Seniors’ Scores Generate Cash for Schools in Valley Area

What a difference a year makes.

Last year, students at Burbank’s two high schools did not score high enough on the California Assessment Program (CAP) standardized test to win money for their schools in the “Cash for CAP” competition.

This year, however, both Burbank and John Burroughs High School have qualified for the cash.

For Canyon High in the Santa Clarita Valley it was a Catch-22 situation. Last year, after a big push by teachers and administrators, students’ test scores soared so high that they earned $73,214 for their school. When Canyon’s 12th-graders took the CAP test this time, they came close but could not top last year’s scores, district officials said.

Canyon, therefore, will not be eligible for the CAP prize money.

On Friday, the Burbank and Los Angeles Unified school districts released the results of the 12th-grade CAP tests to coincide with State Supt. Bill Honig’s announcement of statewide test averages. The cash awards will be announced on Tuesday.

Several other Valley-area school districts, such as Simi Valley, Moorpark, Oxnard Union, Las Virgenes, William S. Hart, Conejo Valley Unified and Oak Park Unified, decline to reveal their CAP scores until the results can be reported to the local boards of education.

Cornerstone of Honig Plan

The CAP test has become one of the cornerstones of Honig’s plan to make schools more accountable to the public through the periodic publication of test scores, dropout percentages and other so-called “quality indicators.”

As an incentive to ensure that graduating seniors will try to do their best on the test, which does not provide individual scores, the state’s Education Improvement Incentive Program provides cash awards to any school that tests at least 93% of its seniors and shows “overall improvement” in test results.

During a Sacramento press conference on Friday, Honig said that the state’s high school seniors scored higher in mathematics, written expression and spelling than last year, but dropped slightly in reading.

The state average score in the math test was 68.7%, up from 68.3% last year. The average score in written expression was 63.4%, up from 63.2%. The spelling average increased to 70.1% from 69%. At the same time, reading scores fell to 62.7% from 62.9%. The numbers indicate the mean percentage of correct answers.

Burbank Averages Given

In the Burbank school district, students averaged 65.1% in reading and 65.1% in written expression. The spelling average was 70.4% and math average was 68.8%.

Last year the district averaged 64.6% in reading, 63.3% in written expression, 69.2% in spelling and 66.4% in math.

Los Angeles district averages showed that 12th graders averaged 56.7% in reading, 57.5% in written expression, 66.8% in spelling and 62.5% in math.

Last year the district averaged 57.3% in reading, 57.4% in written expression, 66.7% in spelling and 62.3% in math.

“When looking at the state results, the district did OK,” said Linda Pursell, assistant director for the Los Angeles district’s research and evaluation branch. “But we also recognize that there is a lot of room for improvement.”

Out of the 129 Los Angeles high school programs, only 12 schools improved scores in all four of the tested areas, according to a district report. Four of those schools--Granada Hills, Taft in Woodland Hills, Cleveland Humanities High in Reseda and Valley Alternative High in Van Nuys--are in the San Fernando Valley.

3 Other Valley Schools

Three Valley schools were also among 14 Los Angeles high schools that improved scores in three areas. Those schools were Birmingham in Van Nuys, Canoga Park and Francis Polytechnic in Sun Valley.

“It appears that the schools that made the big gains last year showed some decline this year,” said Pursell of the research and evaluation branch. “From now on we will probably see different schools make big gains in different years.”

Whereas parents and educators look at the CAP scores as a way to evaluate a school’s performance, graduating seniors now see the 2-year-old “Cash for CAP” program as a way of leaving their school a hefty monetary legacy.

“This could be a gold mine for us,” said Timothy Buchanan, principal at Burroughs High.

“The test results proved what the kids are capable of doing when they put some effort into a project.”

Added Burbank High Principal William H. Bertrand: “We told the seniors that if they improved the scores we could use the money for things like lowering the cost of prom tickets, lowering the cost of the yearbook or putting part of the money aside for a 10-year reunion.”

CAP SCORES FOR VALLEY-AREA 12th-GRADERS

Los Angeles Unified

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 56.4 56.6 65.8 61.3 84-85 57.3 57.4 66.7 62.3 85-86 56.7 57.5 66.8 62.5

BIRMINGHAM

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 61.5 63.5 69.3 68.0 84-85 62.3 63.2 70.9 68.3 85-86 60.1 64.0 72.1 68.6

CANOGA PARK

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 61.1 61.2 66.4 66.7 84-85 59.1 60.3 69.0 65.8 85-86 59.3 61.0 68.8 68.8

CHATSWORTH

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 62.7 63.2 69.9 68.9 84-85 64.6 64.6 69.4 70.9 85-86 63.9 64.3 73.1 69.6

CLEVELAND

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 57.3 55.4 64.9 60.0 84-85 55.0 54.5 65.6 68.3 85-86 54.7. 55.6 64.4 59.1

CLEVELAND MAGNET

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 67.1 66.5 75.0 70.7 84-85 62.9 64.9 72.6 66.5 85-86 72.4 70.3 74.3 75.3

EL CAMINO REAL

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 65.8 67.4 71.6 71.2 84-85 67.8 69.3 69.7 73.8 85-86 66.8 67.0 72.0 72.8

FRANCIS POLYTECHNIC

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 55.7 55.7 64.9 60.5 84-85 55.9 55.8 66.5 61.6 85-86 57.2 56.2 68.0 61.1

GRANADA HILLS

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 64.4 63.9 71.8 70.4 84-85 63.0 65.0 72.7 69.6 85-86 66.4 67.9 73.2 71.7

GRANT

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 57.6 58.7 65.2 62.9 84-85 58.8 58.6 67.5 65.5 85-86 58.6 61.2 66.8 66.1

KENNEDY

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 60.1 60.8 67.5 65.1 84-85 61.2 61.1 68.9 66.4 85-86 58.2 59.1 66.2 65.5

MONROE

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 59.9 58.6 68.4 64.5 84-85 62.7 68.7 67.2 65.1 85-86 59.6 59.6 66.0 63.1

NORTH HOLLYWOOD

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 NA NA NA NA 84-85 66.5 64.0 70.9 66.4 85-86 68.3 64.0 70.5 71.6

RESEDA

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 57.0 55.3 65.7 60.1 84-85 60.4 58.8 65.5 63.0 85-86 56.3 57.0 66.1 60.2

SAN FERNANDO

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 50.4 49.9 59.9 54.0 84-85 51.1 50.5 61.8 54.3 85-86 50.7 51.5 60.3 56.2

SAN FERNANDO MAGNET C.I.P.

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 65.9 65.5 64.4 71.0 84-85 71.5 68.6 73.1 77.4 85-86 64.0 66.5 70.7 69.3

SHERMAN OAKS CENTER

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 54.6 66.7 64.4 58.4 84-85 58.1 54.7 60.3 61.1 85-86 61.3 56.6 64.4 58.7

SYLMAR

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 56.2 54.1 62.4 67.9 84-85 55.2 55.2 63.8 59.5 85-86 54.9 54.2 63.9 56.3

TAFT

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 65.6 66.0 70.4 70.8 84-85 66.1 66.8 70.9 73.2 85-86 66.7 70.0 73.2 73.6

VALLEY ALTERNATIVE

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 56.4 51.1 61.9 55.8 84-85 51.0 51.4 47.1 39.0 85-86 56.3 54.8 62.5 54.5

VAN NUYS

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 58.2 58.5 67.6 62.9 84-85 58.1 59.0 65.1 61.5 85-86 55.2 57.1 64.2 61.6

VAN NUYS MAGNET

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 76.6 72.9 69.3 83.6 84-85 76.6 77.0 76.9 88.8 85-86 72.3 75.4 77.8 90.1

VAN NUYS PERFORMING ARTS MAGNET

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 68.3 66.9 69.4 64.1 84-85 65.4 61.8 72.2 63.3 85-86 63.0 63.2 61.8 63.6

VERDUGO HILLS

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 57.2 56.4 62.8 61.2 84-85 58.6 59.3 67.8 67.3 85-86 55.8 58.3 66.0 64.0

Burbank Unified

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 64.5 64.5 70.2 67.4 84-85 64.6 63.3 69.2 66.4 85-86 65.1 65.1 70.4 68.8

BURBANK HIGH

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 64.7 66.1 69.4 67.5 84-85 64.1 63.9 69.5 66.4 85-86 64.2 63.3 69.3 67.8

BURROUGHS

Reading Writing Spelling Math 83-84 64.5 63.5 71.2 67.9 84-85 65.3 62.6 68.9 66.4 85-86 66.0 66.9 69.8 71.6