Math, Reading Scores Mixed

California’s 12th-graders scored slightly lower in reading and slightly higher in mathematics this year, results of the 1988-89 California Assessment Program test show.

Statewide, the average score rose six points to 256 in mathematics but dropped two points to 248 in reading.

In Ventura County, the county superintendent of schools’ office had not had time to analyze the results, according to a spokesman. However, a number of school districts reflected the statewide pattern.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District, which has 1,510 12th-graders, showed increased scores in math and decreased scores in reading. Among the nine school districts in the county, Conejo Valley scored highest in math, a district official said.

Only one of the three high schools in the district, Westlake, showed a decrease in math scores, dropping two points. That school also showed a significant decrease in reading, plunging 54 points over the 1987-88 scores.

“We are still above the state average in both math and reading,” said Sylvia Michael, associate director of research and assessment, “but are looking at the scores and trying to analyze them.”

Oxnard Union High School District, with 2,024 12th-grade students tested, also showed the same statewide trend, with scores higher in math and lower in reading, according to a district official.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig offered an upbeat appraisal of the state’s scores, saying that although some of this year’s results are disappointing, “the long-term trend is more impressive.”

For example, Honig said, an analysis of test results shows that the average 12th-grade student today is performing nearly a full grade level higher in math and half a grade level higher in reading than five years ago.

“That is the fastest spurt of growth in this state ever,” he said.

The statewide decline in reading scores occurred mainly among girls, whose average score fell six points to 251.

“I don’t understand it,” Honig said of the reading slump among girls. “I don’t know if it’s an anomaly or if this particular class is different or if something we’re doing is wrong.”

A recent College Board study showed a narrowing of the gender gap over the last 20 years on tests of verbal ability, and “this could be part of it,” Honig said.

Historically, women have scored significantly higher than men on tests of language skill. But the College Board study found that women’s verbal scores have been falling and men’s scores rising on such tests as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the American College Testing Program Examination (ACT) and advanced placement exams.

Among California’s 12th-grade boys, reading test results showed a one-point gain to an average of 245.

Improvement in math was found across-the-board, with gains made by male and female students and all major ethnic groups, Honig said.

Pat McCabe, a California Assessment Program consultant for the state Department of Education, noted that the number of limited-English-speaking students rose 1% statewide to 6.3% in 1988-89. But those students as a group scored 12 points higher in math and one point higher in reading than did last year’s limited-English group, McCabe said.

Limited-English students still performed considerably lower than most students statewide, however, with an average reading score of 132 and average math score of 187.

Statewide, 95% of all 12th-graders, or 226,000 students, took the California Assessment Program test in December, 2% more than in 1987-88.

HOW TO READ THE SCORES

* Districts are in boldface (the first entry on each table); individual schools are in lighter face. Two years of test results are given. The first line of numbers contains 1988-89 test results, while the second line refers to 1987-88 results. Scores for magnet programs, continuation schools and other schools with small enrollments have been omitted.

* The scores are reported on a scale from 100 to about 400. The average score statewide in 1988-89 was 248 in reading and 256 in math.

* The “rank” which follows each score allows comparisons to all other districts or schools statewide. All schools and districts are ranked on a scale of 1 to 99 with a median rank of 50. Thus, for example, the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts has a rank of 98 in reading and 78 in math, which means it scored considerably higher than other high schools in the state in both areas.

* “SES” is a measure of a school’s or a district’s socioeconomic status. It is based on student reports of parents’ education level. Each school and district is assigned a number ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 indicating parents who did not complete high school and 5 indicating those with advanced degrees. A 3 would mean that most parents in the school or district attended some college.

* “% LEP” is the percentage of students who are limited-English-proficient, which means they are not native English speakers and are not yet fluent in English. The average California school has 6.3% LEP students.

* In some districts in which only one school is listed, the district and school averages may be different. The reason is that the district average included the scores of a large number of continuation school students.

Sample Reading Questions

Read the following autobiographical selection by Ernesto Galarza, and then answer the questions that follow it. You may look back at the passage as you answer the questions.

Boyhood in a Sacramento Barrio

Our family conversations always occurred on our own kitchen porch, away from the gringos. One or the other of the adults would begin: Se han fijado? Had we noticed--that the Americans do not ask permission to leave the room; that they had no respectful way of addressing an elderly person; that they spit brown over the railing of the porch into the yard; that when they laughed they roared; that they never brought saludos to everyone in your family from everyone in their family when they visited; that General Delibree was only a clerk; that zopilotes were not allowed on the streets to collect garbage; that the policemen did not carry lanterns at night; that Americans didn’t keep their feet on the floor when they were sitting; that there was a special automobile for going to jail; that a rancho was not a rancho at all but a very small hacienda ; that the saloons served their customers free eggs, pickles, and sandwiches; that instead of bullfighting, the gringos for sport tried to kill each other with gloves?

I did not have nearly the strong feelings on these matters that Dona Henriqueta expressed. I felt a vague admiration for the way Mr. Brien could spit brown. Wayne, my classmate, laughed much better than the Mexicans,because he opened his big mouth wide and brayed like a donkey so he could be heard a block away. But it was the kind of laughter that made my mother tremble, and it was not permitted in our house.

Rules were laid down to keep me, as far as possible, un muchacho bien educado . If I had to spit, I was to do it privately, or if in public, by the curb, with my head down and my back to people. I was never to wear my cap in the house and I was to take it off even on the porch if ladies or elderly gentlemen were sitting. If I wanted to scratch, under no circumstances was I to do it right then and there, in company, like the Americans, but I was to excuse myself. If Catfish or Russell yelled to me from across the street, I was not to shout back. I was never to ask for tips for my errands or other services to the tenants of 418L, for these were atenciones expected of me.

Above all I was never to fail in respeto to grownups, no matter who they were. It was an inflexible rule; I addressed myself to Senor Big Singh, Senor Big Ernie, Senora Dodson, Senor Choree Lopez.

We could have hung on the door of our apartment a sign like those we read in some store windows-- Aqui se habla espanol. We not only spoke Spanish, we read it. From the Libreria Espanola , two blocks up the street, Gustavo and I brought novels for my mother, like Genoveva de Brabante , a paperback with the poems of Amado Nervo and a handbook of the history of Mexico. The novels were never read aloud; the poems and the handbook were. Nervo was the famous poet from Tepic, close enough to Jalcocotan to make him our own. And in the history book I learned to read for myself, after many repetitions by my mother, about the deeds of the great Mexicans Don Salvador had recited so vividly to the class in Mazatlan. She refused to decide for me whether Abraham Lincoln was as great as Benito Juarez, or George Washington braver than the priest Don Miguel Hidalgo. At school there was no opportunity to settle these questions because nobody seemed to know about Juarez or Hidalgo; at least they were never mentioned and there were no pictures of them on the walls.

--Ernesto Galarza

QUESTIONS:

The central focus of the first paragraph shows: A. difficulties the author had in adjusting to life in America. B. rules that Mexican-American children were encouraged to obey. C. differences between American and Mexican customs and habits. D. several Mexican heroes who are unknown in America.

The underlined statement in the second paragraph is an example of: A. a fact. B. a hypothesis. C. an opinion. D. a contradiction.

You can conclude from the last paragraph that the author’s teachers: A. encouraged him to learn his country’s history through reading and discussion with his mother. B. did not teach their students about important leaders of other countries. C. were familiar with the bookstore near his apartment. D. did not encourage discussions initiated by students.

Sample Math Question

The area of a square plot of land is 3/4 of a square mile. What is the approximate length of one side?

--less than .8 mile --between .8 mile and .9 mile --between .9 mile and 1 mile --greater than 1 mile

California Assessment Test Scores

VENTURA COUNTY

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP Conejo Valley Unified 278 75 296 89 3.7 .5 287 80 283 81 3.8 .6 Newbury Park 271 69 287 76 3.6 .9 271 68 271 69 3.7 1.0 Thousand Oaks 310 91 303 85 3.7 .2 285 77 283 79 3.9 .2 Westlake 261 61 308 87 3.9 .6 315 92 310 91 4.0 .8

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP Fillmore Unified 198 6 213 17 2.2 9.5 207 17 198 2 2.4 15.4 Fillmore 198 17 213 18 2.2 9.6 207 19 199 13 2.4 15.6

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP Moorpark Unified 253 55 261 55 3.1 9.5 244 46 243 41 3.0 10.6 Moorpark 254 55 263 55 3.1 9.8 251 51 246 47 3.1 10.3

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP Oak Park Unified 282 78 283 75 3.8 0 347 98 305 93 3.7 0 Oak Park 287 80 292 81 3.8 0 371 98 326 95 3.7 0

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP Ojai Unified 267 64 271 66 3.5 0 272 67 260 58 3.4 0 Nordhoff 271 69 273 66 3.5 0 274 70 262 59 3.4 0

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP Oxnard Union 218 24 225 24 2.7 8.7 230 31 228 29 2.8 4.6 Camarillo 264 63 270 63 3.5 1.6 278 72 267 65 3.6 1.0 Channel Islands 210 23 212 18 2.4 15.0 204 17 204 15 2.5 7.1 Hueneme 197 16 208 16 2.4 14.1 202 16 200 13 2.4 4.4 Oxnard 182 10 195 10 2.2 8.0 209 20 214 19 2.2 7.0 Rio Mesa 246 49 253 47 3.1 2.5 266 62 263 61 3.1 3.0

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP Santa Paula Union 191 3 199 2 2.2 8.1 199 4 188 2 2.1 8.3 Santa Paula Union 193 14 203 14 2.2 8.5 205 18 189 10 2.1 7.3

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP Simi Valley Unified 277 73 273 69 3.3 2.1 269 65 261 61 3.2 2.7 Royal 272 70 269 62 3.2 3.1 275 71 262 59 3.1 3.3 Simi Valley 289 81 286 75 3.4 1.4 268 64 263 61 3.3 2.3

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP Ventura Unified 290 86 270 65 3.4 4.6 284 78 264 66 3.4 1.7 Buena 293 83 278 69 3.4 6.2 290 80 269 67 3.5 2.2 Ventura 288 81 263 55 3.4 2.9 280 74 261 59 3.4 1.2