State Exams Become Test of Schools’ Skills in PR

As the results of California’s massive effort to test the basic skills of public school children dribble out into public view, the Stanford 9 examinations have also become a test of the public relations savvy of California educators.

Originally, the state planned a simultaneous release of scores from every public school in California on June 30. That plan has been put on hold by a court battle over the release of scores of students who are not fluent in English. In the meantime, districts around the state have been making their own decisions about what to release and when.

The tensions they face were clear one night recently at a meeting of the Antelope Valley high school board. A thick packet of test results had just landed, and scores from the district on the outskirts of Los Angeles County were around the 30th and 40th percentiles--well in the bottom half nationally.

As a staff expert used an overhead projector to give a primer on testing theory, school board member Bill Olenick sensed trouble: “I get the impression we’re going to take a hit on this,” he said. “Why do I feel that?”

To avoid that sort of hit, some school officials have been boning up at sessions similar to those that prepare political candidates for debates. Other districts are already using the test results to help shape what they teach and how.

The testing has brought out strong emotions. Some opponents see the future of public education in jeopardy. They fear that critics of public schools will use a dismal portrayal of the scores to launch a new campaign for vouchers--grants that help parents pay for private schools.

On a lesser level, jobs are potentially on the line--those of superintendents, principals and teachers. And in this election year, so are proposed ballot measures and elected posts, from Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin’s down to local school board seats.

Perhaps it is no surprise that how to parry media questions was a prime topic of one recent workshop for school officials from throughout the region, held at the headquarters of the Saugus Union School District.

As dozens of superintendents, principals and teachers huddled over paper-strewn tables, scribbling notes, consultant Jim Cox offered a videotaped presentation explaining that scores can be influenced by six factors, including test-taking skills, quality of instruction and even the testing venue. Schools, he said, can control all variables except one--demographics.

But the educators feared that such nuances would be lost on most of their constituents, who are likely to boil everything down to a single number: the school’s percentile rank--showing how it compares to the national average and other schools. Administrators knew they would be asked why their school was doing “worse” than one across town, even if the difference was only a single point.

“Parents are going to say, ‘What’s wrong with the quality of instruction?’ ” said Principal Pat Berry of Mesquite Elementary School in Palmdale.

“I have two newspapers and a school board to answer to,” said Marc Winger, superintendent of the Newhall School District in Ventura County.

Tests Used in Eight States

The tests at issue are a battery of multiple-choice examinations published by Harcourt Brace Educational Measurement, which are used by eight other states from Arizona to Virginia.

In California, grades two through eight were tested in reading, math, language mechanics and spelling. Grades nine to 11 were tested in reading, math, language, science and social sciences. It was the first statewide public schools exam since 1994 and the first since the 1960s to generate scores for individual students.

When early results were released last week, covering just the students who are fluent in English, Eastin put out a sunny press release encapsulating her view: “Good News for California,” the headline said. But Gov. Pete Wilson, who pushed hard for the renewal of testing last year, called the overall performance “deplorable.”

With such high-profile efforts underway to mold public opinion, school districts are working overtime to hone their own messages.

Public relations officials from the Los Angeles County office of education have warned districts about calls from reporters on deadline seeking quick sound bites. “Don’t be rushed, because you may say something you regret,” Frank Kwan, communications director for the county agency, told the crowd of educators at Saugus. “Don’t pretend to know. Don’t use jargon.”

The test has generated business for consultants such as Cox, who specializes in helping districts interpret and use results. “We can perpetually whine about it,” Cox said, “or we can create some activities that will turn this into an educational experience.”

Many districts are seeking to do the latter, concerned more with sifting the data to glean hidden trends in their schools than with crafting the perfect news release.

From the start, Huntington Beach Union High School District in Orange County was all business about the tests, offering free bran muffins and orange juice on the morning of the exams so students would not be distracted by empty stomachs.

Now, the district is thinking about adding geometry lessons next year to its traditional ninth-grade algebra course. Why? Because the ninth-grade math test covers geometry. Never mind that the district’s percentile rank on that portion of the test already was a respectable 62. It wants to do better.

Pasadena Unified School District officials, who have used the Stanford 9 since 1996, were among a few in the state who could compare this year’s scores to previous years. Overall, officials were disappointed, for reading and math scores were mainly in the 30s and 40s on the percentile scale.

But they hope to learn why, for example, fourth-grade math scores went down 7 points, from the 41st percentile in 1996 to the 34th in 1998. Even excluding limited-English students, math scores dropped a bit in that grade.

“People who are going to bash us are going to bash us, and the people who have confidence in us and support us will continue to,” said Supt. Vera Vignes. “If a year or two from now we don’t begin to show improvement, we have reason for people to say it’s not working.”

Scores Used for Many Purposes

Even educators who worry about potential misuse of the tests concede that the stated goals of the program are hard to dispute. Parents get a snapshot of how their children are doing, and schools get feedback on where their students need help.

But the results are inevitably put to other purposes--to evaluate teachers, for instance, or even to sell homes in prime neighborhoods, thus influencing property values.

Although suburban school districts are likely to post reasonably good scores, they are hardly immune to anxiety. Parents there expect more--and are more likely to turn out at school board meetings to demand explanations for results that do not top the charts.

Aware of parents’ desire for answers, West Covina school officials put a cautionary note in a cover letter sent home with the scores of individual students: “We look forward to sharing a more complete picture of your student’s academic achievement when school opens in the fall.”

Garden Grove parents got similar letters in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean.

But by far the greatest anxiety is seen in the major cities. Officials there know from experience that their students won’t do well and fear the public will have little patience for explanations--backed by a slew of studies--of how poverty and language barriers contribute to poor scores.

At the Los Angeles Unified School District, the state’s largest, with 681,000 students, Supt. Ruben Zacarias acknowledged that poor performance would be “cannon fodder for the those who dislike the district.” That may be one reason he initially released a limited analysis of results last week--omitting limited-English students, although the district had tested many of them in English a year before.

When pressed by reporters, the district recast the data to include those students. The district’s average then dropped from the 40th percentile to the 32nd.

The United Teachers-Los Angeles union was so incensed at the prospect of dismal scores that it had readied pickets and leaflets to protest what it perceived as flaws in the test, especially when administered to students with meager English skills.

The full counteroffensive was put on hold after the court ruling that held up release of the scores of students with limited English skills, but the teachers went ahead with a newspaper ad challenging readers to do a math problem--in German.

“The statewide test is rigged,” the ad said, “a setup to give Gov. Pete Wilson what he wants--’proof’ of the failure of our public school system and the need for a privatization scheme, under whatever slick title they’re now using for vouchers.”

Times staff writers Duke Helfand, Doug Smith, Fred Alvarez and Roberto J. Manzano contributed to this story.