Higher SAT Scores Give L.A. Schools Partial Win

Scores on the Scholastic Assessment Test rose for the first time in four years in the Los Angeles Unified School District. But the slight increase did not bring the district back to its 1991-92 level, and left it farther behind state and national averages.

Such mixed results are viewed as a partial victory in the urban district, where test takers are twice as likely as their peers statewide to come from non-English-speaking families that tend to be poorer and less well-educated.

“What we’re seeing here are the embryonic results of our reform efforts,” said Ruben Zacarias, deputy superintendent of the 660-school system. “Although we’re pleased that we’re showing some improvement, we’re not at all satisfied with the overall results.”

When broken down by school, the results were sometimes predictable. Two San Fernando Valley schools landed in the top echelon, with Van Nuys High achieving the district’s top scores and the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies registering the biggest improvement on the verbal portion of the test over the past five years.

Fifteen Valley high schools scored equal to or above L.A. Unified’s average, which was below state and national averages. Only three Valley high schools--Francis Polytechnic, San Fernando and Sylmar--scored below the district’s average.

In Los Angeles Unified, the district’s combined verbal and math scores were 880 points in 1995-96, up from an average of 873 the year before but still trailing the 1991-92 combined score of 890.

Yet there were encouraging trends at some inner-city schools as well. Jordan High in South-Central Los Angeles experienced the largest five-year jump in math scores and Lincoln High just east of downtown showed the biggest one-year increase in both the math and verbal portions of the test.

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At Jordan, Assistant Principal Janet Salem attributed the improvement in math scores to the phasing out of remedial classes--which the school began eliminating three years ago--and to the campus’ increased emphasis on college prep courses for all students.

“The idea is you’re learning in any class so you might as well be learning at a higher level,” Salem said. “It’s exciting to build and see some results.”

Salem is the first to acknowledge that Jordan has a long way to go. The school’s average combined math and verbal score of 712 is among the district’s lowest and would keep many students out of competitive four-year colleges.

The chronically low standardized test scores at Jordan and other inner-city schools may reflect the large number of students who begin school speaking Spanish and struggle with English throughout high school, Salem said. But she also complained that the College Board exams do not adequately assess her students’ abilities.

In other Los Angeles County districts, there were also signs of high achievement. In the San Gabriel Valley’s Glendora Unified School District, for example, scores topped both the state and national averages, with a 520 score in verbal and 534 in math. But in the Centinela Valley Union School District, which encompasses the communities of Hawthorne and Lawndale, the scores were 424 in verbal and 442 in math, 60 to 70 points lower than the state and national levels.

Statistics about those Los Angeles Unified students who took the SAT offer a glimpse of the challenges facing even the district’s top students--those who have set their sights on college.

* Two-thirds of the local SAT takers started school speaking a language other than English, compared with a third statewide and less than 20% nationally.

* One out of three of the students have parents who did not graduate from high school, compared with one in 10 in California and one in 25 across the United States.

* Two-thirds of Los Angeles Unified students reported annual family earnings of less than $30,000 a year. That is more than twice the proportion of students reporting that income level nationwide, even though the cost of living is higher in Los Angeles than elsewhere in the country.

Even where test results improved, the College Board report identified some troubling areas.

At Lincoln High, where average verbal and math scores each rose 25 points, to nearly 800 points combined, the number of students taking the basic college entrance exam has decreased every year for the past five years.

In contrast, at Sylmar High School, as more students took the SAT each year, math and verbal scores continuously dropped. Sylmar had the largest decline in math scores throughout the district and the second largest drop in verbal scores. Within the past five years, verbal SAT scores at the school plummeted 41 points and math dropped 48 points.

Only 27% of students at Sylmar took the exam last year, tying with Manual Arts High School for lowest proportion of students taking the exam.

“That is of great concern and . . . I want to take a closer look at it,” said school board President Jeff Horton, a former high school English teacher. “I’ve always said the average score doesn’t help a student, but taking the test might help that student.”

Los Angeles exceeded the nation in the percentage of seniors taking the SAT. Nationwide, 41% of seniors took the SAT, while at the 53 Los Angeles high schools and magnet schools in the report, 43% took the 1995-96 test, a slight dip from the 44% tested five years ago.

But many campuses had greater declines, and the phenomenon was not limited to inner-city schools.

At Van Nuys High, the district’s top scorer on the SAT with a combined math and verbal score of nearly 1,100 points, 10% fewer students took the test this year than the year before. Assistant Principal Sandra English was hard-pressed to say why.

“I have no idea,” English said. “We always encourage them to take the SAT and take it early so that they can take it again if they don’t do well.”

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Identifying why the school typically scores well was less of a mystery.

With magnet programs in math/science, performing arts and medical careers, Van Nuys High is known for a high-powered academic approach and an array of demanding advanced placement classes, which enroll 1,400 students.

At the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies in Reseda, another magnet school, Principal Jacqueline Joyce Purdy credited the school’s demanding English courses, and its ability to attract motivated students from across the district, with its improvement.

The school’s verbal exam score rose 47 points in five years, to 518.

But the rise also reflects the student body makeup, Purdy said. Magnet schools tend to attract a greater proportion of students who come from better-educated, English-speaking households.

* NATIONWIDE SCORES: Modest SAT gains are called encouraging. A1

* CHARTS: Scores of Southland schools and school districts. B11

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‘95-96 Valley Scores

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‘95 ’96 Antelope Valley Union High School District Districtwide Verbal 481 482 Math 481 481 Antelope Valley Verbal 492 503 Math 474 486 Highland Verbal 485 475 Math 481 477 Littlerock Verbal 461 465 Math 463 459 Palmdale Verbal 454 456 Math 464 472 Quartz Hill Verbal 504 504 Math 507 502 Burbank Unified School District Districtwide Verbal n/a n/a Math n/a n/a Burbank Verbal 497 500 Math 520 523 Burroughs Verbal 484 488 Math 477 479 Glendale Unified School District Districtwide Verbal n/a n/a Math n/a n/a Crescenta Valley Verbal 530 520 Math 570 562 Glendale Verbal 460 475 Math 520 538 Hoover Verbal 490 489 Math 560 558 Las Virgenes Unified School District Districtwide Verbal n/a n/a Math n/a n/a Agoura Verbal n/a n/a Math n/a n/a Calabasas Verbal n/a n/a Math n/a n/a William S. Hart Union High School District Districtwide Verbal 519 518 Math 539 546 Canyon Verbal 513 498 Math 539 527 Hart Verbal 526 530 Math 541 554 Saugus Verbal 512 518 Math 536 551

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Note: For sake of comparison, 1995 scores have been recalculated, or re-centered, to reflect changes made to the 1995 test.