OXNARD : Different Test Urged for English Learners

Responding to a sharp drop in student scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test this year, Oxnard Union High School District officials plan to encourage students who learned English as a second language to take an alternative college entrance exam.

Gary Davis, assistant superintendent of educational services, said students who are not native English speakers will be encouraged to take the American College Testing exam in place of the SAT.

Davis said the ACT is less demanding on such students because it contains fewer English-laden questions. He said the SAT has longer and more intense vocabulary and reading passages than the ACT.

“It just seems that the ACT might be a fairer test for those students who are English-language learners,” Davis said, adding that the alternative exam “is easier in language, not in content.”

The state mandates that college-bound students take one of the two entrance exams, Davis said.

Students in the Oxnard district who took the SAT this year posted their lowest scores in nine years, slipping below state and national averages. Of the 652 students who took the test, district officials said 117 of those learned English as a second language.

District officials said they also plan to provide mini-courses in the classroom and renew after-school seminars to help students prepare for the exams. The district conducted after-school sessions several years ago but discontinued the program because so few students participated, Davis said.

“We will reactivate the program,” Davis said. “If no one comes, there’s nothing we can do about that.”