Test Scores Show Wide Gaps in Students’ Skills

Orange County scores might have modestly beaten statewide figures on the Stanford 9 exam, but a closer look reveals wide gaps in performances among the county’s 28 school systems and, at times, even within them.

Predictably, schools with large numbers of fluent English speakers and high socioeconomic factors, such as income and education, fared best. Schools in Irvine, Newport-Mesa, Laguna Beach and Los Alamitos were among the top scorers.

In districts serving impoverished children who have not yet learned English, students struggled with the exam that tests reading, math and other basic skills.

“Poverty is a significant factor that influences the test scores,” said Linda Delgiudice, director of student achievement at Santa Ana Unified School District, the largest and one of the poorest in the county--and the one with the lowest scores.

“These children come with fewer advantages--fewer reading materials at home, no home computers,” she said.

In many cases, the students’ parents have not gained a full education or completed high school, administrators added.

Andersen Elementary School in Newport Beach ranked highest in reading and math of all schools, according to a computer analysis by the Los Angeles Times. Students there scored in the 80th percentile.

In contrast, some scores at Kennedy Elementary School, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Santa Ana, did not surpass the 20th percentile.

By definition, 50th percentile is the national average.

Test results, released Tuesday for all California schools, showed that Orange County students scored higher than most in the state. County scores also topped national averages in math and language, but lagged in reading and spelling.

Other eye-catchers in the test data:

* High-achieving Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton scored just above average in reading. But math scores were stronger, mainly ranking in the upper 70s.

* Laguna Beach Unified topped the charts in reading, with district scores generally hovering near the 70th percentile.

* Elementary reading scores from the county Department of Education’s alternative programs for disabled and delinquent students were all above average. Math scores, however, were among the lowest.

* And rough estimates showed that of California’s 58 counties, Orange County ranked ninth in math and 27th in reading. The county ranks fifth in the percentage of students who do not speak English, 25%. By way of contrast, the best scores in both subjects were seen in Marin County, a wealthy suburb of San Francisco where only 6% of the 20,400 students lack English skills. Nevada, Placer and San Luis Obispo counties, respectively, also ranked high in reading and math.

Changes Mulled

This year’s scores are the first comprehensive California testing data since 1994. Under this year’s program, virtually all students in grades two through 11 took the exam sometime during a March through May window. Results began trickling from districts in June.

Educators have said that both county and statewide test scores would be much higher if limited-English students were not required to take the test.

At Santa Ana’s Kennedy Elementary, 95% of the 795 students lack English skills. At home, most students speak either Spanish or Khmer, a Cambodian language. And fully 95% of the students rely on free or reduced lunches.

Test results reflect their disadvantages: third-graders scored at the eighth percentile in reading.

“Demographics certainly have an influence on student performance,” the district’s Delgiudice said. “But that doesn’t mean individual students can’t show progress.”

Over the summer months, school officials are poring over the data to see where their curricula need changes. Some educators are extracting scores of English-fluent students who have been in a district for several consecutive years to gauge the effectiveness of academic programs.

For instance, in the Anaheim Union High School District, where 30% of the students who start out the school year are gone by the end of it, 11th-graders scored in the 31st percentile for reading. That ranking was lifted to the 50th percentile among students in the same grade who are fluent in English and have been in the district for at least three years.

In Newport Beach, parents said their involvement at Andersen Elementary is an essential part of the neighborhood school’s success at test-taking. Fourth-graders there scored in the 88th percentile in reading and the 93rd in math.

“You can walk over there any day and find 25 parents . . . helping out,” said Kim Pawell, who lives two doors from the school and sends her four children there.

Andersen and another elementary school, Harbor View, “have always achieved at the highest levels,” Interim Supt. Robert Francy said.

“It is a reflection of the demographics of the community: high socioeconomic factors, extremely well-employed, well-educated folks with all the benefits of living in a community with so many opportunities.”

Not all schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District did as well on the standardized test. An estimated 28% of students have a native tongue other than English and it is reflected in schools with a large population of limited-English speakers.

Fourth-graders at Pomona Elementary School in Costa Mesa, for instance, where nearly 90% of students aren’t fluent in English, scored well below national averages with a 19th percentile in reading and a 26th percentile in math.

Reading Scores Slip

Francy said the disparity in scores is solely because of demographics and a lack of English proficiency.

“I know that the teachers in one school work no harder than teachers in other portions of the district,” he said.

Irvine Unified, with a long-standing reputation for good schools and involved parents, not surprisingly showed overall high scores. Five of the 10 highest-scoring schools in reading or math are in that district.

Students scored in the 70th percentile in most subjects, and some individual schools posted even higher results. University High School students scored above the 85th percentile in ninth, 10th and 11th grades, but its reading test results were lower than the 70th percentile.

In fact, reading scores slipped markedly at the high school level, causing concern among administrators. For example, fourth-graders ranked at the 73rd percentile in reading, but tenth-graders scored at the 59th percentile--the lowest reading score in the district.

“While our average scores are good, we have kids who are not able to make meaning out of the words they are reading,” said Dean Waldfogel, Irvine Unified’s deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

* THE RESULTS: For test scores for schools throughout the county, see pages B2-B7

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Ranking the Districts

Irvine’s students generally performed best among Orange County schools on the statewide Stanford 9 standardized test. Santa Ana students, more than half of whom are not fluent in English, had the lowest scores.

MATH

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Grade Level Highest-Scoring Districts 4 8 10 Irvine Unified 73 77 73 Laguna Beach Unified 67 71 61 Fountain Valley 67 70 - Brea Olinda Unified 69 66 67 Saddleback Valley Unified 65 67 63

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Grade Level Lowest-Scoring Districts 4 8 10 Orange County Dept. of Ed.* 35 33 20 Anaheim City 33 - - Buena Park 28 40 - Magnolia 27 - - Santa Ana Unified 27 26 32

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READING

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Grade Level Top Five Districts 4 8 10 Laguna Beach Unified 70 73 62 Irvine Unified 73 72 59 Los Alamitos Unified 68 72 55 Fountain Valley 65 64 - Huntington Beach City 66 64 -

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Grade Level Bottom Five Districts 4 8 10 Buena Park 32 34 - Anaheim Union High - 37 26 Magnolia 29 - - Anaheim City 28 - - Santa Ana Unified 19 25 15

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* County Department of Education runs special education and alternative programs for juvenile delinquent students

Source: California Department of Education