O.C. Students Raise SAT Scores, Beat U.S. Peers : Education: Irvine grads do best on college-eligibility tests. Santa Ana’s improve but post O.C.’s lowest results.

Orange County’s most recent high school graduates generally outscored their peers across the state and nation in the Scholastic Aptitude Test, while the average scores in most local districts showed modest gains from the previous year’s performance.

Nationally, SAT scores rose slightly for the second straight year and the downward spiral of most ethnic students’ scores halted. In California, math scores remained the same as last year while verbal scores dropped one point, according to test results that the College Board will announce today.

In Orange County, math scores in all but one school district were 24 to 98 points above the national average of 478. On the verbal portion of the 2 1/2-hour, mostly multiple-choice exam, Orange County districts ranged from 73 points below to 42 points above the national average of 424, with only three districts scoring below the national mean.

California’s averages were 484 in math and 415 for the verbal section. A perfect score on each section is 800; students get 200 points for signing their names.

“When the SAT scores are up it’s not just a reflection of what happened that year and the year before, but it’s a reflection of the base from which students operate,” said James A. Fleming, superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District, where scores jumped 10 points in math and nine in verbal--one of the best improvements countywide.

“Results like this would tend to debunk the myth that public education is failing. We’re not failing at all, we’re doing tremendously well,” Fleming said. “I think there is a Renaissance in education where more students and parents and teachers are becoming more committed.”

Nationally, test scores are creeping away from their record lows in 1990, but remain far below those of the previous generation. The improvement represents a “painfully slow academic recovery,” said Donald M. Stewart, president of the College Board, which administers the SAT.

This year’s national average rose one point to 424 in the verbal section, while the mathematics average rose two points to 478. A record 1 million students in the Class of 1993 took the exam, which most four-year colleges use to help determine admission eligibility.

“We don’t want to make a whole lot of noise over a one- or two-point rise, but it does make us hopeful,” said Howard Everson, senior research scientist for the College Board.

Nationwide, suburban students scored about 17 points more than the national average in verbal and 20 points higher in math. Students who live in large cities scored about 12 points lower than the national average in verbal and 10 points lower in math.

Fulfilling its reputation as a top-flight district filled with college-bound students, Irvine Unified School District posted the highest scores in the county, with 576 on the math section and 466 on verbal. The county’s largest district, Santa Ana Unified, had the lowest average on both sections: 351 on verbal and 434 on math.

“We have some outstanding teachers who do their homework in terms of the kinds of thing that the SAT tests are looking for, and really zero in on helping students learn those kinds of things,” said Dean Waldfogel, Irvine’s deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

“We’ve been in the fortunate position of having good SAT scores for a number of years, and that does tend to attract other parents who really value that particular (aspect) of education,” Waldfogel said. “When you have a strong staff, and you have parents who place a strong value on education, that combination is very potent.”

But other educators brushed aside drops in the scores with oft-repeated criticisms of the test: that SATs are biased in favor of whites and boys, and that because only college-bound students take them, the scores are not a fair tool for evaluating school systems.

“A one-shot test doesn’t show a hell of a lot; it’s not an indicator of anything other than that the students will do well in college,” said Edgar Z. Seal, superintendent of the Brea-Olinda Unified School District, whose verbal scores fell four points and math scores fell 17 points from last year. “It’s not an indicator of the overall achievement of these students.”

Reflecting a nationwide trend, students in the county’s most ethnically diverse districts--where many of the test-takers have a native language other than English--struggled most with the SAT.

In Anaheim Union High School District, the verbal scores slipped five points to 399, while math scores remained steady at 502. Garden Grove Unified’s verbal average dropped seven points from last year’s to 389, but the district’s math score rose four points to 504.

And while it was the lowest in the county, Santa Ana’s verbal score of 351 marked a seven-point jump from last year; the district’s math score fell two points to 434.

All three of the districts posted verbal scores below the national and California averages.

“The (school) board’s goal and the superintendent’s goal is that we improve every year, we work diligently at that,” Santa Ana Unified Spokeswoman Diane Thomas said. “We’re making progress. We ask that of students, we ask that of ourselves, to make progress every year.”

Anaheim Supt. Cynthia F. Grennan said she was “disappointed” with her district’s results, and promised to boost efforts to train students for the SATs.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said, attributing her district’s poor showing in part to the language barrier. “Our kids are so capable . . . Why do we do so well in other areas and not show improvement here? It’s a puzzlement to me.”

Nationally, Anglo students scored 91 points higher in verbal skills than blacks, and 70 points higher than Mexican-Americans. But both groups scored three points higher in math than last year, and blacks’ verbal score was up one point, while Mexican-Americans showed a two-point increase.

Asian-American students nationwide scored the highest of all ethnic groups in math with 535 points, 41 higher than Anglos, who were in second place.

No countywide breakdowns by ethnicity, race or gender were available.

California has a higher percentage of black and Latino students taking the test than the national average. One-fifth of the test-takers across the state reported that English is not their first language, while only 8% nationwide said they are not native speakers.

Only 5% of students said their parents did not graduate from high school. But 28% of Mexican-American students and 14% of Puerto Ricans who took the test have parents without a high school diploma.

“Despite increased economic difficulties for both our students and our schools, we continue to hold our own,” said William D. Dawson, acting state superintendent of public instruction. “The good news is that we have a very diverse group of students taking the test. I don’t think we are doing as good a job as we should, but I believe most California schools are striving mighty hard, given the challenges they have and the resources they have to do it.”

Wide gaps in test results also remain between males and females across the nation: Boys scored eight points higher in verbal skills and 45 points higher in math, fueling a long-standing debate over whether the exam favors boys or if the problem lies in schools’ tracking students academically based on gender.

“The very nature of the SAT, a fast-paced, high-pressure, multiple-choice test with a high premium on guessing, is a game in which boys excel,” said Bob Schaeffer, education director for FairTest, a Massachusetts-based group. “Girls are more inclined to try and think through a problem, weigh all the options. And that puts them at a strategic disadvantage.”

College Board officials deny that the test is biased, and point to the fact that more females take algebra and geometry courses, while more males enroll in advanced math courses, such as calculus and computer math.

According to this year’s results, SAT scores rise with the amount of academic preparation.

In Orange County, Los Alamitos Unified showed the largest gain from last year in the math section, with a 14-point jump to 545. Irvine had a 13-point hike to 576 in math, while Orange Unified was up 11 points to 528 and Capistrano Unified rose nine points to 528.

On the verbal section, Orange jumped 11 points to 442; Capistrano rose 10 points to 457, and Los Alamitos and Santa Ana each boosted their averages by seven points, to 459 and 351, respectively.

Brea-Olinda Unified’s scores fell the most, with a 17-point drop in math and a four-point drop in English. The largest drop in verbal scores were in Garden Grove, where the average fell seven points to 389. Anaheim, Laguna Beach and Newport-Mesa all saw five-point sags in the verbal section.

Local educators bragged about their successes and praised hard-working teachers, enthusiastic students and supportive parents for boosting SAT scores. They were particularly proud that more students were choosing to take the SAT--which sometimes brings down average scores.

“As important as the scores is, the increase in the number of seniors that are taking the SAT test,” is also important, said J. Kenneth Jones, superintendent of Fullerton Joint Union High School District, where 52% of the Class of 1993 took the test, up from 45% in 1988. “The number of youngsters taking the tests has increased, and we’ve kept the scores up. Those are two very important things.”

Districts around the county have tried various tactics to encourage students to take SATs and to help them succeed.

In Laguna Beach, Supt. Paul M. Possemato and his math staff took the test along with the seniors last year to help determine which skills are crucial for the test. Santa Ana schools now take all fifth-graders on field trips to Rancho Santiago Community College to help students see higher education as a realistic possibility.

“We have high expectations for our students, we have a strong articulated curriculum, and we have a strong performance-based assessment,” said Lorie Gonia, assistant superintendent for instructional services for the Los Alamitos Unified School District. “We would hope that would transfer to success on things like the SAT test.”

Times staff writer David A. Avila contributed to this report.

* DISTRICT RESULTS: How county scores compare with those of 1992. A22

Scholastic Aptitude Test Scores

Orange County’s 1993 high school graduates generally scored better on both the verbal and math portions of the Scholastic Aptitude Test than their counterparts nationally and elsewhere in California.

1992-93 1992 1993 Change District Verbal Math Verbal Math Verbal Math Anaheim Union 404 502 399 502 -5 N/C Brea-Olinda Unified 441 554 437 537 -4 -17 Capistrano Unified 447 519 457 528 +10 +9 Fullerton Joint 434 519 437 523 +3 +4 Garden Grove Unified 396 500 389 504 -7 +4 Huntington Beach 444 537 445 538 +1 +1 Irvine Unified 466 563 466 576 N/C +13 Laguna Beach Unified 465 495 460 502 -5 +7 Los Alamitos Unified 452 531 459 545 +7 +14 Newport Mesa 464 543 459 544 -5 +1 Orange Unified 431 517 442 528 +11 +11 Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified 435 532 439 536 +4 +4 Saddleback Valley Unified 447 522 445 521 -2 -1 Santa Ana Unified 344 436 351 434 +7 -2 Tustin Unified 447 534 450 532 +3 -2

*

NATIONAL AND STATE SAT SCORES

1992-93 1992 1993 Change District Verbal Math Verbal Math Verbal Math National average 423 476 424 478 +1 +2 California average 416 484 415 484 -1 N/C

N/C No change

Sources: College Board, individual districts;

Researched by DAVID A. AVILA and JODI WILGOREN / Los Angeles Times