South Bay CAP Scores : CAP Scores Up at 21 Schools in the South Bay

From a dramatic surge in scores at San Pedro’s Dana Junior High to a sizable drop-off at Carson’s Carnegie Junior High, South Bay students turned in a wide range of performances in last year’s statewide writing test for eighth-graders.

In the California Assessment Program test, students were given 45 minutes to write on an assigned subject in categories including biography, observation and autobiographical incident.

Of the 37 South Bay public schools to administer the test, 21 improved their scores in 1989-90 from 1988-89, while 16 experienced declines. Dana saw the biggest gain, boosting its score to 261 from 203, and moving from the 15th to the 51st percentile when compared to schools statewide.

Dana Principal Linda Lade, who said the school’s 1988-89 score was unusually low, attributed the improvement to efforts by school officials to assign writing in classes including science and mathematics.

“Many people still feel writing is something that should just be taught in English classes and is not a concern in the other disciplines,” Lade said. “That’s not true.”

Carnegie, meanwhile, saw its score drop to 217 from 254, and its statewide ranking fall from the 49th percentile to the 18th. Principal Dhyan Lal cited several reasons for the decline, among them an increase in the number of students with a limited ability to speak English and a lack of motivation in last year’s eighth-grade class.

“A lot of times you have a group that really takes the assignment seriously,” said Lade, pointing out that the previous year’s test showed a 16-point increase. “Then another group comes along and you do the same work with them but they don’t take it as seriously.”

In absolute terms, Miraleste, in Rancho Palos Verdes, registered the South Bay’s top score, with 396 out of a possible 500. Los Angeles’ Horace Mann Junior High scored lowest, with 175.

Lennox Middle School’s score, though low at 193, marked an improvement over the previous year and came despite a steep increase in the number of students with a limited ability to speak English. State figures show that a full 63% of the school’s 1989-90 eighth-grade class had limited English-speaking ability compared to 42% the year before.

Schools in Hawthorne, Inglewood and Lawndale also experienced increases in the number of eighth-graders with limited English skills, but in no case as sharply as in Lennox.

Only five districts with schools in the South Bay had a majority of students with scores considered adequate or higher. Leading the pack was Manhattan Beach, with 73% of students in the adequate, commendable or exceptional range, followed by Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified, El Segundo Unified, Torrance Unified and Hermosa Beach. Lennox was in last place, with 26%.

Jerry Davis, superintendent of the Manhattan Beach City School District, said his city’s intermediate school and four elementary schools have also placed special emphasis on writing in a broad range of subjects. In addition, he said, students at the intermediate school keep portfolios to see their progress in diverse types of writing.

Said Davis: “We believe that children not only write better when they read, they read better when they write.”

HOW TO READ THE SCORES

Here are California Assessment Program writing scores earned by eighth-graders in some Los Angeles County public schools last spring.

The previous year’s scores are also provided for comparison purposes, although CAP officials warn against reading too much into one-year variations.

The scaled score is a combination of results on each of the various types of writing tasks assigned. The average score in the state was 259, up four points over last year’s score, while the average for students in Los Angeles County was 236, representing a six-point rise.

Relative rank is a way to compare a district or a school with another that is similar in terms of student socioeconomic makeup and students’ ability to speak, read and write English fluently, as well as how often those students move from school to school. The value listed is the school’s percentile rank within its comparison group.

State rank shows the school or district’s ranking (on a score of 1 to 99), comparing its scores to those of every other school or district in California.

This is a sample of one of the eight types of essay questions that make up the California Assessment Program’s writing test for eighth-graders. Each student is assigned one type of writing task and the grades on all work done by students at a given school are combined to give the school a single “scaled score.” Essays must be completed within 45 minutes, and they are graded for thought- and writing-process skills as well as for such mechanics as spelling and grammar.

Writing Situation: Your English class is putting together a project about incidents that individual class members have experienced at school. Think of a memorable incident that you would like to include in this class collection. It might be an incident that made you feel a sense of belonging at the school, a funny situation, an embarrassing one, or any incident that is memorable to you.

Directions for Writing: Write about an incident that you have experienced at school. Things to consider include what was involved, what the people and surroundings looked like, what exactly happened, and how you felt about the incident. Try to make your readers, your classmates, and your teacher understand why this particular event is memorable.

El Segundo Unified

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 327 75 94 88-89 332 92 94

EL SEGUNDO MIDDLE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 327 75 92 88-89 332 92 94

Hawthorne

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 235 51 30 88-89 238 57 38

HAWTHORNE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 237 55 33 88-89 248 64 44

YUKON

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 231 43 29 88-89 216 36 20

Hermosa Beach City

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 288 27 77 88-89 284 31 76

HERMOSA VALLEY

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 288 27 73 88-89 284 31 74

Inglewood Unified

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 204 11 3 88-89 205 16 17

CROZIER

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 208 12 14 88-89 184 6 8

LA TIJERA

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 228 9 27 88-89 248 34 44

LANE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 192 1 8 88-89 212 3 18

MONROE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 175 11 4 88-89 199 25 13

PARENT

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 277 16 65 88-89 293 33 81

Lawndale

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 232 54 27 88-89 250 74 46

ADDAMS

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 227 57 26 88-89 247 85 43

ROGERS

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 233 53 31 88-89 251 69 46

Lennox

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 193 27 2 88-89 171 11 1

LENNOX MIDDLE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 193 27 8 88-89 171 11 4

Los Angeles Unified

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 208 30 15 88-89 202 21 16

CARNEGIE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 217 11 18 88-89 254 46 49

CLAY

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 159 3 2 88-89 148 1 2

CURTISS

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 199 3 10 88-89 191 1 10

DANA

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 261 77 51 88-89 203 15 15

DODSON

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 268 62 58 88-89 241 8 39

FLEMING

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 233 34 31 88-89 222 19 23

MANN

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 175 4 4 88-89 184 16 8

PEARY JR. HIGH

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 244 34 37 88-89 217 15 21

WHITE JUNIOR HIGH

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 242 48 36 88-89 214 15 19

WILMINGTON JR. HIGH

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 184 21 6 88-89 175 15 5

WRIGHT JUNIOR HIGH

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 226 1 25 88-89 230 1 29

Manhattan Beach City

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 376 95 98 88-89 336 76 96

MANHATTAN BEACH

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 376 95 98 88-89 336 76 95

Palos Verdes Peninsula

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 358 89 98 88-89 366 93 98

MALAGA COVE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 345 83 96 88-89 356 88 97

MIRALESTE HIGH

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 396 98 99 88-89 390 97 99

RIDGECREST

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 356 88 97 88-89 365 93 98

Redondo Beach City

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 279 54 70 88-89 274 65 69

ADAMS MIDDLE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 275 42 64 88-89 239 16 37

LINCOLN

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 300 85 81 88-89 278 72 69

HILLCREST MIDDLE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 276 47 65 88-89 300 85 84

Torrance Unified

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 303 74 86 88-89 289 71 80

CALLE MAYOR

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 314 56 88 88-89 303 50 86

CASIMIR

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 276 78 65 88-89 292 84 80

HULL

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 310 89 87

LYNN

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 299 52 79 88-89 264 9 59

MADRONA

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 291 49 75 88-89 285 51 74

MAGRUDER

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 320 95 89 88-89 317 98 90

Wiseburn

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 233 6 28 88-89 245 26 42

DANA

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 233 6 31 88-89 245 26 42