Tops in Their CLAS : Andersen Elementary Posts Best Combined Scores in State

If students at Andersen Elementary School have learned one overriding lesson from the California Learning Assessment System, it is the importance of practice.

Some who took the exam last spring as fourth-graders had been gearing up since the year before. The rest of the 60 children had near-daily trial runs for months, practicing mathproblems, for example, in which they had to explain the answers, as CLAS requires.

The students practiced taking notes in the margins of readings, another CLAS technique. They rehearsed group work, remembering not to argue or joke around when test time came. And they practiced persuasive writing, using examples from the previous year’s test booklets.

The rigorous preparation paid off. Andersen posted the best combined scores of any elementary school in the state. “It was hard, but it was also kind of easy,” said 10-year-old Geoff Collier. His teachers, he said, “had us do a lot of practice tests.”

Classmate Brandon Powers, 11, added: “They pushed us that extra mile, that extra bit.”

CLAS is a performance-based evaluation of children’s reading, writing and math skills scored against a six-point scale of statewide standards. In results released this week, Andersen students posted the best marks on reading among 4,700 California elementary schools, as well as the best score for the three tests combined.

Of Andersen students taking the tests, 80% scored four or more on the reading segment; 83% posted top scores on writing, and 87% on math.

“We have a strong district, so being No. 1 in our district is a big deal,” Principal Tom Carr said. “No. 1 in the county and the state is just fantastic.”

Nestled in the exclusive community of Harbor View, Andersen serves an affluent neighborhood of mostly college-educated professionals.

Of the school’s 400 students, 84.4% are white, 12% Asian and 3.6% Latino, according to the Orange County Department of Education.

“The community has very high expectations for the kids, and the staff has high expectations,” Carr said. “There’s a high value put on education. The kids are pretty high-ability youngsters. The teachers do activities that challenge the kids.”

Founded in 1973 and named for former district Supt. Roy O. Andersen, it is a “school without doors” where classrooms open into one another. Virtually every interior wall serves as a bulletin board to display students’ work.

The library is the nucleus of the immaculate campus, and every student visits the computer center, with its 18 new high-powered Macintoshes, at least once a week. Each classroom also comes equipped with a computer, for a total of about 40 machines schoolwide.

Faculty members attribute the school’s high achievement to a teamwork approach that encourages them to keep current on progressive teaching methods because colleagues are constantly sharing struggles and successes.

“You do not work in this school in isolation,” said Annie Tobiason, one of the two fourth-grade teachers who prepared students for CLAS. “It’s not just a one-man show or a two-man show, it’s a school team effort.”

Tobiason’s classroom and Rosalind Wale’s next door are testaments to the school’s commitment to CLAS. By drilling students on the concepts included in the evaluation, the teachers are doing just what the state wants: matching the curriculum to the test.

After the first round of CLAS tests in 1993, Tobiason and Wale increased the amount of time spent each day on mathematics from 60 to 80 minutes so they could introduce the essay-type problems like those on the state tests. Student answers to such problems are posted on one wall, while sample compositions taken from last year’s exams are displayed on another.

Even though Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed funding for CLAS last fall, effectively killing the test, teachers at Andersen are still emphasizing its methods. “We just teach like this,” Tobiason said.

The Andersen students who brought home the top marks are now in fifth grade, and they beam with pride when they speak about their success on the exam.

“I was surprised that we got first in California, but I knew we’d get something good,” said Nicole Poole, 11.

At least one of the children, 11-year-old Natalie Halfacre, seemed truly surprised by the results.

“I kind of forgot about the test,” she admitted sheepishly. When she first heard the news, she said, “I thought it was an April Fool’s joke.”

* A STRONG SHOWING

Orange County students easily surpass state average. A1

* RESULTS: B2-B3