Judge Says Schools Must Give CLAS Tests : Education: Court backs the state’s position. Fullerton is one of six districts that had refused to give its students the controversial exams.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Monday that state law requires school districts to administer the controversial CLAS tests, which have been praised by some as a revolutionary measure of critical thinking skills and blasted by others as intrusive and secretive.

Judge Diane Wayne’s decision came after the state sought a court order against the Antelope Valley Union High School District. A conservative bloc on the district’s board had refused to give the California Learning Assessment System tests to students.

“By refusing to administer the test (the board has) clearly violated its obligations under the Education Code,” Wayne wrote in her four-page decision to grant the order.

Six of the state’s 1,006 school districts, including Fullerton, have opted not to give the 1994 CLAS tests.

Antelope Valley is the first district the state has taken to court.

While agreeing that the law requires a statewide assessment test to be given annually, the Antelope Valley critics of the exam had said the Education Code does not require it to be the CLAS test, which is being given this year to more than 1 million students in fourth, fifth, eighth and 10th grade.

Billy Pricer, president of the Antelope Valley school board, said he was unsure how the district would respond, but noted that an appeal could stall the tests until after school ends June 15.

“Everything is resting on how the judge actually words the order and what we’re ordered to do,” Pricer said. “Right now it’s a waiting game until we get that.”

“Personally, I’d like to see us appeal,” said board member Sue Stokka, who voted with Pricer and member Tony Welch in the board’s April 20 decision to not administer CLAS. Monday’s ruling “doesn’t change my opinion one iota about my concerns about the test.”

The CLAS tests have embroiled some Orange County school districts in controversy--and even legal battles. Two weeks ago, Superior Court Judge Richard Luesebrink refused to prevent the Placentia-Yorba Linda and Tustin Unified school districts from giving the tests to six objecting students, but only after the districts agreed to provide a 30-day warning to the complaining parents before any future testing.

In Santa Ana, thousands of students took the exams, but in a protest move, school board members voted to withhold the completed test booklets from the state.

Opposition to the CLAS tests has been spearheaded by conservative Christian churches and a Virginia group that serves as an advocate for churches. Pricer is the former assistant pastor of the Springs of Life Ministries in Lancaster, an activist church that is known for distributing a video critical of gay lifestyles.

The Antelope Valley school district argued unsuccessfully that the state Department of Education failed to adopt required rules and regulations for the administration of CLAS.

“There are no regulations in the state of California requiring testing at the 10th-grade level,” said Frank J. Fekete, the district’s attorney.

Wayne disagreed, saying such regulations are in place and are sufficient. She also rejected the argument that the Antelope Valley position was an issue of local control, citing a legal decision that said regulation and operation of public schools are statewide functions as outlined in the Constitution.

State Department of Education officials said they were pleased with Monday’s ruling.

“We have now a chance to go forward,” said William D. Dawson, acting state superintendent of public instruction, who attended the hearing. “My interest is primarily in getting on with the job of improving the CLAS tests for the future.”

The state Senate last week approved legislation that would reauthorize the tests for five more years and would impose several reforms designed to improve public confidence in the exams. The measure will next be heard in the Assembly.

The bill by Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) would prohibit asking students about their sexual, moral and religious beliefs or those of their families. It would also create a Legislature-appointed citizens committee to review the final test and add parents and other public members to the teams of teachers who develop it.

Lawmakers created the new testing process in response to demands that California schools be improved. The performance-based testing--often requiring students to write passages rather than answer multiple-choice questions--is widely hailed in education circles as state of the art.

Dawson said he was hopeful that in light of Monday’s ruling the five other school districts that have refused to give the tests, including Acton-Agua Dulce Unified, will reverse course.

Times staff writer Davan Maharaj contributed to this story.