O.C. Scores for Reading, Math Rank 2nd in State : Schools: In 13 districts, 12th-graders post an average 291, a 32-point rise over 1983-84 and 35 points above the statewide 1989-90 average.

Reading and math scores among Orange County’s high school seniors increased dramatically in the last six years, propelling the countywide average to second in the state, according to California Assessment Program scores released Tuesday.

Combined scores for both subjects show that 12th-graders in the county’s 13 high school and unified districts posted an average score of 291 in the test administered in December, a 32-point rise over 1983-84 scores and 35 points above the statewide 1989-90 average of 256. The average gain for all counties in the state was 20.5 points above 1983-84 scores.

Broken down into individual subjects, the countywide average in reading was up 12 points in the last year and 28 points in the last six years. In math, average scores were up 10 points in the last year and 35 points in the last six.

“Every district has gone up” in Orange County, state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said. “Everybody just went bananas.”

Orange County’s results exceeded the generally steady rise statewide in 12th-grade test scores over the last six years. Statewide, the class of 1990 topped its 1984 counterparts by 15 points in reading and by 26 points in math. Orange County students trailed only those in Marin County.

All Orange County districts except for Santa Ana Unified scored above the state average in the December tests. But Santa Ana,

with an average score of 223, still posted a gain of 10 points over the last two years and 18 points over the last six.

“We have to be realistic about the population we’re dealing with,” said district spokeswoman Diane Thomas, referring to Santa Ana’s large immigrant student population. “Our demographics are different. It’s not an excuse, it’s a fact. But the important thing to look at is our CAP scores are on the rise.”

The statewide figures showed that minorities and students with limited English skills--a large part of Santa Ana’s student population--lag far behind white students and native English-speakers in reading.

However, the results also show that reading scores for minorities are on the rise.

Peter A. Hartman, superintendent of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, said his district’s reading and math scores have soared amid a heavy influx of immigrants and minorities.

“We’ve been increasing minority students by 2% a year,” Hartman said. “We went from 5% minority 10 years ago to 20% now.”

During the same period, he said, test scores have risen: CAP scores in the district went up an average of 57 points in the last six years.

Administrators and superintendents in the county attributed the sharp rise in scores to moves by individual districts to bring curricula into closer conformity with state guidelines.

The biggest increase among county districts was in Los Alamitos Unified, where CAP scores rose 17 points in one year and 59 points over the last six years. The district’s average CAP score for the December exam was 329, or 73 points above the state average.

“The scores vary from year to year because you’re testing a different set of students,” said Elaine Hamada, the Los Alamitos district’s coordinator of special projects. “This year there happens to be a number of exceptional students. I think this year happens to be the result of all of the ideal things.”

Hamada said that despite the district’s high ranking, “we don’t put a lot of emphasis on our CAP results because it’s only one measure at one point in time.”

The CAP tests have been criticized because they gauge overall performance, rather than individual capabilities.

“We tend to discount the CAP tests in our district,” said Dave Brown, superintendent of the Irvine Unified School District, which posted the highest average CAP score in the county at 332.

Individual Irvine schools showed some of the sharpest increases in the county. The CAP figures show a 70-point rise--the largest of any school in the county--in math scores at University High over the last six years, and a 57-point rise in reading at Irvine High during the same period.

Based on the state’s formula of a 22-point gain being equivalent to one grade, Honig noted that county schools increased a half-grade, or 11 points, in the last year, and nearly a full grade in the last two years.

But Brown, who has been among the most vocal critics of the CAP tests, was sharply critical of the 22-point gauge. He described that measure as “disinformation.”

Using the 22-point criterion, Brown said, might encourage unfair comparison of districts.

Orange County Supt. of Schools Robert Peterson agreed. “The comparison of grade levels should be omitted,” he said.

Orange County California Assessment Test Scores HOW TO READ THE SCORES Here are the 12th-grade California Assessment Program reading and math scores for high schools in Orange County. The tests are administered annually to high school seniors throughout the state and are meant to show how schools and districts, not individual students, are performing. State education officials have set a goal of three points of growth per year.

Districts are in uppercase. District averages and individual school results are listed for each district. Three years of test results are given. The first line of numbers contains 1989-90 test results; the second and third lines refer to 1988-89 and 1987-88 results.

The scores are reported on a scale from 100 to about 400. The average score statewide in 1989-90 was 251 in reading and 260 in math.

The rank that 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. For example, Brea-Olinda High School has a rank of 89 in reading and 91 in math, which means it scored considerably higher than most 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 levels. 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 higher degrees. A 3 means 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 7% 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.

ANAHEIM UNION

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 253 53 268 60 3.0 10.0 88-89 241 45 260 54 3.0 10.1 87-88 251 50 258 57 3.1 7.1 Anaheim 89-90 202 18 209 13 2.2 36.4 88-89 194 15 215 20 2.1 39.1 87-88 200 15 218 22 2.4 27.1 Cypress 89-90 297 83 304 85 3.4 4.1 88-89 249 50 273 66 3.5 4.0 87-88 272 68 288 82 3.5 3.4 Katella 89-90 270 65 298 81 3.1 2.4 88-89 239 43 278 69 3.0 3.7 87-88 265 61 270 69 3.2 5.4 Kennedy 89-90 266 62 283 71 3.1 4.7 88-89 260 60 276 68 3.3 1.1 87-88 271 68 281 77 3.3 4.5 Loara 89-90 269 64 290 75 3.1 9.3 88-89 272 70 281 72 3.3 10.1 87-88 277 71 273 71 3.4 6.3 Magnolia 89-90 232 37 258 48 2.9 10.0 88-89 215 27 242 38 2.8 9.3 87-88 231 34 243 44 2.8 3.7 Savanna 89-90 253 51 265 54 3.1 5.8 88-89 251 53 272 65 3.0 6.7 87-88 257 55 243 44 2.9 5.3 Western 89-90 221 29 239 32 2.9 9.0 88-89 252 53 255 50 2.9 4.8 87-88 232 34 242 43 2.9 2.1

BREA-OLINDA UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 307 92 315 93 3.5 2.7 88-89 328 97 306 91 3.6 0 87-88 300 87 292 88 3.5 .7 Brea-Olinda 89-90 308 89 320 91 3.5 2.5 88-89 332 96 309 88 3.6 0 87-88 305 88 300 88 3.5 .7

CAPISTRANO UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 299 87 296 81 3.9 .7 88-89 301 91 292 84 3.8 .7 87-88 300 87 288 86 3.9 .5 Capistrano Valley 89-90 308 89 304 85 4.0 1.2 88-89 313 93 304 86 3.8 0 87-88 303 87 300 88 3.9 0 Dana Hills 89-90 293 81 287 73 4.0 0 88-89 303 88 292 81 3.9 0 87-88 298 85 278 74 3.9 0 San Clemente 89-90 295 82 296 80 3.7 1.0 88-89 281 76 275 67 3.7 2.7 87-88 297 84 283 79 3.8 1.7

FULLERTON JOINT UNION

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 289 81 287 76 3.3 2.5 88-89 276 72 282 74 3.4 3.1 87-88 274 69 276 75 3.4 2.4 Buena Park 89-90 234 40 259 49 2.6 3.2 88-89 270 68 252 46 2.8 6.7 87-88 266 62 242 43 2.8 4.9 Fullerton 89-90 271 65 252 42 3.2 2.5 88-89 252 53 269 62 3.1 4.1 87-88 268 64 267 65 3.4 2.6 La Habra 89-90 255 53 268 58 2.8 4.8 88-89 238 42 247 42 3.1 4.1 87-88 237 38 257 55 3.1 3.9 Sonora 89-90 306 88 299 82 3.4 3.8 88-89 284 78 284 73 3.5 3.0 87-88 258 55 267 65 3.4 2.7 Sunny Hills 89-90 333 95 323 92 3.9 .9 88-89 312 92 336 95 3.9 0 87-88 321 93 332 96 4.0 .3 Troy 89-90 315 91 311 88 3.9 0 88-89 298 84 296 83 3.6 1.9 87-88 290 80 286 81 3.7 1.0

GARDEN GROVE UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 252 52 268 60 2.8 11.5 88-89 232 37 252 49 2.9 13.7 87-88 238 41 247 48 2.9 11.7 Bolsa Grande 89-90 218 26 258 48 2.8 24.5 88-89 214 26 251 45 2.7 27.5 87-88 202 16 236 37 2.8 21.4 Garden Grove 89-90 267 63 284 72 2.9 3.3 88-89 233 38 261 53 2.9 9.6 87-88 267 64 270 69 2.9 11.3 La Quinta 89-90 283 74 300 83 3.0 9.6 88-89 240 44 267 60 3.1 14.5 87-88 239 40 239 40 3.2 12.5 Los Amigos 89-90 235 41 254 44 2.6 17.4 88-89 231 36 258 51 3.0 10.3 87-88 234 36 254 53 3.0 2.0 Pacifica 89-90 278 70 267 57 3.3 2.7 88-89 287 80 277 68 3.3 1.5 87-88 284 76 275 72 3.4 1.9 Rancho Alamitos 89-90 251 50 259 49 2.8 10.6 88-89 245 49 251 45 3.0 12.5 87-88 234 36 239 40 2.9 9.4 Santiago 89-90 218 26 253 43 2.1 14.9 88-89 170 5 203 14 2.2 24.7 87-88 196 13 216 20 2.3 25.6

HUNTINGTON BEACH UNION

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 306 92 307 90 3.5 5.7 88-89 283 81 289 80 3.5 5.7 87-88 275 72 278 77 3.5 3.5 Edison 89-90 320 92 313 89 3.6 3.4 88-89 298 84 292 81 3.7 1.8 87-88 300 86 290 84 3.8 .9 Fountain Valley 89-90 333 95 324 93 3.8 3.5 88-89 302 87 312 90 3.7 6.3 87-88 282 75 294 85 3.8 2.2

Reading Math Background Huntington Beach 89-90 275 68 285 72 3.6 7.1 88-89 265 63 267 60 3.5 7.5 87-88 243 43 247 47 3.6 3.7 Marina 89-90 316 92 323 92 3.6 2.6 88-89 301 87 301 85 3.7 0 87-88 297 84 297 87 3.7 1.1 Ocean View 89-90 301 86 299 82 3.4 9.1 88-89 267 65 291 80 3.2 7.8 87-88 275 71 277 73 3.3 2.8 Westminster 89-90 276 69 291 76 2.8 10.6 88-89 260 60 268 61 3.0 11.7 87-88 262 59 279 74 3.0 11.8

IRVINE UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 326 95 337 96 4.0 5.0 88-89 290 86 314 94 4.1 5.6 87-88 305 92 309 94 4.1 3.5 Irvine 89-90 321 92 324 93 3.8 0 88-89 241 45 284 73 3.9 5.8 87-88 290 80 293 85 4.0 7.1 University 89-90 332 95 361 97 4.1 10.7 88-89 303 88 344 96 4.2 7.3 87-88 330 96 335 97 4.2 0 Woodbridge 89-90 335 96 334 94 4.2 3.5 88-89 328 95 314 91 4.0 3.6 87-88 286 78 295 86 4.1 3.9

LAGUNA BEACH UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 306 92 307 90 4.1 0 88-89 316 95 297 89 4.1 0 87-88 301 87 282 80 4.2 .4 Laguna Beach 89-90 306 88 307 86 4.1 0 88-89 316 93 297 83 4.1 0 87-88 301 86 282 78 4.2 .4

LOS ALAMITOS UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 329 96 329 95 3.8 .7 88-89 306 93 318 95 3.8 0 87-88 289 83 297 91 3.9 0 Los Alamitos 89-90 332 95 336 95 3.9 .7 88-89 309 91 324 93 3.9 0 87-88 291 81 302 90 3.9 0

NEWPORT-MESA UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 297 85 311 92 3.8 1.9 88-89 300 90 311 93 3.9 2.1 87-88 303 91 290 87 3.7 1.6 Corona Del Mar 89-90 332 95 350 96 4.4 .4 88-89 332 96 331 95 4.3 1.3 87-88 329 95 296 86 4.1 0 Costa Mesa 89-90 254 52 300 83 3.1 0 88-89 254 55 282 72 3.4 6.9 87-88 285 77 290 84 3.3 0 Estancia 89-90 292 80 270 60 3.3 6.1 88-89 295 83 314 91 3.6 .8 87-88 285 77 280 76 3.4 6.8 Newport Harbor 89-90 298 84 321 91 4.0 .7 88-89 305 90 308 87 3.9 1.0 87-88 305 88 293 85 3.9 0

ORANGE UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 294 85 299 85 3.6 4.5 88-89 292 88 290 81 3.6 4.8 87-88 292 84 287 85 3.6 4.8 Canyon 89-90 286 76 298 81 3.8 1.8 88-89 303 88 315 91 3.8 4.1 87-88 312 91 311 92 3.8 .2 El Modena 89-90 284 75 281 69 3.6 4.7 88-89 309 91 296 83 3.6 1.5 87-88 298 85 274 72 3.6 .8 Orange 89-90 295 82 292 77 3.2 12.9 88-89 237 42 232 31 3.2 13.9 87-88 256 54 253 52 3.0 17.7 Villa Park 89-90 314 91 324 93 3.8 .3 88-89 316 93 314 91 3.8 .3 87-88 303 87 309 91 3.9 .6

PLACENTIA UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 300 88 297 83 3.7 .8 88-89 282 78 296 89 3.5 .5 87-88 286 79 290 87 3.6 .2 El Dorado 89-90 299 84 297 81 3.8 0 88-89 307 90 316 92 3.8 0 87-88 307 89 301 89 3.7 0 Esperanza 89-90 303 87 299 82 3.7 0 88-89 280 76 286 75 3.5 0 87-88 291 81 288 82 3.7 .2 Valencia 89-90 298 84 297 81 3.5 2.7 88-89 268 66 300 84 3.3 1.7 87-88 276 71 298 87 3.3 .6

SADDLEBACK VALLEY UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 328 96 322 94 3.8 1.5 88-89 319 96 317 94 3.8 1.8 87-88 289 83 299 92 3.8 .9 El Toro 89-90 326 93 315 89 3.8 3.0 88-89 306 90 306 86 3.8 3.9 87-88 259 56 282 78 3.8 0 Laguna Hills 89-90 325 93 304 85 3.9 .3 88-89 332 96 329 94 3.8 0 87-88 286 78 289 83 3.7 3.6 Mission Viejo 89-90 335 96 343 96 3.9 .8 88-89 333 96 328 94 3.8 1.3 87-88 321 93 320 94 3.8 .8 Trabuco Hills 89-90 323 92 331 94 3.6 1.4 88-89 308 91 314 91 3.7 .7 87-88 297 84 313 92 3.7 0

SANTA ANA UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 213 18 232 23 1.9 12.9 88-89 208 18 230 26 2.0 16.3 87-88 207 17 219 20 2.0 17.8 Saddleback 89-90 226 32 243 35 2.1 18.9 88-89 207 21 233 31 2.2 15.7 87-88 216 24 228 31 2.2 16.0 Santa Ana 89-90 200 17 223 20 1.8 19.7 88-89 214 26 237 34 1.9 17.2 87-88 213 22 219 23 2.1 19.9 Valley 89-90 202 18 230 26 1.9 0 88-89 208 22 229 28 1.9 18.6 87-88 181 8 211 17 1.8 19.6

TUSTIN UNIFIED

Reading Math Background School Score Rank Score Rank SES %LEP District Ave. 89-90 285 77 304 87 3.7 5.3 88-89 276 72 295 88 3.8 2.4 87-88 259 55 267 68 3.9 2.7 Foothill 89-90 309 90 334 94 4.1 1.0 88-89 286 79 318 92 4.2 1.9 87-88 263 59 285 80 4.2 1.0 Tustin 89-90 265 61 283 71 3.4 9.0 88-89 270 68 282 72 3.6 3.2 87-88 255 53 256 54 3.6 4.9

THE 1989-90 COUNTY TOP 10

Reading Score Mission Viejo: 335 Woodbridge: 335 Fountain Valley: 333 Sunny Hills: 333 Los Alamitos: 332 Corona del Mar: 332 University: 332 El Toro: 326 Laguna Hills: 325 Trabuco Hills: 323

Math Score University: 361 Corona del Mar: 350 Mission Viejo: 343 Los Alamitos: 336 Foothill: 334 Woodbridge: 334 Trabuco Hills: 331 Fountain Valley: 324 Irvine: 324 Villa Park: 324