Variety of Causes Found in Gains, Losses

The Valley edition of The Times revisited several school districts that it highlighted last year when the results of the California Assessment Program were released.

Last year:

When CAP scores at Arthur E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas plummeted, administrators said they thought it was the fault of the softer, low-carbon No. 2 pencils used instead of the special pencils needed so computers can electronically read the answer sheets.

When Vaughn Street School, a year-round school in a San Fernando barrio dramatically raised its CAP scores, teachers credited establishment of a computer lab and a yearlong program that emphasized improving math skills of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.

Even with good scores last year, administrators of the Castaic Union Elementary School District complained that the CAP test was unfair to small school districts. In Castaic, a small community 50 miles north of Los Angeles where one school holds all of the district’s students, officials said there were too few students tested to accurately reflect the school’s overall abilities.

This year:

CAP scores at Arthur E. Wright Middle School soared back to the levels of previous years. Sixth-graders raised the grade level’s reading score by 43 points, writing by 28 points and math by 18 points. Eighth-graders increased the reading score by 52 points, writing by 47 points and math by 42 points.

Administrators at the school credit a large supply of the proper pencils for the upturn in test scores.

Scores at Vaughn Street School slipped slightly. Third-grade scores fell two points in reading, five points in writing and five points in math. Sixth-grade scores fell by 1 point in reading, 7 points in writing and 17 points in math.

Education researchers who analyze CAP scores say a one-to-five increase or decline in points is not significant. But the declines were significant to the staff of Vaughn Street School.

“We were doing a lot of things--the computer lab, tutors, adopt-a-school,” said Vice Principal Grant Halley. “All of that was for remedial purposes. Remedial is fine, but we also have to pay attention to our basic program--reading, math, English . . . then our scores will not do what they have done in the past, go up one year, down the next and up again.”

At Castaic, enrollment was up from 650 last year to 811, but the results this year were mixed.

Third-graders increased their scores by 21 in reading, 20 in writing and 36 in math, and sixth-graders raised theirs by 32 in reading, 40 in writing and 23 in math. But eighth-grade scores fell by 21 in reading, 28 in writing and 33 in math.

Castaic Supt. Reed Montgomery says the district still does not have enough students to make CAP test results meaningful.