Four County School Groups Lag in State Writing Scores

Eighth-grade writing scores improved overall in California schools, but four Orange County public school districts fell below the state average this year, state education test results showed Monday.

Four other Orange County school districts showed declines in writing scores, although they remained above the state average, according to the state Department of Education, which released results of a second year of testing eighth-grade students for their writing abilities.

Because Orange County has a higher average income and education level for adults than the rest of the state, the county’s school districts usually score well above state averages in statewide academic tests.

But results this year showed that Anaheim Union High School District, La Habra Elementary School District, Santa Ana Unified School District and Westminster Elementary School District all had writing scores below the state average.

2 Were Behind Last Year

Only two Orange County school districts--Anaheim Union High School and Garden Grove Unified--scored below the state average last year, the first year of the new writing tests for eighth-graders statewide.

Garden Grove Unified this year showed a 20-point increase, bringing its ranking above the state average. But Anaheim Union High School District fell below the state average in writing for the second consecutive year.

The four school districts in the county scoring lower this year than last, but still above state average, were Capistrano Unified, Irvine Unified, Ocean View Elementary and Los Alamitos Unified. Los Alamitos dropped 19 points this year, compared to last, but remained well above the state average. Capistrano Unified, Irvine Unified and Ocean View all showed very slight declines of one or two points this year.

Brea-Olinda Unified School District, which had a writing score well above state average last year for its eighth-graders, did even better this year. The district jumped 54 points--the biggest improvement gain this year among the 21 Orange County school districts with eighth-graders.

“We have a new writing program in our school system, and we expect to do even better next year,” Brea-Olinda Supt. Edgar Seal said.

But for the four school districts in the county with scores below the state average, the test scores were disappointing.

“The scores in our school district are not only a disappointment, they are also a mystery, because we simply don’t know why our scores are lower,” Westminster Elementary School District Assistant Supt. Keith Lawson said.

The overall state test results released Monday in Sacramento showed that 62% of the state’s eighth-graders wrote adequate or marginally adequate essays. Twelve percent wrote impressively, and 22% wrote poorly, according to the results.

1 of 6 Essays

The statewide exam, begun last year, asks students to write one of six specific types of essays--such as an autobiographical sketch or an informative report.

Last spring, 271,168 eighth-graders took the writing exam. Each student was given 45 minutes to write an essay. Each exam was given a score ranging from 1 to 6, which state officials translated into a scaled score running from about 100 to 400.

The average score statewide rose 6 points this year from last year, going from 250 to 256. State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said Monday that he is very pleased with the increases.

In Orange County, 17 of the 21 school districts with eighth grades had overall scores higher than the statewide average of 256. For the second year in a row, the top-scoring Orange County district in eighth-grade writing was Laguna Beach Unified with a current test score of 344, compared to 335 last year.

Like Brea-Olinda Unified, Laguna Beach Unified has only one middle school (or junior high) with an eighth grade. Other school districts in the county generally have several eighth-grade schools.

Edged Laguna

One school in Fountain Valley actually scored higher than the Laguna Beach district. Eighth-grade students at Fulton School scored 366, the highest in Orange County on the writing tests this year. Last year, that honor went to Marine View School in Huntington Beach. Marine View this year had a score more than 100 points above the state average--its tally of 359 slightly trailing Fulton School but ahead of Laguna Beach’s overall district score.

Santa Ana Unified School District last year scored above the state average in eighth-grade writing, despite having a high percentage of new immigrant students who know little English. The writing tests are given in English. Santa Ana Unified’s score this year was 248, or 8 points below the state average of 256.

“I think the scores this year reflect an increase in the limited-English-proficient students we have in our district,” Santa Ana Unified Assistant Supt. Anthony Dalessi said. “This year, we gained 2,000 new LEP (limited-English-proficient) students, and our district is now 52% LEP, compared to 50% a year ago. So there is a reason for our score.

“But having said that, I can still say our district wants to be above state average, as we were last year, and we will be working to improve our scores,” he added.

‘A Little Concern’

An official at Anaheim Union High School District on Monday expressed “a little concern” about the eighth-grade writing again falling below the statewide average. But the new test scores “don’t mean we’re qualitatively lower, but that we’re qualitatively different,” said Jim Cox, the Anaheim district’s director of research and evaluation.

“This is a new test; it’s only in its second year, and for us, it’s one of those cases where the test came before the change in curriculum,” Cox said, explaining that the Anaheim district is revising its curriculum to reflect state-ordered changes for all language arts programs.

“Literature is quite heavily involved in that (new) curriculum, and we’ve emphasized literature,” he said. “The last element (of the new curriculum) we’ve implemented is writing, and I’m guessing that some districts introduced writing first (in making curriculum changes).”

“Because the state writing program and the state writing test is very, very sophisticated, it’s going to take some time for our writing curriculum to reach the level we want. But we will be there,” Cox pledged.

La Habra Elementary School District Assistant Supt. Ruth Fehr noted that while scores for her district were down this year, they were within “comparison bands,” meaning that the school district’s scores were about the same as other districts having the same socio-economic factors.

Doesn’t Know the Reason

“We don’t know any particular reason (for the writing scores to be down this year),” Fehr said. “We have a writing program we’re committed to, and it begins in the first grade. We also have strong emphasis on writing in our new language arts curriculum.”

“We’re going to continue to work to get those scores up,” she added.

The writing test results released Monday also showed a decrease for Los Angeles Unified School District--the largest in the state.

Los Angeles Unified had an average score of 208 this year--markedly below the 256 statewide average--and a point lower than the district’s 209 score last year.

Many educators nationwide consider the California exam state-of-the-art. According to the Education Commission of the States, a Denver-based research group that advises states on educational policy, the majority of the 22 states that test students’ writing used the California test as their model.

Because thousands of essays must be read, scoring is a laborious process. Last year, 384 teachers in six locations around the state spent six days grading the essays, state officials said.

The state computes a school-wide and district score but not individual student scores. The test is designed to show a school the strengths and weaknesses in its approach to the teaching of writing.

ORANGE COUNTY GRADE 8 WRITING ASSESSMENT TEST SCORES

SCHOOL 1986-87 1987-88 Anaheim Union 246 243 Ball Junior High 234 215 Brookhurst Junior High 243 236 Dale Junior High 242 244 Lexington Junior High 267 258 Orangeview Junior High 257 248 Polaris High -- -- South Junior High 243 249 Sycamore Junior High 223 232 Walker Junior High 254 263 Brea-Olinda Unified 276 330 Brea Junior High 276 330 Buena Park Elementary 270 284 Buena Park Junior High 270 284 Capristrano Unified 309 308 Forster Junior High 305 295 Newhart Junior High 324 315 Niguel Hills Junior High 330 318 Shorecliffs Junior High 266 303 Fountain Valley Elementary 306 319 Fulton 314 366 Masuda Middle 311 307 Fred Moiola 316 310 Plavan 251 -- Talbert 303 301 Tamura 256 302 Fullerton Elementary 266 278 Ladera Vista Junior High 282 276 Nicolas Junior High 227 256 Parks Junior High 286 306 Garden Grove Unified 239 259 Alamitos Intermediate 214 236 Bell Intermediate 263 282 Doig Intermediate 223 234 Fitz Intermediate 217 246 Irvine Intermediate 221 254 Jordan Intermediate 264 283 Irvine Intermediate 221 254 Jordan Intermediate 264 283 Lake High -- -- McGarvin Intermediate 272 265 Ralston Intermediate 260 282 Huntington Beach City 296 321 Ethel Dwyer Middle 276 319 Isaac L. Sowers Middle 310 323 Irvine Unified 322 321 Lakeside Middle 311 313 Rancho San Joaquin 314 316 Sierra Vista Middle 328 327 Venado Middle 332 326 Vista Verde 296 323 La Habra City Elementary 265 255 Imperial Middle 273 247 Washington Middle 272 266 Laguna Beach Unified 335 344 Thurston Middle 335 344 Los Alamitos Unified 300 281 McAuliffe Middle 300 281 Newport-Mesa Unified 252 289 Corona del Mar High 300 344 Costa Mesa High 261 -- Maude B. Davis 231 -- Ensign Intermediate 252 284 Charles TeWinkle 214 266 Ocean View Elementary 296 294 Crest View 209 266 Harbour View 309 291 Marine View 368 359 Mesa View 306 302 Park View 288 252 Spring View 287 319 Vista View 286 275 Orange Unified 276 278 Cerro Villa Junior High 274 300 El Rancho Junior High 309 275 McPherson Junior High 266 248 Portola Junior High 239 257 Santiago Junior High 294 292 Yorba Junior High 267 280 Placentia Unified 277 305 Kraemer Junior High 267 298 Tuffree Junior High 282 299 Yorba Junior High 283 313 Saddleback Valley Unified 306 314 La Paz Intermediate 283 285 Los Alisos Intermediate 326 309 Serrano Intermediate 307 336 Santa Ana Unified 258 248 Carr Intermediate 223 229 Lathrop Intermediate 262 226 MacArthur Fundamental 294 298 McFadden Intermediate 277 273 Sierra Intermediate 282 251 Spurgeon Intermediate 257 226 Willard Intermediate 230 238 Tustin Unified 283 290 Columbus Tustin Middle 282 253 Currie Middle 250 264 Hewes Middle 313 344 Westminster Elementary 252 237 Johnson Intermediate 246 213 Stacey Intermediate 270 249 Warner Intermediate 231 249 Yorba Linda Elementary 299 321 Yorba Linda Middle 299 321

Source: State Department of Education.