Pupils Score Higher on District’s Test : Oxnard: Officials say the local exam reveals eighth-graders have better math skills than state assessment indicates.

Frustrated with its low scores on a new statewide test, the Oxnard Elementary School District decided to come up with its own test of student achievement.

The results are in: Oxnard students did much better on the district’s test. The math exam, given to the district’s 767 eighth-grade students, revealed that they have better math skills than the state test showed, district Supt. Norman R. Brekke said.

The 14-question test was developed by a teacher who serves as the district’s math mentor and principals of the district’s two intermediate schools, Fremont and Haydock.

The exam was administered after results of the state’s California Learning Assessment System test ranked Oxnard’s eighth-graders 14th out of the 17 districts in Ventura County that took the test.

“I think that through the (district) test, we were able to verify and validate that our youngsters have basic math skills,” Brekke said. “I was pleased with the response, and I would give them a B or B minus.”

The test results, which were presented to the Oxnard school board late Wednesday, showed that 74% of the students answered 10 or more of the 14 questions correctly, while 22% responded correctly to between six and nine of the questions.

The CLAS test measured students not against each other but according to performance standards set by a task force that included educators, school board members, business leaders, parents and testing experts. The tests were given statewide last spring in grades four, eight and 10.

State officials said Oxnard is the first district they know of that has reacted to the CLAS test by writing and implementing its own exam.

“It’s clear that this test differs from the state test,” said Susie Lange, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

She said it would be unfair to compare the two tests because Oxnard’s exam seemed to be measuring different skills.

Unlike the state test, which had open-ended questions that called for students to give an analysis with charts and graphs of how they solved the problem, Oxnard’s test simply involved basic math problems, said district official Kathy Cooper, who helped develop the test.

“This test basically dealt with computation,” Cooper said. “It dealt primarily with basic addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.”

The district’s test included two problems in addition, two in subtraction and two in multiplication. Four questions involved computations using decimals, and four involved fractions.

About 15% of the students answered all 14 questions correctly, but about 8% were unable to answer one of the two basic addition questions correctly, and about 20% were not able to solve one of the two basic subtraction questions.

Four percent of the students taking the district’s test, which was given in English and Spanish, answered five or fewer questions correctly.

Despite achieving reasonable scores in the district’s test, students showed deficiency in resolving basic math problems that involved decimals and fractions, Cooper said.

“They did not perform well in multiplying and dividing decimals and fractions,” she said. “They knew how to solve the problem but they put the decimal point in the wrong place.”

Cooper said that although the district will continue teaching students basic math skills, officials believe that students are ready to learn how to apply those skills in solving more complex mathematical problems.

Developers of the district exam selected questions from a textbook for seventh- and eighth-graders called “Mathematics Unlimited”; it is approved by the state and meets guidelines set by the state math framework, Cooper said.

The district’s tests were corrected by math mentor Barbara McFayden, who teaches eighth-grade math at Fremont, and a member of the PTA.

It cost the district about $300 to administer the test, officials said.

Board members, who were pleased with the results of the test, may decide later to give a similar test in reading to either seventh- or eighth-grade students, trustee Jack T. Fowler said.

Fowler said he believes that the district test results show that students are doing well, but he said there is still room for improvement.

“The test results were not anything to jump up and down about,” said Fowler, who suggested that the district give its own test.

“But they showed that the best majority of our students really have a solid grounding in basic math concepts.”

Board member Mary Barreto said she hopes that the test results will motivate teachers to raise the level of students’ mathematical skills.

“I am hoping that teachers will look at the test results and increase their expectations,” she said.

“We certainly need to set higher goals. Having 74% of the students doing well is not enough; we need them all to do well.”

CLAS Eighth-Grade Test Sample Question 1 Last year, Eat It Up Burgers employed 5 workers for 5 hours a day. They claimed they served 4-million burgers last year. Is this a reasonable claim? Explain your answer: Answer: The claim is not reasonable, because it would mean that a worker had to serve 3,076 burgers per day. Sample Question 2 Study this sequence of numbers: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24. Which one of the following pairs of numbers would continue the pattern? A. 25, 26 B. 25, 31 C. 25, 30 D. 31, 32 Answer: B Oxnard Eighth-Grade Test Sample Question 1 3/4 plus 3/4 equals Answer: 1 1/2 Sample Question 2 2/3 divided by 5 equals Answer: 2/15 Source: California Learning Assessment System, Oxnard Elementary School District