Test Scores Yield Mixed Results for L.A. Students

Los Angeles school students scored substantially below the national average in reading at every grade level, plunging to the bottom fourth in third grade, a Times analysis of state standardized test scores shows. Reading scores improved through the eighth grade, then dipped again into the bottom quarter in the ninth and 10th grades.

While the average was low, figures released Monday by the Los Angeles Unified School District showed tremendous variation between schools.

The third-grade scores were in the 21st percentile, meaning that the average Los Angeles student is below 78% of all students nationally. Ninth- and 10th-grade scores fell at the 22nd percentile.

Los Angeles students posted stronger math scores, but showed the same pattern as in reading--scores dipped to the bottom quarter in the fourth grade, then rose to the 37th percentile by ninth grade.

The scores are the first to include all of the district’s limited-English students. Consequently, the results were significantly lower than those released two weeks ago by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which showed that the district as a whole scored in the 32nd percentile. At that time, the district factored in only a selected number of students with limited English.

Meanwhile, the district Monday released school-by-school scores for the fourth, eighth and 10th grade levels in reading and math. Not surprisingly, the scores showed dramatic disparities in the performances of schools. Five schools, topped by the San Jose Highly Gifted Magnet in Mission Hills, scored at the 90th percentile or above in math at the fourth grade. At the low end, six central Los Angeles schools scored at the 10th percentile or below. In reading, two schools--including San Jose--scored in the 90th percentile or better at the fourth grade and 24 schools scattered across the city were in the 10th percentile or below.

Meaning of Scores Criticized

The state planned to release all the results of the first standardized tests in decades June 30 via the Internet, but that plan was blocked by a lawsuit. As a result, many school districts have been slowly rolling out the scores.

The Los Angeles school results released Monday, which are published in today’s Times, represent the information the state Department of Education intended to publish June 30.

Supt. Ruben Zacarias said he decided to release the school scores--although the district may not be required to--because of the intense public and media interest.

He and other officials have complained that the scores are not an accurate measure of the district’s performance because children with limited English were required to take the test in English.

“It is important to understand that the scores do not accurately reflect the quality of instruction occurring in this school district,” Zacarias said. “With the large number of [limited English] students in our classrooms, comparisons with other districts and even between LAUSD schools can be misleading.”

To show the effect of testing limited-English students, the school district calculated its scores three ways, with limited-English only, fluent English and both groups combined.

Overall, limited English students scored only about half as well as the combined group in the lower grades and about a third as well at high school. Limited-English students make up about 46% of the district’s enrollment.

Zacarias said the district Information Technology Division is preparing another school-by-school report that will compare this year’s test with one administered by the district last year. In that previous test, only a portion of limited-English students participated.

These results will be used to evaluate the success of district reform efforts such as LEARN and Zacarias’ personal attention to the 100 lowest performing schools, he said.

In another slice of test results, the Los Angeles County Office of Education last week released a summary of the performance of all 82 school districts in the county. The summaries included a percentile score for grades 2-11 in various subjects.

City Schools Perform Poorly

The Times analysis compared Los Angeles school scores in reading and math with the combined scores of every other district in the county. The analysis showed that Los Angeles schools performed more poorly at all grade levels than the remainder of Los Angeles County.

But the other county schools showed the same pattern of scores dipping in the third or fourth, ninth and 10th grades.

Reading scores at other Los Angeles County schools were lowest in third grade at the 33rd percentile, 12 points above Los Angeles schools. County reading scores peaked at the 43rd percentile in the eighth grade, before falling back to the 29th percentile in 10th grade.

Math scores at the other schools fell to the 39th percentile in fourth grade, also 12 points above the Los Angeles district, then climbed to the 49th percentile in ninth grade, just a point below the national average.

In both Los Angeles and the other schools, the students who performed the highest at most grade levels were those once classified as limited-English but who have been redesignated as English fluent.

Although few in number, the redesignated students generally scored near the national average in the elementary grades.

Los Angeles officials said they are still analyzing the data, but could not explain the declines in third and fourth grades and high school, despite a modest gain for the district overall.

“We don’t really have answers,” said Liliam Castillo, deputy superintendent of instruction.

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Comparing the Results

Reading and math test scores of L.A. Unified students fell significantly below all other students in the county at all grade levels. Math scores were higher than English scores. The bards mark the average percentile score for students at each grade level.

Source: Harcourt Brace Educational Measurement

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Times data analyst Sandra Poindexter contributed to this report.

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* SCHOOL-BY-SCHOOL RESULTS

Scores for public school students in grades 2 through 11 who took Stanford 9 test. B3-B4