SAT Scores Up but Still Below State Average : Education: Valley seniors fare better than their peers in urban L.A. schools. However, they rank behind students in neighboring districts.

San Fernando Valley students performed significantly better on the Scholastic Aptitude Test than their non-Valley peers in the troubled Los Angeles Unified School District, but their scores still lag behind the statewide average, according to results released recently by the national College Board.

For the just-graduated Class of ‘93, Valley students in the Los Angeles system also ranked behind seniors in surrounding areas, especially in the Conejo and Santa Clarita valleys, where SAT scores continue to outstrip both state and national norms.

The disparity reflects a consistent national trend in which suburban teen-agers outperform their urban counterparts on the influential college-admissions exam. Even within L.A. Unified, youths attending schools in the more affluent West Valley tend to do better than students in the East Valley and the city’s urban core.

Taken as a whole, Valley students scored 397 points on the verbal portion of the SAT and 481 in math, out of a possible 800 points on either section. The figures are almost identical to last year’s (398 verbal, 482 math) and outrank those of non-Valley students in the district, who averaged 333 on the verbal and 406 in math.

But both Valley and non-Valley scores in the mammoth Los Angeles school system--the nation’s second-largest--fall below the California mean. Valley students averaged 18 points less on the verbal section than teen-agers statewide, who notched 415 points, and finished even further behind the national score of 424. In math, the Valley score was a few points shy of the state average of 484, but exceeded the national mean of 478.

School officials attribute the poor verbal score partly to the large proportion of limited-English-speaking youngsters in the district, which is host to more than 80 languages.

“We have a huge number of immigrant students who have to learn English as they are learning the academic subjects, and this is difficult,” said Dick Browning, who oversees the district’s 49 high schools. Also, he added, “there are factors of poverty and so on that are very pronounced in our district that may not be so pronounced in other districts.”

Browning cautioned that isolating the score of Valley students does not provide a complete picture of either the Valley or the rest of the district, because thousands of students are bused across community lines to Valley campuses.

Some of those traveling students may actually help account for the higher Valley average, he said, because many are “highly motivated and goal-oriented” youths who have chosen to attend a suburban campus or one of the Valley’s 29 magnet schools--among the most sought-after programs in the district.

In fact, the highest-scoring school anywhere in the San Fernando, Antelope, Santa Clarita and Conejo valleys is Van Nuys High, a Los Angeles district campus that boasts three magnet programs: math-science, medical studies and performing arts. Seniors there averaged 485 points in verbal skills and 557 in math, far above both statewide and national norms.

“We’re very proud of that,” said Principal Robert Scharf, one of whose students scored a rare perfect 1,600 on the SAT a few years ago. “We just work hard on keeping those scores up. . . . It’s a combination of very able students and a very dedicated faculty.”

Behind Van Nuys’ scores were those of Calabasas and Agoura Hills high schools, which combined to give the Las Virgenes Unified School District the highest districtwide average in the area by a comfortable margin for the second consecutive year. The suburban system, which serves several well-heeled communities, logged 480 in verbal and 546 in math--an improvement from the previous year.

Assistant Supt. Leo Lowe said the scores were gratifying and demonstrate the commitment to education by families in the Las Virgenes district. But echoing an admonition by many educators, he warned against placing too much weight on SAT scores as a measure of a district’s success.

“It is one indicator of the quality of a district--I don’t want to discount it,” Lowe said. “But it’s not our entire focus. . . .

“One of the major issues of people relocating to this district is high (academic) achievement, and for some people, their very narrow definition of high achievement is test scores,” Lowe said. But, he added: “I try to talk them out of it. I say, ‘Look, you don’t buy a car just because of the speedometer.’ ”

College officials likewise stress that standardized tests form just one of several factors in determining admission. More than 2,000 institutions strongly recommend or require the SAT of their applicants, and 2 million youths take the exam annually.

Next spring, the College Board will unveil a revamped SAT, but the core of the exam will essentially be unchanged. The verbal section will continue to test vocabulary and reading skills, and the math portion will require knowledge of arithmetic, algebra and geometry.

Less-than-enviable scores on the dreaded exam are often enough to make students write off their chances of attending a prestigious university--and enough to make high school officials take a close look at their curricula to find out what’s going on.

At Burroughs High School in Burbank, administrators were mystified when they discovered that the average math score of their students plunged from a strong showing last year of 507 to 468--from above to below the national mean. The slide seemed inexplicable because the school’s performance held steady on another standardized math exam, the formidable Advanced Placement Calculus test.

“We have all brainstormed what could be the situation, and we’re just at a loss,” Assistant Principal MaryLe Emmett said. “We’re not going to go in and change everything around on just one (year’s scores) . . . but we won’t ignore it either.”

The Burbank Unified School District as a whole saw a split performance in its scores this year. Verbal scores districtwide improved slightly to 421, up five points from the previous year, while in math the score dipped eight points to 487.

In the Glendale Unified School District, the trend was the converse. Graduating seniors hiked the math average up 15 points to 545, but fared worse than last year’s class on the verbal component, going down four points to 420.

“The verbal scores are not a dramatic drop, but we certainly would like to be going in the other direction,” said Jim Gibson, the district’s administrator of secondary education. “The math scores are a significant increase. In the last two or three years there have been more opportunities for students to receive support in math from before- and after-school tutorials.”

In northern Los Angeles County, the Antelope Valley Union High School District witnessed an overall decline in SAT performance. Officials partly ascribed the drop to rapidly changing demographics in what was once a mostly middle-class, English-speaking student population.

The Class of ’93 at the district’s five high schools averaged 402 on verbal and 449 on math.

In Santa Clarita, educators were cheered by score increases that catapulted the William S. Hart Union High School District past the California and national norms. Students averaged 445 and 515 on the verbal and math sections, respectively.

“They’re the highest (scores) in the history of this district,” Supt. Walter Swanson said.

He credited the rise to a greater emphasis on upper-level academics by the district’s students, who are enrolling in greater numbers in advanced-placement classes and yearlong courses. Swanson also speculated that students may be concerned by the increasing difficulty of getting into state universities.

Valley Briefing

Keeping Score: Roundup of Local SAT Results

Though surrounded by controversy, the Scholastic Aptitude Test continues to be one of the most influential factors in determining admission to four-year colleges and universities.

The exam includes two sections: a verbal portion that tests reading and vocabulary skills and a math component concentrating on arithmetic, algebra and geometry.

Scores for Valley students in the Los Angeles Unified School District outrank the scores of non-Valley youths in the mammoth urban system-but still rank the lowest among Valley-area districts. Students in the Antelope, Conejo and Santa Clarita valleys do better, mirroring a nationwide trend that correlates socioeconomic status with test performance.

However, the highest-ranking area school, Van Nuys High, is in the Los Angeles district, with average scores of 485 on the verbal section and 557 in math. (A perfect score is 800 in either section.) For the second straight year, the Las Virgenes Unified School District logged the highest districtwide results in the area: 480 in verbal and 546 in math.

Scores are for the graduating classes of 1992 and 1993.

State and National

1983 1992 1993 California Averages Verbal 421 416 415 Math 474 484 484 National Averages Verbal 425 423 424 Math 468 476 478

Los Angeles Unified School District

1992 1993 Districtwide Verbal 353 355 Math 432 432 Valleywide Verbal 398 397 Math 482 481 Outside the Valley Verbal 329 333 Math 397 406 Birmingham Verbal 395 396 Math 488 483 Canoga Park Verbal 343 349 Math 443 432 Chatsworth Verbal 403 401 Math 498 491 Cleveland Verbal 414 408 Math 475 474 El Camino Real Verbal 423 434 Math 499 520 Francis Poly Verbal 324 328 Math 415 431 Granada Hills Verbal 411 403 Math 508 499 Grant Verbal 379 390 Math 476 483 Kennedy Verbal 389 364 Math 475 469 Monroe Verbal 357 372 Math 443 453 North Hollywood Verbal 424 446 Math 471 503 Reseda Verbal 346 348 Math 434 429 San Fernando Verbal 325 330 Math 308 399 Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies Verbal 396 382 Math 479 457 Sylmar Verbal 358 323 Math 416 399 Taft Verbal 422 409 Math 509 502 Valley Alternative Verbal 279 387 Math 326 412 Van Nuys Verbal 465 485 Math 552 557 Verdugo Hills Verbal 382 349 Math 454 416

Antelope Valley Union High School District

1992 1993 Districtwide Verbal 409 402 Math 463 449 Antelope Valley Verbal 412 410 Math 476 459 Highland Verbal * 390 Math * 444 Littlerock Verbal * 373 Math * 433 Palmdale Verbal 395 373 Math 436 413 Quartz Hill Verbal 419 442 Math 477 485

* New schools. Did not have senior classes this year.

Burbank Unified School District

1992 1993 Districtwide Verbal 416 421 Math 495 487 Burbank Verbal 390 415 Math 483 501 Burroughs Verbal 442 429 Math 507 468

Glendale Unified School District

1992 1993 Districtwide Verbal 424 420 Math 530 545 Crescenta Valley Verbal 449 442 Math 543 558 Glendale Verbal 405 412 Math 511 540 Hoover Verbal 423 407 Math 539 538

Las Virgenes Unified School District

1992 1993 Districtwide Verbal 468 480 Math 537 546 Agoura Verbal 471 482 Math 538 546 Calabasas Verbal 464 477 Math 536 546

William S. Hart Union High School District

Districtwide Verbal 439 445 Math 507 515 Canyon Verbal 436 427 Math 490 498 Hart Verbal 433 451 Math 507 527 Saugus Verbal 454 453 Math 528 512

Sources: College Board and individual school districts Researched and written by Henry Chu and Stephanie Stassel

Times staff writer Stephanie Stassel contributed to this story.