Board May Seek CLAS Test Revision : Education: Proposal by the Conejo Valley district would support the concept of the exam but seek changes.

State education officials should revise a controversial assessment test to make it less secretive, less costly and less objectionable to parents, according to a recommendation Thousand Oaks school board members will consider Thursday.

Under the resolution, the board of the Conejo Valley Unified School District would endorse the concept behind the California Learning Assessment System test, while calling on the state to fine-tune its content.

“I think we have not as yet gotten this one to be a really good test,” board member Dorothy Beaubien said. “But I don’t think we should throw it out completely. I think we should revise it.”

Statewide, conservative groups have raised concerns about literary passages in the language portion of the test. In Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, parents have railed against the secrecy of the test and questions that ask for personal responses. Some opponents have called the exam a psychological tool, a charge for which Beaubien said she found no evidence after reading portions of sample and actual tests.

CLAS was designed to evaluate how students think as well as their ability to come up with correct answers. Now in its second year, the exam is being given to more than 1 million fourth-, fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders at a cost of $26 million.

Conejo Valley Supt. Jerry Gross, in his recommendation to the board, said the value of the test has been undermined by technical problems, controversial test items, non-specific questions and delayed results.

But Gross also said the concept behind CLAS has merit and should be supported by the board, parents and community.

“What we’re trying to say is perhaps it needed another year of development, or it needs to have a little more time to get it right,” he said.

Specifically, he called for the school board to send a letter to Gov. Pete Wilson, the state Legislature and the Department of Education urging officials to make several broad changes, such as:

* Establishing a better system for reviewing test questions.

* Providing the public with more information about the test.

* Releasing copies of tests already administered.

* Reconsidering whether the state should spend $26 million at a time when school districts are struggling with annual budget cuts.

Mildred Lynch, a Conejo Valley school board member who has been an outspoken critic of CLAS, said she could not support the recommendation because it supports the concept behind the test.

“I don’t believe it is a high-quality assessment system,” she said. “I don’t believe it’s an assessment system at all.”

Lynch said she expects a large number of parents to attend the board meeting scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the district offices at 1400 E. Janss Road.