County Reports Mixed Results on SAT Scores : Education: On average, area college-bound seniors outperformed their peers, but four schools fell below state and national levels.

Ventura County’s college-bound seniors on average topped the SAT scores of their peers in California and the nation this year, with Rio Mesa and Ventura high schools registering the most impressive gains.

But four of the county’s 17 high schools--Channel Islands, Hueneme, Oxnard and Santa Paula Union--fell below state and national averages in 1995 on both the math and verbal portions of the Scholastic Assessment Test.

And scores at affluent Oak Park High, while remaining above the state and nation, dropped alarmingly from the previous year. Oak Park’s scores plunged 22 points in verbal skills, from 462 to 440, and 38 points in math, from 532 to 494.

The scores, mailed to most school districts last week, were not available from Thousand Oaks, Westlake, Newbury Park and Fillmore high schools, officials said Wednesday.

Of the 13 high schools that reported results, eight beat out the 485 math and 417 verbal scores posted by the state, as well as the national averages of 482 in math and 428 in verbal skills.

As in previous years, Ventura County students mirrored state and national trends by performing far better in the math portion--which measures proficiency in arithmetic, science and geometry--than in verbal skills.

The top score possible is 800 and the lowest is 200. Many colleges and universities require good scores on the SAT--at least 1,000 combined--for admission.

Individual high school scores were mixed, with campuses in wealthier neighborhoods typically outperforming high schools in lower-income areas.

Nordhoff High students in Ojai, for instance, scored 518 in math, 33 points higher than their state peers, and 441 in verbal skills, 24 points above the state.

But students at Hueneme High School in south Oxnard, a heavily Latino campus where about 70% of students have limited English skills, had the lowest scores reported in Ventura County.

“We have a large bilingual population,” said counselor Sylvia Jackson. “Thinking and learning in one language and trying to take a college entrance exam in a secondary language is going to be difficult for them.”

Oak Park’s lower scores stand in stark contrast to the normally stellar performance given by the high school’s students in tests measuring achievement. But Oak Park Principal Jeff Chancer said the drop is due not to flagging academics, but to an expanding pool of students taking the exam.

No longer encouraged only for the brightest students, the SAT was taken by 102 pupils last year, an increase of 18% from the previous school year, he said. In 1992-93, only 64 students took the test, he said.

“Some schools, what they do is say, ‘If you’re not college material, you shouldn’t take the test,’ ” Chancer said. “[But] we tell them it’s a good measuring tool. . . You get a good indication of where you stand.”

Simi Valley High School also saw its scores drop in both categories, while neighboring Royal High registered an increase in the verbal score for its students. And Moorpark High lodged mixed results, with math scores dropping six points to 502 and verbal skills rising 22 points to 448.

At Rio Mesa High School near Oxnard, where about 40% of students come from farm worker families with limited or no English-speaking skills, math and verbal scores rose 26 points each, bringing achievement up nearly to Oak Park’s level.

Principal Eric Ortega was thrilled by the news.

“Shoot, I’m excited,” he said. “Wait until I go tell my staff.”

Ortega said the school does not hold test preparation workshops but offers SAT tutoring software that can be used on computers available in the library. And whenever a student is interested in college, counselors steer them toward the test, he said.

“Our staff works very hard at preparing students for college or work,” Ortega said. “And if all the pieces are in place, you will start to see results.”

Ventura High School managed to reverse a decline in scores that occurred during the 1993-94 school year, said Arlene Miro, Ventura Unified School District’s director of administrative services.

Math scores increased eight points, from 459 to 467, and verbal scores 25 points, from 398 to 423. Improved results on the vocabulary and reading sections pushed Ventura High’s verbal scores back above California’s average, but the school remains 18 points behind the state in math.

“We talked it up more this year,” Miro said. “If a workshop was available, more information was given out about that. It was a greater awareness.”

At cross-town Buena High, math scores dropped 17 points, from 523 to 506, and verbal scores fell 14 points, from 459 to 445.

Oxnard and Hueneme high schools’ scores also rose slightly. Although relatively small score changes my reflect differences in ability, testing officials noted that more than half of all high schools experience one-year changes of at least 10 points.

More significant is the number of seniors opting to take the exam, said Jeffrey Penn, a spokesman for the College Board in New York City, which administers the SAT.

“In general, the higher the percentage of students taking the test, the lower the average scores,” he said.

In California, 45% of the Class of 1995 took the SAT, slightly higher than the national average of 41%, Penn said. Participation rates for Ventura County high schools are similar, school administrators and counselors said.

Other factors that can affect SAT performance include the types of academic courses studied in high school, family background and education of parents, Penn said.

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Average SAT Scores in County

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Districts 1993-94 1994-95 and schools Math Verbal Math Verbal Conejo Valley Unified Newbury Park High 510 440 * * Thousand Oaks High 551 458 * * Westlake High 527 456 * * Fillmore Unified Fillmore High 423 344 ** ** Moorpark Unified Moorpark High 508 426 502 448 Oak Park Unified Oak Park High 532 462 494 440 Ojai Unified Nordhoff High 513 444 518 441 Oxnard Union Camarillo High 544 486 526 464 Channel Islands High 449 378 439 390 Hueneme High 421 370 423 373 Oxnard High 459 399 472 402 Rio Mesa High 467 406 493 432 Santa Paula Union Santa Paula High 454 415 429 385 Simi Valley Unified Royal High 504 415 502 433 Simi Valley High 524 449 514 430 Ventura Unified Buena High 523 459 506 445 Ventura High 459 398 467 423 State average 482 413 485 417 National average 479 423 482 428

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* Results not available Wednesday.

** Did not receive a report because fewer than 50 students took the SAT.

Source: Ventura County school districts

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