State Test Scores Up in La Canada, Glendale Schools

Glendale and La Canada district schools defied the ominous state trend toward lower achievement test scores this year, with Glendale showing a steep 23% improvement, while La Canada remained in the top percentile of all state school systems.

Meanwhile, all but one Los Angeles Unified school in Northeast Los Angeles showed a drop in California Assessment Program test scores, with King Junior High School in Silver Lake slumping the most with a 10% drop.

The CAP exams have been given since the mid-1980s to students in grades 3, 6, 8 and 12 to help chart the progress of school reform efforts. CAP scores assess reading, writing, math, science and history/social sciences.

The tests were canceled for the 1990-91 school year after then-Gov. George Deukmejian blue-penciled funding for the tests. Last year, the state Department of Education got enough money only to test eighth-graders.

Glendale Unified, which has struggled this year with more than $6 million in budget reductions, appears to provide a case study on how to improve test scores in hard times.

Displeased with their test results for the 1989-90 year, a task force of teachers, counselors and school officials was convened to study the issue, said Greg Bowman, director of curriculum and instruction for the district.

In the two intervening years, the district targeted four specific study areas: aligning the curriculum with academic areas covered by the CAP tests, motivation of students, analysis of test results and test-taking environments.

The task force concluded that students who took the tests in comfortable classrooms, with their regular teachers present, might do better than students who were assembled in a large auditorium with unfamiliar proctors.

The district also hired a retired math teacher to work on staff development of teaching methods for word problems and other mathematical concepts covered in the CAP tests.

Additionally, Glendale hired a writing consultant who helped conduct an assessment of teaching techniques in grades 8, 10 and 12, which led to an overhaul of the district’s language arts program to put more emphasis on writing.

The result: Glendale’s districtwide CAP scores rose 29% to 291 points, out of a possible score of 400. (The statewide average is 259 points, a drop of four points since the last time the test was given two years ago.)

“It was just hard work, good instructional techniques and staff development,” Bowman said. “It’s not a meteoric rise, but it’s a payoff for hard work.”

In La Canada Unified, scores rose 4% to an average of 367 points. Statewide, La Canada schools rank in the 98th percentile in reading and the 99th percentile in math, science, history and social sciences.

“It’s still not at 400 points, so we still have room to grow,” said C. T. Holman, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. However, “It’s nice to see that when we do this well we can still show some gain and growth.”

Holman attributes the high scores to teachers who focus on critical thinking skills and to high academic expectations among students and parents.

In recent years, La Canada officials have discovered many students from other districts have enrolled in La Canada schools to take advantage of the superior education offered by the district.

Last year, some estimated that as many as 200 illegally enrolled students attended La Canada schools out of a student population of 3,300. Holman said the district has since tightened procedures to deal with non-resident students.

In Los Angeles Unified, CAP scores dropped an average of 5% districtwide. However, two Northeast area schools posted larger declines.

CAP scores dropped 7% at Eagle Rock Junior and Senior High School, the only school in Los Angeles Unified that serves students from grades 7 through 12.

Principal Gloria Sierra said she did not know why the scores fell.

“If that’s what it says, that’s what it says,” she said.

Sierra added, however, that language barriers may have affected the scores at her school, where more than 300 of the 2,400 students speak limited English and hundreds more lack fluency.

“The CAP as it exists now reflects top-down information giving,” the principal said. “It involves less of the youngster’s thinking and more of his capacity to feed back information. We’re looking forward to next year’s CAP, which will include more innovative learning skills, like cooperative learning and critical thinking.”

At King Junior High, where scores dropped 10%, the principal could not be reached for comment.