LAGUNA BEACH : Teaching Targeted for Low SAT Scores

Saying a recent six-point drop in Laguna Beach High School students’ math test scores “cannot be tolerated,” district Supt. Paul Possemato has launched a comprehensive plan to lift the district average.

“There is something fundamentally wrong with our teaching,” Possemato said in a sternly worded condemnation of the declining test scores before the school board Tuesday. “I have used the phrase that (the drop in test scores) is an educational embarrassment and it is.”

Possemato distributed a survey showing that the average Scholastic Aptitude Test math scores of Laguna Beach students dropped six points between 1991 and 1992, from 501 to 495. The students’ verbal test scores rose six points, from 459 to 465, during the same period.

According to the survey, the only other school district in Orange County where math scores dropped in 1992 was Santa Ana Unified School District, which plunged 16 points.

Possemato distributed a nine-page “Action Plan to Improve 1992-93 SAT Scores,” which includes proposals to have district teachers take the SAT and to hire specialists who can help raise math scores.

In addition, Possemato said Laguna Beach educators should be picking the brains of teachers in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, where scores rose in both the math and verbal categories.

“We’re interested in how Newport-Mesa jumped 18 points (on the verbal test) and 14 points (on the math test). We want to talk to Newport-Mesa,” Possemato said. “We’re not proud.”

Board members responded positively to the superintendent’s proposals.

Trustee Carl E. Schwarz praised Possemato for refusing to “gloss over” a problem the district must hit head-on. “I look forward to a dramatic improvement next year,” he said.

To hasten the desired improvement, Possemato said in an interview Wednesday that he will probably hire a specialist from UC Irvine to analyze the district’s problem and perhaps a consultant who has worked successfully in analyzing the needs of other districts.

While most of the proposals to raise math scores can be carried out within current budget constraints, Possemato said some additional money may have to be spent.

“We’ve got to move quickly,” he said. “We believe there will be some costs, but they’re not going to be exorbitant.”

Most perplexing, Possemato said, is the incongruity of the students’ verbal and math scores. Generally, Laguna Beach High School students place second in the county in verbal test scores, reflecting an academic skill that normally drives up other scores as well.

“That relationship really becomes the issue,” he said. “Our math scores are 68 percentage points lower than Irvine’s . . . when both of us are doing the same in verbal scores.

“There is a statistical improbability when you look at the verbal scores to the math scores as compared to other districts. It’s just not adding up. There’s something drastically wrong.”

Possemato said SAT scores are particularly important to students because they help gain graduates entrance into the finest universities.

“For college-bound students, this is a pay issue,” he said.