O.C. Students Outperform Peers, State Report Says : Education: Schools win high marks in such categories as scores on standard tests, sending graduates to UC or Cal State systems, low dropout rates.

Orange County high school students outperformed their peers across the state, according to a new report card from the Department of Education, placing more students in the state university systems, scoring better on standardized tests and compiling a lower dropout rate.

Most Orange County schools fared better than groups of 100 demographically similar schools from throughout California, and many ranked in the top 25% of schools statewide.

“I’m impressed with the scores,” said William Habermehl, Orange County’s assistant superintendent for instruction. “It’s indicative of a lot of hard work by students and teachers.”

This week marks the first time the state has published a school-by-school report card giving each school an overall grade on a 100-point scale. Though much of the data is from previously published reports, the compilation of “average performance values” for each school is the closest California has come to ranking its schools.

Of the Orange County schools receiving an overall score, Sunny Hills High in Fullerton ranked No. 1 with 66.3. Statewide, the highest score was over 90 points, for the highly regarded Gretchen Whitney High, a magnet school in Cerritos.

“We’re very pleased,” said Kenneth Jones, superintendent of the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, which includes Sunny Hills. “They’ve established a very strong academic climate. If you go up to that school, you’ll see kids studying very hard. I think that’s why they do well. And we have a lot of great teachers up there too.”

But only 48 of the county’s 70 high schools were assigned an overall score because many--including all schools in the Irvine Unified and Anaheim Union High School districts--did not report some of the data used in the calculation.

Sunny Hills also ranked No. 1 in the county on many individual criteria: graduates enrolling at University of California or Cal State University campuses (39.2%); dropout rate (0%); and students completing courses required for admission to the UC system (74.8%).

But University High in Irvine posted the highest percentage of students passing Advanced Placement tests, which earn college credit (80.3%). And Corona del Mar High had the most students surpassing national averages on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the American College Test (68.1%).

Other criteria used to compute the overall scores included California Learning Assessment System scores, and the number of students enrolled in geometry and other college preparatory classes. Most of the data was from 1992 or 1993.

Dean Waldfogel, acting superintendent of Irvine Unified, said his district has never provided the state with data about enrollment in college preparatory classes, which made Irvine schools ineligible for the catch-all average grades.

“The averaging is not something that I’m impressed with,” Waldfogel said. “Anytime you average data like that, I think you’ve risked creating a very false impression.”

Statewide statistics showed student performance improving in all criteria except enrollment in UC and Cal State schools, which officials attributed to the rising costs at those institutions.

Other Orange County schools that landed near the top of the local rankings for individual criteria include:

* Villa Park High and Canyon High, both in Orange Unified, which posted high numbers of students completing college-preparatory courses.

* Foothill High in Santa Ana, Kennedy High in La Palma and Cypress High, which each had less than 1% of their students drop out of school.

* Fountain Valley High, Foothill High and Esperanza High in Anaheim, where more than 30% of the students passed Advanced Placement tests.

* Canyon High, El Dorado High in Placentia, Irvine High, Laguna Beach High and Esperanza High, all of which sent more than 25% of their graduates to UC or Cal State schools.

Corona del Mar High, Laguna Hills High, Brea-Olinda High, Laguna Beach High and Mission Viejo High all had more than 60 points on the overall score.

Hovering near the bottom of the scale, with less than 40 points, were all four Santa Ana high schools; Rancho Alamitos High and Santiago High, both in Garden Grove Unified; and Tustin High.

Still, 39 of the 48 Orange County schools receiving overall scores outperformed groups of 100 schools with similar socioeconomic profiles and English proficiency levels. And all but seven local schools exceeded the state’s average overall score.

School Report Cards

The California Department of Education has for the first time released school-by-school performance reports for every public high school. They are derived by averaging 10 factors to compute an “average performance value.” The highest possible score is 100. Here is a list of the performance reports for Orange County high schools, and some of the factors included in the calculation:

Drop College UC/CSU SAT/ District/school out prep enroll ACT APV ANAHEIM UNION 10.9 29.4 13.6 -- -- Cypress 0.6 41.6 16.4 -- -- Anaheim 5.7 24.5 8.0 -- -- Katella 1.6 29.2 14.6 -- -- Kennedy 0.3 35.2 20.0 -- -- Loara 4.6 31.6 16.9 -- -- Magnolia 4.8 29.5 14.8 -- -- Savanna 6.8 34.0 13.7 -- -- Western 7.7 22.8 10.7 -- -- BREA-OLINDA UNIFIED 3.5 45.2 22.5 32.1 58.9 Brea-Olinda 1.1 49.1 23.6 35.3 61.1 CAPISTRANO UNIFIED 8.7 35.5 16.5 33.0 54.8 Capistrano Valley 9.1 35.1 17.8 35.6 56.5 San Clemente 9.8 52.8 18.7 30.3 54.2 Dana Hills 7.8 28.3 15.8 34.4 55.2 FULLERTON JOINT UNION 11.3 42.2 19.5 24.0 49.4 Buena Park 3.8 40.6 17.4 12.5 46.6 Fullerton 6.6 38.9 19.8 21.6 44.5 La Habra 4.2 32.6 9.8 18.8 47.6 Sonora 4.0 42.1 22.6 27.9 50.4 Sunny Hills 0.0 74.8 39.2 59.8 66.3 Troy High 1.6 56.0 21.5 39.4 59.0 GARDEN GROVE UNIFIED 17.7 24.4 13.8 16.7 41.9 Bolsa Grande 8.8 25.0 12.5 15.4 45.4 Garden Grove 6.4 23.7 15.2 19.1 45.7 La Quinta 4.6 33.6 19.1 21.5 48.1 Los Amigos 19.8 28.9 16.9 17.7 41.1 Pacifica 5.9 31.9 15.7 24.0 51.3 Rancho Alamitos 11.8 20.4 10.2 15.4 39.9 Santiago 24.4 16.0 10.3 8.2 35.3 HUNTINGTON BEACH UNION 9.4 38.5 15.9 28.3 53.1 Ocean View 7.6 31.8 17.7 23.7 49.2 Edison 1.8 39.2 15.2 39.6 59.3 Fountain Valley 4.1 45.1 19.4 37.8 57.3 Huntington Beach 8.6 41.1 15.1 29.4 54.6 Marina 2.1 43.8 16.7 37.0 58.0 Westminster 9.0 28.5 11.0 10.6 44.2 LAGUNA BEACH UNIFIED 3.4 49.1 26.4 41.6 60.9 Laguna Beach 3.4 49.1 26.4 41.6 60.9 NEWPORT-MESA UNIFIED 6.8 37.8 15.7 34.3 49.0 Corona del Mar 2.7 46.8 22.2 68.1 63.8 Costa Mesa 12.8 43.0 17.8 21.2 43.6 Estancia 8.6 34.1 12.4 20.1 46.2 Newport Harbor 1.3 42.7 16.8 40.4 51.4 ORANGE UNIFIED 16.3 43.5 20.1 32.0 49.4 Canyon 4.8 58.0 29.7 44.9 58.5 El Modena 8.1 41.4 14.5 27.5 45.4 Orange 18.4 21.7 14.0 20.0 42.7 Villa Park 5.1 58.2 24.2 40.7 58.5 PLACENTIA--YORBA LINDA UNIFIED 4.0 37.7 21.8 31.9 53.1 Esperanza 2.8 42.9 26.3 36.2 54.6 El Dorado 2.8 49.8 28.0 31.7 59.7 Valencia 3.9 38.2 20.6 28.8 53.7 SANTA ANA UNIFIED 16.2 24.0 8.8 7.4 36.6 Century 17.5 47.2 9.3 10.5 39.6 Saddleback 17.2 24.1 10.3 10.3 37.9 Santa Ana 12.3 25.1 8.4 3.1 35.8 Valley 18.1 19.3 10.1 7.9 36.3 SADDLEBACK VALLEY UNIFIED 7.9 46.4 18.1 37.7 57.4 El Toro 2.8 52.0 23.0 41.5 8.6 Laguna Hills 4.1 53.0 17.2 45.3 61.3 Trabuco Hills 2.7 43.6 17.8 37.8 58.1 Mission Viejo 1.8 49.5 18.2 41.7 60.1 TUSTIN UNIFIED 14.3 24.1 18.4 32.2 42.7 Foothill 0.3 35.3 24.4 56.0 53.7 Tustin 20.5 18.8 16.4 19.1 36.0 IRVINE UNIFIED 10.0 -- 25.0 46.8 -- Irvine 9.2 -- 27.5 39.3 -- Woodbridge 4.2 -- 24.3 48.9 -- University 8.7 -- 31.3 67.8 -- LOS ALAMITOS UNIFIED 11.3 53.2 17.6 40.3 55.4 Los Alamitos 5.1 56.9 18.8 43.1 58.5 STATE AVERAGE 16.5 32.4 14.2 19.0 42.5

APV/100 District/school schools ANAHEIM UNION -- Cypress -- Anaheim -- Katella -- Kennedy -- Loara -- Magnolia -- Savanna -- Western -- BREA-OLINDA UNIFIED -- Brea-Olinda 51.2 CAPISTRANO UNIFIED -- Capistrano Valley 56.1 San Clemente 52.7 Dana Hills 55.2 FULLERTON JOINT UNION -- Buena Park 40.0 Fullerton 40.9 La Habra 42.3 Sonora 44.3 Sunny Hills 55.8 Troy High 53.0 GARDEN GROVE UNIFIED -- Bolsa Grande 37.8 Garden Grove 41.2 La Quinta 40.3 Los Amigos 38.8 Pacifica 47.1 Rancho Alamitos 38.9 Santiago 37.5 HUNTINGTON BEACH UNION -- Ocean View 45.6 Edison 54.0 Fountain Valley 53.5 Huntington Beach 48.1 Marina 53.3 Westminster 37.7 LAGUNA BEACH UNIFIED -- Laguna Beach 59.1 NEWPORT-MESA UNIFIED -- Corona del Mar 58.8 Costa Mesa 42.0 Estancia 39.6 Newport Harbor 53.4 ORANGE UNIFIED -- Canyon 55.0 El Modena 45.8 Orange 41.5 Villa Park 53.5 PLACENTIA--YORBA LINDA UNIFIED -- Esperanza 54.4 El Dorado 54.5 Valencia 42.6 SANTA ANA UNIFIED -- Century 36.3 Saddleback 36.7 Santa Ana 36.3 Valley 36.4 SADDLEBACK VALLEY UNIFIED -- El Toro 54.4 Laguna Hills 56.9 Trabuco Hills 51.1 Mission Viejo 55.9 TUSTIN UNIFIED -- Foothill 58.1 Tustin 45.1 IRVINE UNIFIED -- Irvine -- Woodbridge -- University -- LOS ALAMITOS UNIFIED -- Los Alamitos 53.8 STATE AVERAGE --

Dropout: Dropout percentage rate for three years, ending in 1992.

College prep: 1993 percentage of students who complete courses accepted by University of California’s admissions standards. Courses include one year of U.S. history, four years of English, three years of math, one year of laboratory science, two years of foreign language, and four years of college preparatory elective course.

UC/CSU enroll: 1992 percentage of school’s graduates who enroll in Cal State or UC school, part-time or full-time, by the time they are 19.

SAT/ACT: 1993 percentage of school’s students scoring above 900 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or above 20.7 on the American College Test.

APV: Average Performance Value based on 100-point scale, calculated by averaging 10 factors: California Learning Assessment System scores for reading, writing and math; enrollment and completion of college prep courses; enrollment in geometry courses; enrollment in the University of California and Cal State University; SAT/ACT scores; drop-out rate, and scores on Advanced Placement exams, for which students can earn college credit.

APV/100 schools: Based on demographic criteria such as socioeconomic level, English proficiency and mobility of student body.

Note: Many schools do not have APVs calculated because they either failed to provide the state with some of the data or have fewer than 30 students in the graduating class. Continuation schools are not listed.

Source: State Department of Education; Researched by MARK LANDSBAUM and JODI WILGOREN / Los Angeles Times