Area Scores Rise on Tests to Earn College Credit : Education: Students as a whole boost performance on Advanced Placement exams, though several districts see slight declines.

Willing to tackle rigorous exams for college credit, more Ojai and Oxnard high school students are taking Advanced Placement tests--and passing them, a state report shows.

Ventura County students as a whole boosted their performance on the exams last year and outperformed their peers across the state, according to a California Department of Education report released this week.

The rate of exams passed for every 100 high school juniors and seniors in the county rose from 12.9 to 13.8 in 1994, a score well above the state average of 10.8.

But several school districts--including Simi Valley Unified, Ventura Unified and Moorpark Unified--showed slight declines in exam scores this year.

Fewer students in Simi Valley and Moorpark took the tests in 1994, in some cases because of expense, officials said. Each Advanced Placement exam costs $72.

“The cost of the test has gone up significantly over the past years,” said Becky Wetzel, programs and assessment director for Simi Valley Unified. “It used to be only $40.”

Although Ventura had roughly the same number of students taking the Advanced Placement exams last year, the teen-agers who signed up for the exams took fewer of them, school officials said.

Buena High School counselor Jean Wise said the district’s decline was at least partly due to Buena’s decision not to offer either Advanced Placement computer science or chemistry last year.

Advanced Placement tests are offered in 16 subjects, including European history, calculus and physics. To be eligible for college credit, students must score at least 3 out of a possible 5 points.

Of the county’s roughly 15,000 high school juniors and seniors, 1,885 took at least one of the grueling three-hour exams last spring--a 5% increase compared to last year.

With college fees soaring, many students are opting for Advanced Placement credit to get pricey college courses out of the way early, school officials said.

“We encourage students to take these exams,” Oak Park High School Principal Jeff Chancer said. “College is real expensive now. It could be a big savings.”

Students in tiny Oak Park Unified, the county’s smallest school district, handily outperformed their peers this year, earning test scores five times higher than the state average and four times higher than the county average.

“As a school, we had a total of 188 tests taken,” Chancer said. “Of those, 84% of the exams taken received a score of 3 or higher.”

Seventy Oak Park students took the exams--which totaled 40 more tests than last year, when 66 students took Advanced Placement tests. In a district where 90% of the students go to college, Chancer said, those statistics are exciting, but not surprising. “There’s a real strong commitment here,” he said.

The Oxnard Union High School District, which has more high school students than any other county district, boosted its performance on the tests even though it continues to fall below the state average.

The number of students in the district taking the exams grew from 478 in 1993 to 610 in 1994.

And school officials said they are particularly pleased students are choosing some of the more difficult tests, opting for chemistry and calculus more often than English literature and Spanish.

“We’re encouraged,” Assistant Supt. Gary Davis said. “There’s a lot of good teaching going on in these most rigorous courses.”

The Oxnard high school district typically trails Ventura Unified School District in test scores, but not on this year’s Advanced Placement exams.

Both Ventura Unified high schools showed slight declines in student performance on the exams. But that didn’t change the wide gap that has existed between the two schools.

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At Ventura High, the passing rate per 100 juniors and seniors was 5.9, about half the 11.6 rate of its cross-town rival Buena High.

The disparity mainly boils down to the number of students taking the exams. Only 60 Ventura High juniors and seniors sat for the tests in 1994, compared to 104 at Buena.

Ventura High offers only half as many Advanced Placement courses as Buena. But Ventura High School officials said they can only give the grueling, college-preparatory courses where there is interest.

“We can’t offer a course that only 12 kids have signed up for,” Ventura High Assistant Principal Larry Emrich said.

At Buena High, the passing rate dipped slightly from 13.5 to 11.6, a difference school officials attributed to a temporary reduction last year in the variety of Advanced Placement courses offered.

Making the Grade

Advanced Placement tests are offered in 16 subjects, including European history, calculus and physics. To become eligible for college credit, students must score at least 3 out of a possible 5 points on the test. The percentage of examinations taken by high school juniors and seniors that qualified them for college credit has more than tripled in the past decade.

For example, 10 years ago, the statewide percentage was 3.4%, meaning that fewer than four students per 100 earned college credit.

Here is the number of advanced placement exams passed per 100 Ventura County high school juniors and seniors:

School District ‘83-’84 ‘92-’93 ‘93-’94 Conejo Valley 6.9 25.8 27.2 Fillmore 0.0 6.5 4.8 Moorpark 0.0 12.3 11.6 Oak Park 0.0 35.9 51.8 Ojai 8.4 16.8 17.8 Oxnard Union 0.7 6.9 8.8 Santa Paula 0.0 3.3 3.5 Simi Valley 4.5 14.6 14.0 Ventura 0.7 9.6 8.1 COUNTY AVERAGE 3.1 12.9 13.8 STATE AVERAGE 3.4 9.9 10.8

Here are results for large Southern California counties:

Passing exams per % point change 100 students in 1993-94 from 1983-84 Statewide: 10.8 +7.4

COUNTYWIDE PERFORMANCE

Passing exams per % point change 100 students in 1993-94 from 1983-84 Los Angeles 12.7 +8.9 Orange 17.5 +12.0 Riverside 8.3 +7.3 San Bernardino 7.8 +6.6 San Diego 14.6 +10.9 Ventura 13.8 +10.7