O.C. Students Make Grade on Advanced Tests : Education: The rate at which juniors and seniors in county are passing college-level exams has soared during the past decade.

The rate at which Orange County high schoolers succeed in passing the tough Advanced Placement tests in classes such as calculus, French literature and physics is three times greater than it was 10 years ago, providing evidence--officials say--that the state’s push for schools to offer their top students more rigorous instruction is paying off.

State education officials are to announce today that the passing rate for Orange County juniors and seniors in the tests of college-level knowledge was nearly 18%, well above the state average of 11%. Although all but three of the county’s 15 school districts surpassed the state average, the Irvine and Laguna Beach school districts particularly fared well, with rates of 42% and 34%.

“We’ve extremely pleased with these results, because Advanced Placement tests more closely measure what goes on in the classroom than scholastic tests” like the Scholastic Aptitude Test, said Paul M. Possemato, superintendent of the Laguna Beach Unified School District. “They’re testing subject areas, and this shows how well our teachers are doing in the classroom.”

The rate is the number of examinations with a score of 3 or better on a scale of 5 per 100 public high school juniors and seniors. That rate was 3.4 in 1984 and 10.8 in 1994.

The rate of every district in Orange County increased over the past decade, with Irvine and Laguna Beach showing gains of 29%.

At University High School in Irvine, 1,023 Advanced Placement exams were taken, said Principal Diana Schmelzer.

“We received a letter from the college board saying we were ranked eighth in the country in terms of the number of AP exams taken,” Schmelzer said. “We offer really high-quality courses, and we have a community that values excellence in education. We’ve built a tradition of students taking those exams and doing very well on them.”

Schmelzer said the school offers 14 different Advanced Placement courses in such subjects as art studies, computer science and European history.

“Part of the reason more students are taking the exams is because parents are realizing they can save money if their children earn college credits while they’re still in high school,” she said. “Students also know that colleges look upon them favorably if they take the hardest classes.”

Statewide also, the scores were three times greater than a decade ago. Officials said students of all ethnicities shared in the gains. The rate at which African American and Latino students qualify for college credit remains far below that of Asian Americans and white students, but is far above what it was a decade ago.

The qualifying rate for African American students last year was 1.7%, but that was more than triple what it was a decade earlier. The rate of Latino students more than quadrupled.

Educators say the Advanced Placement tests measure only one aspect of school district performance. They point out that some districts are too small to offer the many specialized classes that prepare students for the tests or that too few students are interested in taking them.

“It’s one piece of a whole puzzle . . . but it’s not a complete picture by itself,” said Pat McCabe, an administrator with the state Department of Education’s research and evaluation division.

Despite showing gains over the past decade, the rates at the Anaheim Union High, Garden Grove Unified and Santa Ana Unified school districts fell well below the state average.

“We’re pleased and delighted for those students who took and passed their Advanced Placement exams,” said Vergil Hettick, director of research and evaluation for the Santa Ana school district, which posted a 5% rate. “But we’re not in a contest with other districts. We’re more focused on working with individual students and trying to meet their needs.”

State officials said school districts offered nearly 6,000 advanced placement classes statewide, with an enrollment of nearly 160,000. The most popular examinations among California students last year were U.S. history, English literature and composition and calculus.

High-Scoring Students

The rate at which California high school juniors and seniors pass various Advanced Placement tests to qualify for college credit has tripled in the past decade. Here are the changes in Orange County during that time, per 100 high school juniors and seniors.

Percentage of examinations taken by high school juniors and seniors that qualified them for college credit:

Class of Change from District 93-94 83-84 Orange County 17.5% +12.0 Anaheim Union High 9.6 +6.1 Brea-Olinda Unified 21.8 +15.6 Capistrano Unified 25.6 +18.6 Fullerton Joint Union High 16.2 +12.9 Garden Grove Unified 6.1 +4.2 Huntington Beach Union High 23.1 +16.9 Irvine Unified 42.1 +28.8 Laguna Beach Unified 33.9 +28.9 Los Alamitos Unified 24.8 +9.7 Newport-Mesa Unified 22.2 +12.2 Orange Unified 15.7 +11.1 Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified 23.7 +18.4 Saddleback Valley Unified 22.4 +16.1 Santa Ana Unified 5.4 +3.0 Tustin Unified 17.8 +9.3 State average 10.8 +7.4

Source: State Department of Education