School Scores Take a Dive : Education: The average performance of Central Los Angeles students on CAP exams was 73 points below the state’s.

Nearly a third of the eighth-graders at almost every school in Central Los Angeles failed to meet minimum expectations on a state academic achievement test, according to results released last week.

Virtually every school from the Crenshaw District to the Mid-City area to the Eastside scored below the state, county and district averages on the California Assessment Program exam. The exceptions were Burroughs Middle School and the 32nd Street School for the Performing and Visual Arts, both of which offer magnet programs.

“It’s very discouraging when the same schools score on the bottom, year after year,” said John Liechty, middle schools director for the Los Angeles Unified School District. “I do not propose to have all the answers. But I know we must come together and realize that our kids are able learners who can achieve. We’ve got to quit throwing our kids away.”

Statewide, students scored an average of 259 on the test, which was administered in late April and early May and included reading, writing, math, history and science. The county average was 236, the district’s was 213 and the average for 28 regular schools and six alternative schools in Central Los Angeles was 186.

Local school officials gave several reasons for the dismal scores, including an increasing number of students who speak little or no English, declining teacher morale, budget cuts, poverty, racial tensions, lack of parental involvement and the spring riots.

“Many of the schools took the test around the same time (as the riots),” Liechty said. “Any major disruption is going to have an impact on kids.”

While the state average dipped--by four points--after almost a decade of steady improvement, the drop at most local schools was more severe. The last time the test was given statewide was in 1990.

At Harte Middle School in South-Central, scores dropped 24 points in history and 20 points in science. Although writing scores went up by 19 points, the school’s overall average score dropped by seven points.

“It’s very discouraging when teachers see those test scores because they are striving so hard to get students to improve,” said Harte principal Catherine Sumpter. “I’m an optimistic person and I’m constantly hopeful that we will see a reversal in those test scores. But it’s a constant struggle to motivate many of the students because they’re dealing with so much negativism.”

Winthrop Grove, a math teacher at Berendo Middle School near Westlake, said teachers have a hard time preparing students for the CAP test when more than half of the school’s student body consists of recent immigrants who speak little or no English.

“Because of our makeup, I don’t think we give (the test) a lot of credence,” Grove said. “I have four or five (immigrant) kids in my class who have never been in school before, so sometimes I have to go back to elementary addition.”

About 41% of the students in the Los Angeles Unified School District were classified as limited English proficient in the 1991-92 school year, while over half of the district’s students enrolled this year receive free or reduced-price lunches, according to district figures.

Along with the economic and language barriers, Grove said, it is difficult to motivate students to do well on the test.

“It has no impact on kids whatsoever,” he said. “What are the rewards for taking this test? None. They don’t get into college because of it and they don’t move on to the next grade level because of it. When we take the test, it’s just another day at Berendo.”

Nevertheless, Liechty said he and other school officials must take responsibility for low scores.

“In a community that’s poor and where the family structure may be disruptive--all of those things could be used as excuses for not achieving,” he said. “But if that’s the case, we should all give up and go home. We’ve got to change, in my opinion, the structure and organization of instruction.”

Liechty said he believes junior high schools should adopt a team-teaching approach, where students are assigned to a group of teachers who can monitor individual needs.

Although educators like Tony Delgado, principal at El Sereno Junior High on the Eastside, say they are “going to try everything and anything” to boost achievement, they don’t believe the CAP test should be viewed as the end-all indicator of how a school is performing.

“The test offers no specific feedback to students or teachers since we do not get individualized scores,” Delgado said. “Every year, it becomes an item of great concern to parents because they compare how we stack up to other schools in the district, which is OK because healthy criticism is not bad. But it’s not the only measure of what students know.”

Despite the poor performance of most local schools, Burroughs Middle School near Hancock Park, which offers a magnet program for gifted and talented students, and the 32nd Street School near USC, both scored well above the district average.

The average score at Burroughs was 278, which is also well above the county and state averages. At 32nd Street, the average was 256.

“I think it’s the tremendous amount of energy in our arts and visual arts program that generates an energy for learning,” said Greta Pruitt, principal of the 32nd Street School. “We work to build students’ self-esteem and that can translate into academic subjects.”

How to Read the Scores

Appearing on this page are the results of the 1992 California Assessment Program test for eighth-graders. Here is a guide on how to read the scores:

* Five areas were tested: Reading, writing, mathematics, history/social science and science.

Schools are listed alphabetically and by district. Scores are scaled roughly between 100 and 400, although some scores may be higher or lower.

Average scores are given for each area tested, and school and district averages may be compared to the statewide and countywide averages.

Two measures of a school’s progress are shown.

* The two-year change (shown as “Ch2”) gives the average increase or decrease since 1990, the last year the test was given.

* The base-year change (shown as “Chb”) shows the growth or drop since the tests began.

The base year for the reading, math, history and science exams was 1985-86; for writing, it was 1986-87. Schools or districts that were formed after those years have different base years.

In general, a fluctuation of less than 10 points is not significant, although state education officials say the margin of error varies depending on the size of the school.

In some cases a specialized or “magnet” school has its campus on the grounds of a regular school. State officials have combined the scores, so separate results are not available.

Because the statewide test is meant to give a snapshot of schoolwide academic performance, individual student scores are not given.

“NA” indicates figures were not available.

1992 CAP SCORES

Statewide

Avg. Read Write Math Hist. Sci. Ch2 Chb Statewide 259 247 257 270 255 265 -4 11

Los Angeles County

Avg. Read Write Math Hist. Sci. Ch2 Chb Countywide 236 225 231 248 234 243 -5 8 Countywide 252 240 250 264 248 257 -5 11 (except LAUSD) Adams 179 160 167 194 183 190 13 29 Audubon 202 193 203 209 201 205 10 28 Belvedere 172 157 167 178 164 193 -18 4 Berendo 202 185 225 208 197 196 3 21 Bethune 171 163 169 174 174 175 2 32 Burroughs 278 283 278 289 273 269 -3 35 Carver 166 155 155 175 167 177 3 16 Clay 170 164 142 184 175 187 -10 9 Drew 172 165 148 181 181 187 4 19 Edison 168 152 159 180 164 184 4 9 El Sereno 197 185 181 220 194 207 -8 18 Foshay 185 182 179 195 184 183 7 32 Gage 183 167 171 198 187 191 -5 0 Gompers 161 147 144 174 159 179 -3 65 Griffith 197 186 186 214 197 204 -13 -7 Harte 186 181 197 187 177 190 -7 13 Hollenbeck 175 160 158 184 182 193 3 10 Mann 187 183 179 182 183 207 -3 13 Markham 157 138 140 161 166 182 -8 13 *McAlister Senior High 182 180 NA 207 151 188 NA 49 *Mid City Adult Basic 157 151 151 158 153 171 -9 -21 Ed. Ctr. Mt. Vernon 190 174 190 200 184 200 11 17 Muir 155 148 125 164 161 179 -10 17 Nimitz 175 162 156 190 177 190 -13 -10 *Owens Opportunity 141 77 NA 176 158 154 9 -78 *Ramona Junior-Senior High 182 172 NA 200 174 180 -12 29 *Riley High School 205 213 NA 183 136 287 22 32 South Gate 207 194 213 212 197 217 5 23 Stevenson 183 165 152 207 191 201 -17 2 Thirty-Second Street 256 260 262 254 252 250 2 15 *Tri-C Opportunity 167 140 101 196 184 216 0 22 Virgil 191 175 172 206 202 201 -17 10 Bell Gardens 205 186 222 217 191 211 -4 16 Suva 205 191 209 223 198 204 -14 2

* Alternative school