Schools Post Top Scores : But Most Area Districts Rank Below Average on CLAS Test

Two Southeast-area high schools that draw some of the most talented students have earned the top scores in the state in a test of reading, writing and math skills.

Whitney High School in Cerritos was ranked as the top high school in the state for the second consecutive year in the California Learning Assessment System (CLAS) test, which was administered to sophomores.

The second-best scores among sophomores were posted by the California Academy of Mathematics and Science, a 5-year-old school that recruits top female and minority students from eight school districts in the Southeast and South Bay.

The Long Beach Unified School District runs the 470-student California Academy on the Cal State Dominguez Hills campus in Carson. About 86% of the students are minorities, and 52% are female.

“What’s reflected in these CLAS scores is the fact that our students are trained to think critically and to work creatively and constructively in groups,” Principal Kathleen S. Clark said.

The tests also were given to fourth- and eighth-graders.

The CLAS test was designed to show districts how well their students perform against objective standards. State officials, however, have decided to stop administering the tests after the governor’s office criticized the exams and parents charged that they invaded families’ privacy by asking probing questions and forcing students to read provocative material.

Most of the 16 Southeast-area school districts scored below county averages, and some ranked near the bottom.

However, ABC Unified in Cerritos and Lowell Joint School District, which serves the Whittier area and part of La Habra in Orange County, recorded the best scores in the area.

Students in the ABC and Lowell districts posted above-average scores in all three test subjects and at all three grade levels.

Scores in the Downey, Long Beach and Norwalk-La Mirada school districts generally fell in the middle range. Students in Compton, El Rancho, Los Nietos, Lynwood and Paramount schools performed poorly, ranking nearly at the bottom.

Compton, which last year ranked at the bottom at every grade tested, recorded a slight improvement, however.

“We’re not at the bottom, but we’re close to it,” said Jerome Harris, who was appointed by the state last year to oversee the troubled Compton school district. “When they’re starting at the bottom, they’ve got a lot of room for improvement.”

Harris said he has stepped up student testing and instituted a new method of evaluating teachers. Students are now tested every six weeks to determine whether their skills are improving.

Harris said he was pleased at the performance at one school, the Caldwell Street Elementary School, where 43% of the fourth-graders scored in the upper three levels in reading. Only 14% of the fourth-graders throughout the district scored in the upper three levels in reading.

Some school officials say the CLAS tests failed to gauge student progress.

Lowell Joint Supt. Ronald T. Randolph said teachers in his district did not change curriculum or teaching material, but students scored lower than they did on the tests last year.

“We place more credence in our standardized tests that we give every year,” Randolph said.

School officials have complained that many of the test questions were too difficult for most students and that many were not prepared to provide the kind of detailed answers expected of them.

Lewis Prilliman, Long Beach’s director of testing and evaluation, said many of the math questions required answers in essay form, which students were not taught last year.

Most Long Beach students performed about average

compared to other students in the county in reading and writing. But their math scores were well below the county average.

Students had the most problems with questions that required them to work in groups, draw diagrams or describe how they arrived at a solution, Prilliman said.

“It’s a different set of skills. It requires a completely different way of teaching mathematics,” he said.

Officials at the California Academy and at Whitney said they prepared their students for the CLAS test by using similar questions in class.

About 91% of Whitney’s sophomores scored in the top three levels in reading and writing. About 70% of the students scored in the upper three levels in math.

At California Academy, about 86% of the students scored at the top three levels in writing, 79% in reading, and 61% in math.

Some educators have criticized districts that place their highest achievers in one school, arguing that other schools would benefit from the presence of these students.

Officials at the California Academy said they consider other factors in addition to scores on standardized tests when admitting students. “We do have some of the best and the brightest, but our mandate is to have a mixed group of students,” Principal Clark said.