High School Test Scores: L.A. Picture Is Clouded

The state’s first-ever “report cards,” six pages of numbers on each high school, paint a generally bleak picture of the Los Angeles School District.

The mass of statistics, released last week by the state Department of Education, is designed to allow school officials, teachers and parents to see how their school compares to others and to chart its progress.

But taken as a whole, the numbers in Los Angeles are not encouraging.

Only six of the district’s 49 comprehensive high schools scored at or above the state and national average score (897) on the Scholastic Aptitude Test last year. They are El Camino in Woodland Hills (938), University High in West Los Angeles (928), Taft in Woodland Hills (924), Palisades (916), North Hollywood (914) and Venice (908).

No others exceeded the state average of 421 on the verbal part of the SAT, but five schools scored better than the state average of 476 on the math portion. They are: Van Nuys (488), Narbonne in the Harbor area (481), Kennedy in Granada Hills (480), Fairfax on the Westside (478) and Chatsworth (477).

Only six of the 49 high schools met or exceeded the state average score on the California Assessment Program, the basic skills test given to all seniors. They were: Chatsworth, El Camino, Granada Hills, Palisades, University and Taft.

And even better-scoring Los Angeles high schools fared poorly when compared to other similar schools across the state. All of the eight district high schools serving a generally affluent, well-educated area scored well below the average on both tests when matched against high schools with similar students elsewhere in California.

It was the same at the other end of the scale as well: With only an occasional exception, the district high schools serving poor or lower middle-class neighborhoods scored below schools in similar neighborhoods around the state.

Top district officials were somewhat at a loss to explain the results.

“That appears to be the pattern, and it means we need to work harder,” said Los Angeles Supt. Harry Handler. “Our relative position is low, but these are only the base-line data.”

Handler noted that the city high schools restored the sixth period of instruction and raised their graduation standards only last year, too late to have much effect on the students measured for this first set of report cards.

Other officials doubted that the state’s attempt to match comparable schools was fair and said the Los Angeles schools had more severe problems.

“I don’t find (the results) to be startling. It just expresses mathematically the reality of a large, urban school district,” said Paul Possemato, director of the district’s senior high school division.

The Los Angeles district has a greater percentage of students from impoverished or non-English-speaking families, he said, and “even in the better schools you get a cross section of an urban community.”

Possemato also said that it was his hunch that Los Angeles, “such a busy, cosmopolitan area,” tends to hurt the performance of schoolchildren.

“I’m talking about the entertainment, the cars and videos--all these distractions that tend to pull kids away and make them indifferent to school,” Possemato said.

Handler, the district superintendent, said he still supports the effort by Bill Honig, the state superintendent of public instruction, to grade the schools, even though the first results don’t shine a favorable light on the Los Angeles district.

“I agree with the criticism that some of these measures are too narrow. But this is information that should be available to the public,” Handler said. He said parents should contact their local high school if they want to see the entire report.

He also said he hoped Honig’s effort would provoke a “healthy debate” among teachers, school officials and parents about what other measures could be used to evaluate the schools. As as example, he said “you could ask how many of the young people obtain employment or go directly into post-secondary education, and then you could follow up the next year to see how many are still employed or still in school.”

Such information is not collected routinely now, but “I’m encouraging our people to consider some other measures like these,” Handler said.

A High School Report Card The state’s review of 49 public high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District

TEST RESULTS COURSE SAT SAT Advanced High School Verbal Math Placement Math English Science State Average 421 476 9.5 67 73 33 Banning 322 328 8.5 50 49 18 Bell 334 399 3.5 65 68 32 Belmont 296 406 3.9 49 34 17 Birmingham 408 464 17.4 59 60 31 Canoga Park 383 464 10.1 70 51 33 Carson 346 409 0.7 67 54 29 Chatsworth 406 477 25.2 62 69 33 Cleveland 403 471 8.8 47 55 21 Crenshaw 298 335 0.0 68 56 39 Dorsey 330 375 0.9 64 46 36 Eagle Rock 394 475 20.0 62 66 33 El Camino Real 436 502 30.0 56 62 25 Fairfax 393 478 16.8 59 55 26 Francis Poly 383 461 3.1 47 50 28 Franklin 336 436 7.3 63 80 26 Fremont 270 332 0.6 41 42 27 Gardena 376 458 10.2 60 67 26 Garfield 324 398 22.3 58 52 18 Granada Hills 404 472 17.3 70 72 37 Grant 401 469 28.1 62 70 21 Hamilton 412 456 7.1 50 38 29 Hollywood 329 440 3.6 40 33 14 Huntington Park 365 422 4.1 67 72 18 Jefferson 275 341 0.0 53 33 21 Jordan 272 317 0.0 39 38 15 Kennedy 412 480 9.5 53 56 28 Lincoln 293 404 8.4 69 65 24 Locke 295 349 0.3 73 46 29 Los Angeles 304 414 6.7 60 43 30 Manual Arts 297 356 4.4 48 30 17 Marshall 369 468 17.9 60 50 27 Monroe 408 466 14.5 64 66 30 Narbonne 400 481 13.3 40 42 18 North Hollywood 427 487 29.6 56 58 26 Palisades 436 480 25.8 64 61 35 Reseda 373 448 4.9 56 86 30 Roosevelt 304 375 55.1 41 36 11 San Fernando 342 404 6.0 47 35 19 San Pedro 411 470 8.1 54 63 29 South Gate 350 402 5.1 59 93 14 Sylmar 393 439 3.6 48 74 18 Taft 425 499 11.8 59 57 31 University 426 503 28.5 73 86 39 Van Nuys 406 488 18.2 65 73 27 Venice 426 482 24.5 75 80 38 Verdugo Hills 387 463 7.4 35 44 19 Washington 302 339 1.5 55 40 21 Westchester 409 459 10.6 60 57 23 Wilson 341 412 2.8 56 45 19 ENROLLMENTS History/ Social Foreign Fine High School Science Language Arts State Average 52 22 65 Banning 12 15 56 Bell 15 15 64 Belmont 11 12 53 Birmingham 15 29 83 Canoga Park 11 12 77 Carson 15 14 65 Chatsworth 14 26 66 Cleveland 22 11 63 Crenshaw 20 18 59 Dorsey 15 16 72 Eagle Rock 24 17 86 El Camino Real 14 24 55 Fairfax 22 28 67 Francis Poly 12 14 54 Franklin 8 25 67 Fremont 7 20 55 Gardena 12 19 55 Garfield 13 12 85 Granada Hills 14 26 87 Grant 14 25 91 Hamilton 11 23 88 Hollywood 10 17 88 Huntington Park 24 22 71 Jefferson 7 10 48 Jordan 3 7 70 Kennedy 16 25 72 Lincoln 12 12 63 Locke 10 11 61 Los Angeles 11 28 47 Manual Arts 8 13 60 Marshall 9 22 81 Monroe 18 25 74 Narbonne 10 8 77 North Hollywood 17 24 60 Palisades 12 25 92 Reseda 11 20 91 Roosevelt 7 24 50 San Fernando 8 9 46 San Pedro 24 18 68 South Gate 17 4 92 Sylmar 8 10 84 Taft 9 30 72 University 14 33 93 Van Nuys 18 20 61 Venice 20 23 85 Verdugo Hills 11 20 55 Washington 13 10 88 Westchester 14 18 94 Wilson 14 13 79

SAT VERBAL: Average score among students taking the Scholastic Achievement Test college entrance examination. Results range from 200 to 800. SAT MATH: Average score among students taking the Scholastic Achievement Test college entrance examination. Results range from 200 to 800. ADVANCED PLACEMENT: Percentage of students who passed Advanced Placement examinations this year with a score of 3 or above. COURSE ENROLLMENTS: Percentage of students enrolled in classes in particular subject areas: math for three years, English for four years, science for three years, social science for four years, foreign language for three years, fine arts for one year. A High School Report Card The state’s review of schools in the Antelope Valley

TEST RESULTS COURSE SAT SAT Advanced High School Verbal Math Placement Math English Science State Average 421 476 9.5 67 73 33 ANTELOPE VALLEY UNION DISTRICT Antelope Valley 423 478 2.2 52 50 24 Palmdale 416 475 1.4 45 31 24 Quartz Hill 429 487 1.8 46 49 33 ENROLLMENTS History/ Social Foreign Fine High School Science Language Arts State Average 52 22 65 ANTELOPE VALLEY UNION DISTRICT Antelope Valley 5 6 52 Palmdale 6 3 61 Quartz Hill 7 9 54

SAT VERBAL: Average score among students taking the Scholastic Achievement Test college entrance examination. Results range from 200 to 800. SAT MATH: Average score among students taking the Scholastic Achievement Test college entrance examination. Results range from 200 to 800. ADVANCED PLACEMENT: Percentage of students who passed Advanced Placement examinations this year with a score of 3 or above. COURSE ENROLLMENTS: Percentage of students enrolled in classes in particular subject areas: math for three years, English for four years, science for three years, social science for four years, foreign language for three years, fine arts for one year.

State figures for high schools in districts throughout Los Angeles County may be found in appropriate suburban sections in this weekend’s editions. Figures for the Antelope Valley are inside this section.