8th-Grade Test Scores Decline in Majority of Local Districts : Education: Statewide achievement rankings place 14 of the area’s 17 districts below the California average. Results supply more ammunition to critics of the beleaguered Compton school district.

The results of statewide testing of eighth-graders contain little encouraging news for most Southeast-area school districts. Scores were down in most Long Beach schools and the majority of local school systems, according to just-released results of achievement tests administered last spring.

Thirteen of 17 area school districts saw their scores decline since 1990, the last year the California Assessment Program tests were given. Ten school systems scored below the county average; 14 scored below the state average.

Downey Unified suffered the greatest drop in points. And the scores for the beleaguered Compton Unified district gave more ammunition to its critics. Compton scores, already the worst in the county, declined further.

The silver lining in this gloom belongs to the tiny Lowell Joint School District, which serves most of La Habra Heights, parts of eastern Whittier and parts of La Habra in Orange County. The district of five schools not only had the highest test scores in the Southeast region, but also outdistanced most similar California school districts. The results were less spectacular but promising in the Lynwood Unified School District and the Los Nietos School District.

Some educators blame the overall downturn on reduced school funding levels. School districts have responded with such measures as increasing class size and closing libraries.

But factors affecting test scores vary widely throughout the region.

In Long Beach, efforts to improve scores have been hampered by a surging immigrant population that pushed district enrollment this fall to an all-time high of more than 75,700 students. Many of the newcomers--mostly from Mexico, other Latin American countries and Cambodia--have little or no previous schooling and speak little or no English.

Scores in Long Beach declined over the last two years, but remain a bit higher than they were when the testing began in the mid-1980s. On a scale ranging roughly between 100 and 400, Long Beach added a modest two points to its average score--edging up from 231 to 233 since testing began. But scores have fallen 10 points in the last two years.

Those results represent some progress, given the rise in the number of district students who speak little or no English, spokesman Richard Van Der Laan said.

“When you more than hold your own over a period of six years at a time when your limited English-speaking population has increased over 50%, it is an achievement,” Van Der Laan said. “It’s nothing to rave about, but it is certainly running contrary to the tide.”

When comparing Long Beach with school districts that have similar characteristics, the state places the school system in the middle of the pack, at the 49th percentile--meaning that on average, the district would perform better than 49 of 100 similar school systems.

Another urban school system, Compton Unified, did not do nearly so well.

Compton test scores, typically at or near the bottom in the state, had virtually nowhere to go but up. But they still declined.

On the test, students answered questions designed to measure skills in reading, math, history and science. Writing skills were tested through student essays. Compton scores declined in all categories. The sharpest drops were in reading and writing.

Compton students averaged a 153, the lowest in the county, where the average score was 236. Compton students scored 161 two years ago. Less than 15% of the district’s students earned what the state defines as an “adequate” score. Throughout the county, 39.3% of the eighth-graders earned adequate scores.

Southeast Los Angeles County also had the second-lowest scoring school district: Paramount Unified, where the average score was 185. Although Paramount avoided rock bottom, its scores declined nine points--slightly more than Compton’s--in the last two years.

In Compton, the results are particularly distressing for officials who campaigned vigorously this year to avoid a state takeover. They successfully lobbied Gov. Pete Wilson to veto a bill that would have made Compton the first California school district ever taken over for academic failure. At the time, they cited numerous new programs as evidence that the school district has made substantial recent progress.

The state takeover bill was sponsored by Assemblyman Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount), who said he has already reintroduced the legislation.

“It would appear from the scores that there is still not the concentration on student performance that I would like to see,” Murray said. “I have talked with the acting superintendent and he indicates he plans to put more focus on student performance, but that’s what the last superintendent said when he came in.”

The decline in Compton cannot be blamed on budget cuts. The district did not begin trimming its people and services until this fall.

Compton officials maintain that the poor scores are, in part, a product of social factors such as poverty and violent or overcrowded homes and neighborhoods. Nearly all district students qualify for reduced-price or free lunches. A third of the district’s students speak limited English.

Such social problems also pull down scores in Paramount, Lynwood and Norwalk, and parts of Long Beach and Los Angeles, test critics point out. The three lowest scoring districts in the county--Compton, Paramount and Lynwood--serve adjacent areas with similar problems.

Compton school board President Kelvin Filer, a critic of the tests, said that they are further flawed by measuring only a narrow range of student ability.

“The tests are an indication of whether a student can take standardized tests, not an indication that a student is getting a quality education,” Filer said. “It’s not an indicator as to whether this student will become a young adult able to contribute to society.”

Even so, Filer said he was disappointed with Compton scores. Filer added that he is encouraged, however, by the determination that acting Supt. Harold Cebrun and other district officials have shown to solve district problems. Last week, officials held the first meeting of a task force to improve student achievement, the most recent district effort to tackle low test scores.

“I recognize the importance society has placed on test scores,” Filer said. “Therefore, we need to make sure we are doing everything we can to make sure our students learn and adapt to take these kinds of tests. We know the rules.”

In neighboring Lynwood, the news was better. Lynwood Unified posted a modest two-year gain, and has made substantial progress since the mid-80s. The district still lags near the bottom statewide with average scores only slightly ahead of Paramount Unified.

“We’ve still got a long way to go,” Supt. Audrey Clarke said. She said she could pinpoint no magical strategies that led to the promising rise, but pointed out that the district has devoted considerable time and resources in the last several years to teacher training. This effort would continue alongside new programs, such as using talented high school students as tutors for elementary-aged children.

Officials are anxious to put distance between their test scores and Compton’s. They want to avoid the attention of Assemblyman Murray.

As a result of redistricting, Murray now represents parts of Lynwood as well as Compton and Paramount. “I have been so totally concerned about doing something with Compton that I haven’t had time to think of the other districts,” Murray said.

Another district that made progress was Los Nietos, which serves unincorporated West Whittier and parts of Santa Fe Springs. The district posted a small gain in scores in the last two years, and a large increase since the mid-80s.

The credit goes in large part to a well-developed program to teach students who speak limited English, said Roberta Faeth, director of instructional services. More than 60% of Los Nietos students have a limited ability to speak English. Spanish-only speakers are given instruction in Spanish until the fourth grade, so that they can learn without needing English.

Los Nietos also fared well when compared with similar school districts. Its comparative rank was 66--meaning that, on average, the district would perform better than 66 of 100 similar school systems.

In these comparative ratings, many of the 17 local school districts held their own. Six did better than most similar school districts; four did as well.

The area district with the most to crow about, however, may be the Lowell Joint School District.

It was the only Southeast-area school system to record scores of 300 or more on the scoring scale that runs from 100 to 400. Lowell also ranked higher than any other local school district when compared with similar school districts across the state.

Supt. Ronald Randolph said the test results for Lowell reflect an emphasis on finding the best combination of old and new methods to teach basic skills. Another key was demanding more from students. Fifth-grade spelling words are third-grade material in Lowell schools, Randolph said. Similar high expectations apply to math. About 25% of seventh-graders learn algebra. The percentage rises to 50% by the end of eighth grade, he said.

He noted that his district is also blessed with a stable teaching force and active parents. Nor does it hurt that most district families are middle or upper-middle class.

Officials of Downey Unified are somewhat at a loss to explain their scores, which had the steepest drop among local school systems. Downey students still score higher than most area students, but the trend is in the wrong direction.

Supt. Edward Sussman was reluctant to blame Downey’s growing number of poor or transient minority students. After all, on other standardized tests, districts scores have recently improved, Sussman said.

Sussman said he hoped the decline was just a one-time phenomenon stemming from a combination of bad luck and bad preparation. The district did not learn that it would have to administer the tests until a week beforehand, he said. District teachers and students had not prepared properly, and some may not have taken the test seriously, he added.

Those mistakes would not be repeated, he vowed.

Board President D. Mark Morris speculated that state funding cuts also may have taken a toll on test scores.

“We’ve been doing this whittling back and cutting, and it’s gradually catching up to us,” Morris said.

But he added that making an excuse was no solution. “You’ve got to expect children to learn and teachers to teach,” Morris said.

“You can’t use this as an excuse. Every kid can learn, and we expect them to learn. It’s not time to surrender but to draw in our wagons and do some things.”