GLENDALE : Most Tested Lower in Math Than Reading

A majority of Glendale schools scored low in math proficiency, but relatively better in reading and writing skills, according to California Learning Assessment System results to be released today.

Glendale Unified School District officials said that while they are pleased with the overall test scores, standards used to judge math results are too rigorous and seem “unreasonably difficult.”

“There’s a lot of wiggle room in the scoring; it’s almost impossible for a student to achieve a (level) 5 or a 6 in the math portion of the exam,” said Bruce Dumbacher, the district’s supervising psychologist and an expert in test school analysis.

In the CLAS test, administered for the first time this year, a 6 is the highest score given. The tests, given last spring in grades 4, 8 and 10, were developed by a task force that included educators, school board members, business leaders, parents and testing experts.

Dumbacher, who works in the district’s testing center, said it’s unusual for Glendale’s culturally diverse student population--many of whom are classified as having limited proficiency in English--to perform better in writing than in math.

“It seems paradoxical for kids here to do better in writing, especially when writing involves a good command of English,” Dumbacher said.

Glendale students, however, historically have done better on the written portions of standardized tests such as the California Assessment Program (CAP) exam, which was used to assess student achievement in the past, said Vic Pallos, district spokesman.

While students had the advantage of advance preparation for the written portion of the exam, they were unable to do the same for the math section because of its changing nature, Dumbacher said.

While CLAS appears to be more reflective of the district’s current overall curriculum when compared with outdated CAP exams, its math section is oriented more toward analytical word problems, rather than operations skills such as adding, multiplying and subtracting, he said.

The district will do a follow-up on math results to determine if they are true indicators of students’ math proficiency, Pallos said. Officials will then attempt to develop a curriculum that allows teachers to teach the more analytical testing method used in the CLAS math section, he said.

Glendale’s 19 elementary schools scored higher than the county and on a par with the state in mathematics, district officials said. Local schools scored higher than the county and state in both reading and writing sections.

The Glendale district’s five middle schools scored higher than the county and on a par with the state in math, lower than both the county and the state in reading skills, and higher than both in writing performance.

Glendale’s four high schools ranked higher than the county and the state in math, reading and writing scores.