The 23 Galileo High teenagers appeared indifferent as aeronautics expert Hoi Ko explained what it takes to enter his profession—a solid grounding in physics and trigonometry, and 1,900 hours of classroom work.

But the class’ ears perked up when the chairman of City College’s aeronautics department started talking money, as in an average $60,000 salary for aircraft maintenance technicians. “That’s a lot more than teachers,” said the teacher, Stephen Buchter.

Ko and colleague Tanya Mitchell were among 80 speakers who went to the high school for the first annual Career Exploration Fair put on by the Applied Learning & Linkages program (ALL), a collaboration of the school, Community Educational Services (CES), and Chinese for Affirmative Action. Among companies represented were WebTV, Sybase, PG&E and the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

“Some students already know what career they want to go into,” said senior Mariala Sepulveda. “This gives them a chance to ask questions. It also gives us a broader view of the careers that are out there.”

The fair also gives the Fisherman’s Wharf high school a chance to shine.

Though its Chinese American population is about that of Lowell High—42 percent—that statistic is about the only one that both schools have in common. Unlike its west-side counterpart, parents don’t fight to get their kids into Galileo, and kids don’t have to take a test. More than 40 percent of the school’s students are limited-English speakers, compared with less than 2 percent of those at Lowell. Many of Galileo’s students also have less money—more than 35 percent qualify for free lunch. Less than 20 percent of Lowell’s students do.

Interest in the school has increased since 1995, when it changed its name to Galileo Academy of Science and Technology and began putting studentson tailored tracks offering invaluable experience in engineering, new media, biology or other fields. This year, for the first time, all students are under the new curriculum, said ALL coordinator Julie Ryu.

Though educators caution it’s too early to tell whether Galileo’s approach is working, standardized test results are equivocal so far.

While reading scores increased in some grades, they decreased for freshmen, and all remain dismally low. Ninth-graders scored on average in the 40th percentile on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills in 1995-’96 and in the 34th percentile in 1996-’97; 10th-graders scored in the 36th percentile in 1995-’96 and in the 41st percentile the year after. Juniors scored in the 30th percentile in 1996-’97, up from 28 percent the year before. On the math section, juniors’ scores stayed at the 41st percentile through the two school years. Sophomores saw an increase from 50 percentile rankings to 52nd, but freshmen scores declined three percentage points. By contrast, no class at Lowell ranked below the 84th percentile in the two school years.

Educators remain optimistic—not necessarily of molding Galileo into another Lowell, but of making the students’ education there one that will serve them well throughout their lifetimes.

The fair itself was part of the school’s effort to build a education-to-career system for students, to make them see “how their education can be useful for their future,” said CES Executive Director Darin Ow-Wing.

“The idea of a career day is to expose as many kids as possible to real-life perspectives of careers, but this is just the beginning of our effort to implement partnerships between business and classrooms,” he said.