District Will Give CLAS Tests Today : Education: Judge says Antelope Valley’s planned appeal of her previous ruling on the exams does not justify delaying them.

After weeks of protesting the state-mandated CLAS tests as being anti-family and an invasion of privacy, the Antelope Valley Union High School District was ordered Thursday to administer the tests before the school year ends next week.

Judge Diane Wayne, who had ruled Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court that the district could not refuse to give students the tests, issued an additional order Thursday saying that a planned appeal could not be used as an excuse to delay the exams.

Because students are scheduled to take final exams on all school days next week, the CLAS tests--normally given over four days--will be administered in their entirety today to 3,000 10th-graders.

“It really will not be any kind of test at all,” said board member Wilda Andrejcik, who has been in the minority in her support of the tests and desire to give it. “I’m very frustrated that this wasn’t resolved earlier. (The test) has lost all its validity.”

Officials of the school district and state Department of Education blamed each other for the situation.

“They could have given it earlier and under better conditions,” said Susie Lange, a Department of Education spokeswoman. “They made that choice.”

Meanwhile, Redondo Beach school officials said they will refuse to administer portions of the tests to eighth- and 10th-graders, despite a recent court ruling that state law requires the exams.

In a letter to state education officials Wednesday, Supt. Beverly J. Rohrer stated that controversy and parental confusion surrounding the exams had compromised their validity.

In addition, many of the district’s students have already taken the tests, providing the state with a representative sampling of students’ abilities, Rohrer wrote.

Redondo Beach Unified is one of six districts in the state to refuse to administer portions of the test.

In a letter to Redondo officials Wednesday, acting state Supt. William D. Dawson urged trustees to reconsider, arguing that Monday’s court ruling against school officials in Antelope Valley also applied to Redondo schools.

“Failure to follow the law is hardly the kind of modeling our society expects of public school board members,” he wrote.

Dawson, who had not seen the district’s most recent letter, would not say Thursday whether the state Department of Education would seek a court order against Redondo schools.

“I’ll have to consider their response and make a judgment at that time,” he said.

Redondo school board attorney David Miller said Thursday that he believes Monday’s court decision applies only to Antelope Valley schools. He had not reviewed the most recent letter from Dawson.