Schools Neither Brag Nor Weep at CAP Test Results

The results of the California Assessment Program tests have started arriving at schools throughout the San Fernando Valley area.

The test scores, issued by the state Department of Education, are published so a school’s performance can be easily evaluated by parents and the community. Now in their 25th year, the tests measure reading, writing and mathematics achievement in third, sixth, eighth and 12th grades. Eighth-graders also are tested in history and science. Twelfth-grade scores are released in the spring.

Students do not receive individual results.

Although CAP scores previously were released publicly, state Schools Supt. Bill Honig, since his election in 1982, began using CAP scores and other indicators to give schools annual “report cards.” This has put more pressure on schools to maintain good CAP scores, or bring them up if they are lagging.

In many cases, the response has been a new effort to train students not only in the three R’s but also in another skill: test-taking.

Measured Against ‘Base Year’

The examinations are scored on a scale ranging from 100 to 400 points. The first year that the test is given statewide is used as the “base year” and the average score is given a value of 250. Performance in later years is measured against this first-year score.

Test results from individual schools are compared only with results from schools at which the student body has a similar socioeconomic composition. The state also publishes a school’s test results from previous years, so results can be compared with its most recent scores.

Following is how the William S. Hart and Las Virgenes school districts and Pacoima Elementary School in the Los Angeles Unified School District responded to this year’s results:

William S. Hart Union High School District:

According to Gary Wexler, curriculum coordinator for the William S. Hart Union High School District, administrators in the Santa Clarita Valley district do not like to brag about achievements.

“We just like to keep it low-key and keep on working,” said Wexler.

So when recently released CAP scores showed that eighth-graders at the district’s three junior highs outdistanced state averages and, at two schools, students improved their scores in all tested subjects, hardly a word was said.

But Hart’s achievements have been noticed by officials in the state Department of Education who are studying the district’s curriculum to find out why it is so successful.

Wexler says there is nothing magical about what goes on in Hart classrooms.

To help teachers prepare their students for the CAP test, district officials have developed a handbook that describes the types of questions that may be asked. The handbook also contains sheets of practice questions that teachers can duplicate and hand out to students.

Parents Notified

A few days before the test, the district sends parents a letter explaining the CAP test and giving some simple suggestions to help their children do better on the exams. These include getting a good night’s sleep and eating a hearty breakfast before the exam.

The district has also instituted some changes to bolster the curriculum in tested subject areas. For example, a science exam has just been added to the eighth-grade CAP test. In response, Hart has increased the junior high science requirement from one to three semesters.

Each of Hart’s junior high schools has its own way of preparing eighth-graders for the CAP test.

At Arroyo Seco Junior High in Valencia, where eighth-graders this year increased their reading score by 9 points, writing by 8 points and math by 12 points (the history score was unchanged), Principal Lew White credited special programs that coordinate areas of study.

For example, 70 students interested in the humanities have elected to enroll in a program in which a certain historical period, such as the Revolutionary War, is studied in history, English and art classes at the same time.

“The aim is to develop cultural awareness,” White said.

Placerita Approach Told

At Placerita Junior High in Newhall, the first 10 days of school are devoted to a review of research and study techniques aimed at helping students get good grades as well as good scores on the CAP test, according to Principal James Tanner.

Students are reminded how to properly prepare homework, use the index of a book and the card catalogue in the library. They are also given tips on the taking of tests.

Also, Placerita teachers are given time to attend CAP workshops where state officials discuss what will be on the test and how to prepare their students for it, Tanner added.

There are also special rewards for outstanding scholars at Placerita. Students with straight A’s on their report cards become members of Tanner’s “A-Team,” who get A-Team T-shirts and are treated to ice cream and pizza parties.

“I think we should reward outstanding students, just like we reward outstanding athletes,” Tanner said.

This year, Placerita’s students raised the school’s reading score by 12 points, writing by 8 points, math by 9 points and history by 1.

Sierra Vista Reviews Topics

At Sierra Vista Junior High in Canyon Country, Principal Michael Allmandinger said that, three weeks before the CAP test, students spend 10 to 15 minutes a day in their English and math classes reviewing topics that might come up.

“The first time we took the CAP test, we went in cold,” Allmandinger said. “We did OK, but the next year we started our CAP preparation program.”

At first glance, the Sierra Vista eighth-grade results do not reflect the special efforts made last year. Students did not do as well as their counterparts at Arroyo Seco and Placerita. However, they were ahead in a year when statewide eighth-grade averages were dismal. Sierra Vista students scored the same as they did last year on the writing test and dropped one point on the math test, 10 points in reading and 20 points in history.

But Allmandinger is not worried.

“Part of it is the luck of the draw,” he said. “We were at the high end of the scale last year. This year we’re at the low end, but we’re still within scoring range that a school like ours should be. Every school, no matter how good it is, can improve. That includes us.”

Las Virgenes Unified School District: There were mixed results, some of them disappointing, among third-grade scores in the Las Virgenes Unified School District’s seven elementary schools. Math scores declined at all seven of the campuses, four schools posted declines in reading and three schools experienced declines in writing.

But a state official said that some of the problem can be traced to the fact that, when CAP scores reach their highest levels, even a few errors by students can skew the results.

“The test we make is a good indicator as long as the test scores are between 170 and 325,” said Pat McCabe, a consultant to the CAP evaluation section of the state Department of Education.

“But when you start getting above that ceiling, it is very difficult to get an accurate reading of a school’s performance because the standard error is so great. When the scores are so high, a stupid mistake by just one student could throw off the scores for the entire class. One mistake by one student just doesn’t have the same impact when the scores are in the middle ranges.”

District officials believe that led in part to mixed results at Chaparral, White Oak, Yerba Buena, Lupin Hill and Willow, and declines in all subjects at Round Meadow and Sumac.

Suggestive of Problems

On the surface the scores would appear to indicate some serious problems, but McCabe said a more accurate reflection of the performance of the schools can be gained by looking at the district’s overall state ranking. Las Virgenes students stayed above the 90th percentile in both reading and writing, and above the 85th percentile in math. According to McCabe, when a district’s overall scores are above the 85th percentile, CAP analysts believe that the margin of error is so great that upward or downward shifts do not indicate any change in the students’ abilities.

Because of the difficulty in interpreting the scores, Las Virgenes administrators have been apprehensive about answering questions about this year’s performance.

“Certainly I’m concerned when I have to explain to the board why scores are a smidgen lower than the previous year,” said Leo Lowe, assistant superintendent for education. “But I tell them that looking at a single year’s results is like looking at single day’s result of the stock market and deciding to put all your marbles in one basket. You wouldn’t do that and you shouldn’t make a judgment on a school’s performance by looking at test results from just one year.”

CAP evaluator McCabe said the state would like to start an “adaptive testing” program for high-achieving districts such as Las Virgenes. Under this plan, the state-required standardized test would be tailored for individual school districts in order to challenge the students and give a more accurate statistical picture of a school’s performance.

Examples Provided

In some cases this would mean that third-graders would take a test written for fifth-graders and sixth-graders would take a test developed for eighth-graders, McCabe said. They would then be compared with students in other districts who were testing at the same level.

But the cost of such a program is prohibitive, McCabe added, so there are no plans to add this kind of project to the state’s testing program.

To supplement the state’s standardized testing program, Las Virgenes, as do most California school districts, has its own battery of standardized tests. These exams, unlike the CAP test, produce individual student results. Scores from these tests help administrators assess students so that they can be assigned to classes matching their academic ability.

Pacoima Elementary: Many educators would say that the deck is stacked against Pacoima Elementary School students doing well on standardized tests.

Most of the students come from homes where little-to-no English is spoken. Many of their families are on welfare and most of their parents barely finished high school. The school is crowded and operates on a year-round calendar.

These are some of the situations that some educators say work against a student doing well academically.

So it is especially rewarding when Pacoima Elementary students do well on the CAP test as compared to other students with similar backgrounds. And it is even more significant when a school such as Pacoima can improve CAP scores in several consecutive years.

In the last three years, Pacoima Elementary third-graders have increased their reading scores by 20 points, their writing scores by 12 points and their math scores by 21 points. Sixth-graders have raised their reading scores by 17 points, writing scores by 11 points and math scores by 19 points.

‘It’s Really Commendable’

“It is very difficult for any school to improve on CAP tests for several years in a row. Considering the neighborhood Pacoima Elementary serves and the language situation at the school, it’s really commendable that the school has been able to show such improvement over a long period of time,” said David Pokipala, who analyzes CAP scores for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Robert E. Owens, principal of Pacoima Elementary, credits special programs instituted by the faculty and staff.

Owens and the Pacoima Elementary faculty annually analyze computer data on the academic strengths and weaknesses of the student body. At least one staff meeting is devoted to interpreting test scores and other data prepared by the research and evaluation division of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Once a weakness has been spotted, in math word problems for example, teachers go back to their classrooms and focus on that area.

Because Pacoima Elementary has such a large number of students from low-income homes, it receives added state and federal money. That money is used for a variety of things, such as placing a teaching assistant in every classroom and having an extra math teacher with time to work individually with students.

Every Student Tested

Pacoima Elementary does one thing that many schools with a large population of limited English-speaking students do not do--every third- and sixth-grader takes the CAP test. There is no state requirement on what percentage of students must take the tests.

“We believe that all of our students can do well on the tests,” said Owens. “So we test everybody.”

When CAP test season arrives each spring, regular class schedules are changed and special events are postponed.

Instead of testing an entire class at the same time, classes at Pacoima are divided into sections, with just a handful of students taking the test at any one time. That way, Owens said, teachers can monitor the students more closely, making sure that they understand the directions, are marking the correct answer sheet, and that each has his or her own desk.

“Sometimes it’s the little things that make the difference in whether a child does well or does poorly on the test,” Owens said.