Low State Test Scores

Re “State Test Finds Students Lagging,” April 5:

I have two important points that were not brought out by your article about the California Learning Assessment System (CLAS). First, the test was not designed to measure basic skills, it was designed to measure higher-thinking skills. This means that those students who scored low were not necessarily lacking the basic skills, but the ability to use them in a higher-thinking situation (such as programming a VCR, which the vast majority of adult Americans cannot do).

Second, while the article noted that “scores in writing, which has been part of the state’s assessment system since 1987, were slightly stronger,” it never made the extrapolative observation that perhaps scores in the other areas will rise when testing (and teaching what the test is measuring) has been in place for several years. The CLAS test was never given a true chance because of controversy, yet now those same people who decried the test are going to take the results and throw them back into the educators’ faces as proof of not doing “the job.”

BRUCE QUIMBY

Lake Elsinore

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Two articles--the dismal scores attained by students in reading, writing and math, and a proposal in Congress to allow student-led prayer in school--appeared on April 5, which I feel deserve comment.

I am an atheist and a “bleeding heart” liberal, but I am very much for prayer in school--with one caveat. It should be restricted to praying for better understanding, knowledge and grades in reading, writing and math. Nothing else seems to work.

ALAN S. GREENFIELD

Northridge

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Surprise! Math and reading test scores of Los Angeles school children are again among the lowest in the nation.

Los Angeles schools’ excuses are pathetic; e.g., the kids speak Spanish, we need more money, etc. I have a suggestion: Teach them in English!

FELIX CASTRO

Los Angeles

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Re “Putting the State to the Test,” editorial, March 27:

Johnny can’t read or add very well in California, and there are a number of excuses (teaching methods, violence, drugs, poverty, family neglect) mentioned in your editorial. What was left out is school funding. California now ranks 40th out of the 50 states in per-pupil funding. Its class size average is 40 students. Reading tests are taken in English, yet there are 137 different primary languages spoken.

Since Pete Wilson became governor, the state’s commitment to education has been severely weakened for the benefit of adding 100,000 new prison beds. The economics of school funding, “the pay me now, or pay me later” standard, fits Wilson’s political agenda. We are certainly paying later. The cost for prisons in this state now exceeds the funds for education 2 to 1. The per-prisoner cost for our state is $27,000 per year. The per-pupil cost is $3,300. Maybe we can teach Johnny to read in prison.

EDWARD P. YOUNG

Supervising Deputy Probation Officer

L.A. County Probation Department