State Test Finds Students Lagging : Education: For the second straight year, few meet demanding standards for reading, writing and math. Superintendent of instruction to pursue corrective action.

For the second straight year, a solid majority of California’s fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders failed to demonstrate even minimal proficiency in reading, writing and math, according to results from the state’s pioneering but controversial educational testing system released Tuesday.

Only a tiny fraction of the students tested in the system’s second and final go-round were advanced enough to meet the state’s expectations for top students--the ability to write clearly and confidently, to grasp complexities when reading or to apply a sophisticated mathematical sensibility to real-world problems.

The California Learning Assessment System (CLAS) was envisioned as a key element of the state’s efforts to boost public school performance. The tests are built around demanding standards for student achievement, but two years of low scores have shown that students are not yet ready to perform at those levels.

The experiment ended after the tests were administered last year, amid a barrage of criticism from the governor’s office and from parents, who complained that it invaded family privacy by asking probing questions and forcing students to read provocative material.

But new state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin said the new scores--as well as soon-to-be-released national data that is expected to contain similar findings--demand a response. She announced Tuesday that she will convene task forces to consider a variety of explanations for the low scores and recommend corrective actions within four months.

“The numbers are just abysmal,” Eastin said after announcing the scores at a Sacramento elementary school, where she was joined by representatives of major education, business and parent groups.

Although she cited a list of factors--such as overcrowded classes, large numbers of students who are poor, many who do not speak English, and a shortage of time and money for teacher training--she said California must reform its schools so that by the end of the third grade, every student is able to read and achieve basic competency in math.

Gov. Pete Wilson also decried the results--calling them “absolutely unacceptable”--and using their release to argue for his education agenda, which would make it easier to fire incompetent teachers, free districts from the state’s lengthy education code and establish uniform performance standards.

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The 2-year-old CLAS system was designed to measure student achievement against objective standards, rather than comparing the performance of each school to a statewide average, as past exams had done.

After last year’s dismal results, some educators complained the new high standards were beyond the reach of most students. But others said that if the state is to improve, it must set ambitious targets and then strive to meet them.

This year’s results gave precious little to cheer about.

More than 40% of the 10th-graders tested in math, for example, achieved only the lowest of six possible levels, meaning that they showed “little or no mathematical thinking and understanding of mathematical ideas.” More than three-quarters of the students in all three grades scored at one of the three lowest math levels, indicating less than basic understanding.

Reading was only slightly better, with more than 60% of the students in each grade failing to achieve a level 4 or above--meaning those students were not even able to muster “a partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work.”

The scores in writing, which has been part of the state’s assessment system since 1987, were slightly stronger; about 54% of the students in the eighth grade scored at the lowest three levels, 61% in the 10th grade and 68% in grade 4.

Across the state, Asian American students performed substantially better than their counterparts in all three subjects and all three grades. Even so, only 30% of the Asian American 10th-graders scored at a minimally acceptable or better level in math. Among white students, 20% were at that level or above; among African Americans, only 3% ranked above that level, and among Latinos the figure was 5%.

There were some bright spots locally: At the 10th-grade level, seven districts in Los Angeles County cracked the list of the top 20 in the state, led by the San Marino Unified School District, which posted California’s highest scores. The rankings were based on the combined percentages of students scoring at the top three levels in all three subjects.

The results were based on tests students took last spring. State testing officials warned that the scores cannot be compared to those from 1993, because of changes in the test questions and in scoring procedures aimed at ensuring greater accuracy in response to problems that bedeviled the system last year.

The tests themselves--hailed at their introduction two years ago for making California a national leader in improving student assessment--have generated almost as much controversy as the low scores.

Last year, the release of CLAS scores fueled distrust in some quarters when it became clear that technical errors had resulted in the release of inaccurate scores, or no scores at all, for about 250 schools. And the tests already had become the target of conservative and religious parents and groups because of controversial reading passages.

Legal battles over whether districts could be forced to administer the tests and mounting criticism of the state Education Department’s response to the uproar led to the demise of the test, which many educators had embraced as an important tool for guiding the reform and improvement of school curriculum.

In September, Gov. Wilson vetoed a $26-million bill that would have kept the testing program alive, citing in part its failure to deliver individual student scores as promised. Wilson’s office is working with the Legislature now on a bill to develop a new assessment system.

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With the release of the final set of scores Tuesday, some educators and business leaders repeated their concerns that the loss of the CLAS test threatens gains that California schools have made in making curriculum more challenging and more in line with job market demands.

“Its demise may send a chilling signal through the educational system nationally,” said Eva Baker, a researcher who heads the Center for the Study of Evaluation at UCLA. CLAS had made the state a leader by requiring students to demonstrate their knowledge in essays, open-ended math problems and other so-called authentic activities, she said.

“What worries me is that the aftertaste will linger in the wrong way,” Baker said. “There is no reason to believe that tests that ask people to write on complex issues need to raise the specter of invasion of privacy.”

But that approach, requiring students to write essays in all three subject areas, introduced a variety of problems. Their answers were costly to score and led to a variety of technical missteps.

Last year, for example, in an effort to save money, the state tried to project results for schools and districts by grading only some of the students’ answers, resulting in the release of results later that were deemed unreliable.

To guard against that, every test was graded this year and state testing officials said they would not report scores for any schools or grades in which more than 25% of the students were not allowed by their parents to take the test. The state also did not report scores for small schools or schools where the demographic makeup changed substantially from last year.

About 500 schools and dozens of districts, including five in Los Angeles County, did not receive any test results because of those procedures. Others, however, had a low participation rate and still received scores, once again raising questions about what the scores mean.

In West Covina, for example, only 10% of the district’s sophomores, 40% of the eighth-graders and 45% of the fourth-graders chose to take the test after the district gave parents the option of having their children exempted.

Still, the state reported scores for the district and each of its schools, which for the 10th grade pushed the working class community into the ranks of such perennially high-achieving districts as those serving San Marino, Beverly Hills and La Canada Flintridge.

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Countywide, Los Angeles lagged behind many in the state, with its usual range of high scores in affluent districts and bleak scores in districts with large numbers of poor children, such as Compton and Bassett Unified in the La Puente area.

Gretchen Whitney High School in the ABC Unified District, a highly selective school that admits students based on high test scores, was the top high school in the state, followed by California Academy in Long Beach and San Marino High School.

At the elementary and middle school levels, however, San Marino did not receive any scores because too many parents declined to have their children participate.

In Ventura County, school officials were pleased that fourth- and eighth-grade students scored above those statewide in all three subjects. But some educators were concerned about the results for 10th-graders, whose writing scores dipped below those from across the state.

The high school students’ mediocre performance could have resulted from the large number of students who opted not to take the test, said Charles Weis, who heads the Ventura County office of education.

“On the surface, we can take some solace in the fact that we are doing better than the kids statewide,” Weis said. “But I’m not sure what these scores really tell us.”

Orange County students exceeded the statewide performance in every subject and grade. The county ranked second behind Marin County in fourth grade, third behind Nevada and Marin counties in 10th grade, and placed sixth in the eighth grade.

The strongest performance came on the 10th-grade reading exam, where Orange County ranked best in the state.

“Overall, I’m elated that Orange County did so well compared to the statewide average, but I’m also disappointed that we didn’t do better,” said John F. Dean, superintendent of Orange County schools. “We’d like to be 100% in everything. We keep striving for this.”

Several individual Orange County schools excelled. The brightest star was Roy Andersen Elementary in Newport Beach, which posted the highest combination of reading, writing and math scores at the fourth-grade level.

Among school districts, Laguna Beach Unified topped the fourth-grade results. Supt. Paul M. Possemato attributed the high scores to his district’s emphasis on language skills, which are integral to all parts of CLAS.

“I’m a strong advocate for the CLAS-type testing,” he said. “I believe that one has to have test programs that force the examination of, the measurement of, and the use of language and thinking in all subject areas.”

Times director of computer analysis Richard O’Reilly, data analyst Sandy Poindexter, staff writers Jodi Wilgoren, Diane Seo and Beth Shuster and correspondent Kay Saillant contributed to this story.