EDUCATION Top-notch student rallies against school testing...

EDUCATION

Top-notch student rallies against school testing

Corona del Mar High School senior Amanda Rubenstein isn’t taking

her own success lying down.

The 17-year-old has a GPA above a 4.0. She takes four Advanced

Placement classes and performed well on her SATs.

But for her senior project, she is lobbying against all the things

in which she excels, hoping to shift educators’ focus off test scores

and onto teacher quality. On Wednesday night, she held a meeting to

drum up support among students, parents and teachers.

Her project started as a rally against the SATs and the importance

placed on them by schools, teachers and college admissions boards. As

she researched the subject, she said, a “light bulb” went off in her

head and she decided to tackle a bigger issue.

* A former faculty member who wrote the book about beating the

house at blackjack made a $1-million donation to UC Irvine’s math

department.

Newport Coast resident Edward O. Thorp, a former mathematics and

finance professor, has used his math skills to devise ways to win at

blackjack and roulette and in the stock market. Thorp also came up

with a unique structure for the donation to UC Irvine’s math

department that will use some money to attract a renowned

mathematician and reinvest the rest.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].