Advertisement

School Scores Show Puzzling Reading Gap

Share
TIMES EDUCATION WRITER

School districts in Los Angeles County ranged from near the top in the nation to near the bottom on this year’s statewide standardized test, a Times analysis of results shows.

Although performance varied tremendously, districts large and small, rich and poor shared at least two patterns. Reading scores peaked in the eighth grade and fell alarmingly in the 10th grade. And, despite recent alarm over the poor performance of California students in math, schools tested better overall in math than in reading, especially in high school.

Not surprisingly, schools in well-to-do suburban neighborhoods achieved the highest scores, with the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Beverly Hills topping the list in reading and math. The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District scored in the top fifth of the country in math. Districts in the South Bay beach cities and Santa Clarita also did well.

Advertisement

Districts that are home to working-class and largely immigrant populations consistently scored lower. Lynwood and Paramount in the southeast area, Lennox near South Los Angeles and Mountain View and Baldwin Park in the San Gabriel Valley all scored in the bottom fifth of the nation in reading and only slightly better in math.

The Times collected the test scores for fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders at 60 of Los Angeles County’s 82 school districts. Some of the results were on file at the Los Angeles County office of education, and other districts provided them to The Times. Some districts declined to provide their scores, citing a lawsuit that blocked the state from disclosing the scores for students who are limited in English fluency.

The results analyzed by The Times include those of all the students who took the Stanford 9 test, including youngsters who are not fluent in English.

Of the 60 districts, about a third scored above the national average in reading and math at the fourth-grade level. But by 10th grade only a fifth of districts scored above the national average in reading. Even the best districts lost ground in reading in high school, with Palos Verdes dropping 11 points to the 64th percentile and Beverly Hills falling 14 points to the 57th percentile between eighth and 10th grades.

School officials were reluctant to fix a cause for the gap between reading and math and especially the strong reading dip in 10th grade.

“I could begin guessing, but it wouldn’t be a valid assessment at all,” said Jim Parker of the Los Angeles County office of education’s information analysis unit.

Advertisement

Gerry Shelton, administrator for the state Department of Education’s testing program, said the 60 districts’ average 11-point drop in reading between the eighth and 10th grades mirrors a statewide pattern that cannot yet be explained.

The cause could be related to a mismatch in what is being taught at those grades and what the test asks, he said. For example, schools may be teaching English based on informational texts, while the test delves more into literature, Shelton said.

But he also suggested that one grade level may have benefited from better instruction than another. For instance, instructional methods changed dramatically with the recent decision to teach reading through phonics.

“It could be that sometime back in their educational career there had been a substantial change in instruction or curriculum such that the ninth-graders’ education was very much different from eighth-graders’ education,” Shelton said. “I’m speculating.”

The state will be analyzing the data for months to try to answer those questions, Shelton said.

Whether their districts scored well or poorly, school officials in the county will also be studying the scores to find out how to improve them next year.

Advertisement

Ann Chlebicki, superintendent of Palos Verdes Peninsula, said the district will look at the scores grade by grade and school by school to pinpoint weak areas. Curriculum adjustments and staff development will focus on making improvements, Chlebicki said.

“We are targeting the areas of reading as well as increasing the number of students in the top 10%,” she said.

Chlebicki and other superintendents in districts that scored well above average attributed their success to motivated students, active parents, strong employees and supportive school boards.

At the low end, bigger adjustments may be needed to improve scores.

The Lynwood Unified School District, which ranked among the bottom three districts in the county at all three grade levels, has gone through a three-year math development program in conjunction with UCLA, said Supt. Audrey Clarke.

“We’ve been doing extensive staff development in math,” she said. “We have really zeroed in on the math.”

The benefits are hard to find in the district’s math scores, which range between the 22nd and 24th percentile at all three grade levels.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, reading scores hung at the 15th percentile in fourth grade and the 14th percentile in 10th grade.

Clarke said she considers this year’s test a baseline to show where the staff and students need to go to achieve satisfactory results.

She said she would not have been pleased with any score below the 50th percentile.

Times staff writer Hector Becerra contributed to this story.

To get a special report on the state’s failing schools, “California’s Perilous Slide,” go to The Times’ Web site: www.latimes.com/schools

* TEST RESULTS: A breakdown of Stanford 9 scores reported by L.A. County schools, district by district. B4

Advertisement