Every day, he came home and said ‘mom, did I get the 600 (score )?’” said Ariana.

“We always just told them to try their best,” mother Jill Stiber said. “We never expected them to get perfect (scores ), but we’re glad they did.”

The siblings aren’t sure what they’ll spend their $100 on: Ariana wants to use it on a shopping trip to the mall, while Noah suggested $100 worth of candy or a pet shark, both of which his mother shot down.

As for Sheffield, motivating his students was worth being $300 lighter in his wallet.

“We’ll offer it again this year,” Sheffield said.

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Beau Yarbrough can be reached at (760) 956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com.