First Scores Since Cheating Scandal Show Upward Trend

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said Wednesday that the latest results from the California Assessment Program test for elementary students--the first new scores to be released since a cheating scandal rocked the testing program--bring generally good news about the academic health of the state’s grade schools.

Scores on the 1987-88 CAP exam, given annually in May to third-, sixth- and eighth-grade students, show eighth-graders statewide making the largest gains--jumping 7 points in science, 6 points in history and 9 points in writing--while sixth-graders made moderate progress and third-graders slumped slightly.

Despite findings of test tampering on the last three years of the CAP test, which the state uses to determine how well schools are educating their students, Honig said the latest scores reinforce an upward trend in the state’s elementary schools.

“It’s a proud day for schools in California. . . . If we keep this up for five years, we will have a first-rate school system,” he said.

Significant Improvement

The Department of Education will not release district and school averages until next week. However, the Los Angeles Unified School District released its districtwide results Wednesday, showing scores markedly lower than the state averages. District eighth-grade scores rose 1 to 5 points across the board. But third-grade scores dropped 1 to 7 points in reading, writing and math and sixth-grade scores rose 4 points in reading but fell or stayed the same in writing and math.

The statewide averages show that eighth-graders overall raised their average scores by a significant margin. Math scores rose 5 points to 264, writing 9 points to 263, reading 5 points to 252, history 6 points to 253 and science 7 points to 263.

CAP scores are based on a scale from 100 points to about 400 points.

After a sharp decline in eighth-grade scores three years ago, state education officials pushed local districts to give more attention to schooling in the middle grades by upgrading instruction, providing more teacher training and giving greater attention to the personal needs of youngsters in the pre-adolescent years. As a result, Honig said, eighth-grade scores over the last two years have improved by 12%.

“This means a lot of people worked hard--teachers, students and principals,” he said. “These results are very gratifying . . . (and the schools) didn’t cheat.”

State officials consider the eighth-grade exam the most rigorous of all the CAP tests because it covers a broader range of subjects and has more questions aimed at evaluating higher-level thinking skills, rather than just basic skills. The exams for third-, sixth- and 12th-graders are being revised to reflect the tougher courses and standards of recent years.

State officials recently disclosed that 40 elementary schools statewide tampered with CAP test answers on the 1985-86 exam and 17 on the 1986-87 exam. Some educators have complained that state pressure to raise CAP scores may encourage some teachers and administrators to improperly coach students in preparing for the exams, and apparently in some cases to change answers. The CAP test is the main indicator that the state uses to determine how well schools are performing. Honig has said that pressure to raise scores is no excuse for cheating, noting that only a small number of schools statewide have tampered with the exams.

Officials have not yet fully determined the extent of tampering that may have occurred on the latest test. However, most of the cheating that state officials found on the 1985-86 CAP exam occurred in third-grade classes, where an abnormally high number of answers were erased and changed from wrong to right. There was no evidence of cheating in eighth-grade classes.

Some educators observed that because the third-grade exam tests relatively basic knowledge, it would be easier for someone who wanted to inflate scores to change the answers.

“We’ve got to revamp it,” Honig said. The third-grade CAP test is “a thin test. It’s only testing a thin portion of what they know.”

He speculated that the drop in third-grade scores this year may in part be due to tougher test security measures that the state implemented this year. “The word is out: Don’t cheat,” he said.

In the sixth grade, the average scores increased by 5 points to 265 in reading, by 2 points to 273 in writing and by 2 points to 270 in math. Sixth-grade scores have been rising for the last eight years, increasing by 12% over the last four years alone. State education officials said sixth-graders will soon be taking an expanded exam, adding science, history and an essay section.

Third-Grade Slippage

In contrast to the gains recorded in the upper grades, third-graders statewide slipped slightly in two areas. The average writing score dropped 3 points to 284 and math fell 4 points to 281. The reading score stayed the same at 282.

Overall, third-graders statewide have been performing at a high level, Honig said, noting that the average third-grader today is scoring higher than 79% of all third-graders 10 years ago. But the scores apparently have hit a plateau, perhaps because the difficulty level of the test has not been increased in nine years, even though the curriculum has been toughened, he said.

Leigh Burstein, a UCLA education professor who specializes in educational testing, said the CAP exam is one of the most comprehensive used in a statewide testing program and, in certain portions such as math, is considered “state of the art” by experts. Unlike commercial standardized tests that may have only 60 or 70 questions in all, the CAP is a “matrix sample” of more than 1,000 test items, with each student in a class given a different set of 30 to 40 questions to answer.

Because of the CAP test’s structure, it is harder for teachers to tailor their instruction to the test. Burstein said, “It is hard to develop a strategy for beating a test that has 1,000 items,” and thus its results probably give a truer picture of grade-level or schoolwide achievement.

CALIF. ASSESSMENT PROGRAM TEST SCORES

These are the average scores for third, sixth and eighth grades statewide and in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Statewide scores rose in sixth and eighth grades but fell or stayed the same in third grade, while district scores showed improvement mainly in the eighth grade. Scores are based on a scale from 100 points to about 400 points.

Reading Writing Math Soc. Studies Science STATEWIDE 3rd GRADE: 1985-86 280 285 283 1986-87 282 287 285 1987-88 282 284 281 6th GRADE: 1985-86 260 271 268 1986-87 260 271 268 1987-88 265 273 270 8th GRADE: 1985-86 243 248 253 243 250 1986-87 247 254 259 247 256 1987-88 252 263 264 253 263 LOS ANGELES UNIFIED 3rd GRADE: 1985-86 233 250 249 1986-87 241 247 244 1987-88 240 243 37 6th GRADE: 1985-86 227 240 241 1986-87 224 238 236 1987-88 228 238 234 8th GRADE: 1985-86 205 214 217 203 214 1986-87 204 215 217 203 216 1987-88 205 220 220 207 219