MISSION VIEJO : Trustee Seeks Review of Schools’ Curricula

Alarmed by students’ low scores on a recent state test, a trustee of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District has proposed that a local task force be formed to review the district’s reading and mathematics curricula.

Trustee Frank Ury said the math results from the 1994 CLAS test for the district’s 10th-grade students prompted his request.

Seventy-three percent of the students scored below a goal set by the state Department of Education. “To be very honest, I think we have some somber numbers when we look at the CLAS test,” Ury said.

The controversial test, which has since been discontinued, measured student skills in reading, writing, math and social science. Trustees on Tuesday agreed to consider Ury’s idea at a later meeting.

Ury was critical of state education officials who have formed a task force to address similar concerns, because educators constitute a majority of the panel.

A local task force, if formed, should not take the same approach, he said.

Trustee Bobbee Cline disagreed. “Opinion doesn’t substitute for experience,” Cline said.

She added that she did not think the test results reflected a “massive failure” of the reading and math curriculum.

Trustee Debbie Hughes said the panel should consist of parents who would decide what they want their children to know by certain grades.