Antelope Valley District Won’t Give CLAS Test

Acting in apparent defiance of the state education code, the Antelope Valley Union High School District has voted not to administer the Department of Education’s controversial CLAS exam, becoming the first school district in California to take such a stand.

In a 3-2 vote, the district board of trustees opted late Wednesday night against administering the California Learning Assessment System test this year because of the secrecy surrounding it that prevents the test from being publicly reviewed.

Board members also said CLAS fails to adequately measure students’ abilities in the basics and instead inappropriately queries them on their personal beliefs.

The CLAS test has come under fire recently from some parent and political groups who believe the literature portions of the test contain passages that denigrate the family. Critics also argue, for example, that in one test question students are asked to defy authority by writing about a school rule they disagree with.

The secrecy issue has also raised concerns. The state Department of Education argues that access to the test must be limited to ensure its integrity while critics contend the secrecy is to keep parents from knowing the true contents of the exam.

The Antelope Valley board’s action caught the state Department of Education by surprise.

Joseph R. Symkowick, general counsel for the department, said the education code is clear in its requirement that the test be given. “We need to look at what that requirement means and what our options are.”

The Antelope Valley district’s action is arguably one of the most defiant moves by a school district yet over the CLAS test.

Under threat of legal action by the conservative U.S. Justice Foundation, a number of school districts are formally or informally giving parents the opportunity to exempt their children from the exam.

The 3,400-student Beaumont Unified School District agreed earlier this week to pursue legal action against the state. The district wants a definitive statement as to what its obligation is to give the CLAS test and whether the exam contains information about students’ personal beliefs.”

Beaumont Supt. John Wood said the Riverside County district will administer the test but is planning legal action because “we believe we’re caught in the middle.”

Trustees for the Santee School District agreed to suspend administration of the test Tuesday, the same day students at three of the district’s 10 schools had started taking it.

James Waters, superintendent of the 8,000-student district in San Diego County, said the board will decide Monday whether to resume the testing once members have a chance to read through the CLAS exams, something that the Department of Education recommends against in order to ensure the validity of the exam.

“I think they’re looking at both the content of the literature selections and the questions,” Waters said.

Like the Santee district, the 8,200-student West Covina Unified School District has also said it will not administer the CLAS test until it has been reviewed by the board of trustees.

“It does not seem reasonable to me to say that the staff of a school district can look at (the test), but the people who are responsible to the community can’t,” Supt. John F. Costello said.

The board will review the exam during a closed session meeting Tuesday and plans to make a decision that night on how to proceed, Costello said. If the test is free of questions that ask students about their personal beliefs, as the Department of Education says it is, the test will be administered.

If the board feels there are intrusive questions, it will “decide what options are available.” One of those options may be to follow the lead of the Antelope Valley Union High School District and simply not administer the test.

The state Department of Education has repeatedly said the questions asked in the test do not meet the criteria that would trigger a need for parental consent.

Susie Lange, a department spokeswoman, said she is aware of about a dozen districts that are allowing parents to decide whether their children should be tested.

It is unclear whether the department will take action against those districts that are allowing the exemptions.

“There’s no provisions for exemptions and school districts have a duty to administer the test,” Symkowick said. “There’s no specific direction to do anything to districts that do that but that doesn’t mean there’s no possibility of action.”

Symkowick said it will probably be several days before the Department of Education determines how to respond to the Antelope Valley district’s decision.

William D. Dawson, acting state superintendent of public instruction, was in Washington on Thursday and was unavailable for comment.

The high school board did not adopt a resolution stating their reasons for choosing not to give the test. Instead, board President Billy Pricer simply made a motion not to administer the test, despite the advice of district legal counsel against such a move.

After a long and sometimes raucous hearing Wednesday attended by about 200 people, Pricer’s motion was supported by Trustees Sue Stokka and Tony Welch, with Wilda Andrejcik and Bill Olenick dissenting.

Olenick urged the board to administer the test and allow parents to decide whether their children should take it. Andrejcik simply urged the board to “be obedient to the law.”

The decision of the Antelope Valley district pleased some parents but angered others. On Thursday, there were parents and teachers looking into the possibility of seeking an injunction to have the decision reversed and others who were considering mounting a recall campaign against the board president.

“You represent all of us,” Joanne Opdahl, the parent of a high school junior, told the board during the hearing. “Not just the people in the back of the room.”

Opdahl and others believe the “silent majority” will begin to take an active stance in the issue now that a “vocal minority” has swayed the board into not giving the test.

Gary Kreep, executive director of the U.S. Justice Foundation, said while districts are required to administer a statewide assessment test, the code does not dictate that it must be the CLAS test.

“The ed code doesn’t say what the state department says it says,” said Kreep, who through his foundation has threatened to file lawsuits against every school district in the state over the CLAS exam.

Kreep said CLAS violates state law by asking students questions about their personal beliefs without first notifying parents and seeking their written permission.

The Justice Foundation has already filed lawsuits against three districts in Riverside County and two in Santa Barbara County. In the coming days, Kreep said he will file suits against 10 San Diego County school districts and three in Los Angeles County.

On Thursday, another conservative group, the Rutherford Institute, sought a temporary restraining order to stop six San Bernardino County school districts from giving the test.

Two weeks ago, Kreep appeared at a Antelope Valley Union High School District board meeting with a chapter director from the Eagle Forum of California, part of a nationwide conservative women’s group headed by Phyllis Schlafly. He threatened to sue the 12,600-student district if it did not seek parental consent before administering the exam.

As for the board’s decision to go a step further and simply not give the test, Kreep said: “If they have made a decision that this test is totally out of bounds, that’s their right.”

If the Department of Education sues the high school district, which Kreep believes is likely, he said his foundation will provide an attorney to assist in the defense.

Sherry Loofbourrow, president of the California School Boards Assn., said her association has offered to provide legal assistance to any district that is sued for administering the test.

“The law says the test must be administered,” she said. “If lawsuits are filed by people who have concerns about this test, they should be filed against the state and not the school districts.”