How 3 Schools Raised Test Scores Sharply

A Boyle Heights school has started to climb out of the academic cellar after years of floundering in reading and math.

A school in South Los Angeles is suddenly approaching the national average on standardized tests after counting itself among the city’s lowest achievers.

A third campus, in Silver Lake, has surpassed its own expectations by leaping 12 percentile points to the head of the academic pack.

These three schools, all of which have shown remarkable gains on this year’s Stanford 9 exam, offer a picture of the creative measures that campuses across California are taking to enhance achievement and improve test scores.

They have been singled out for study by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which hopes their success can be duplicated elsewhere.

“We’re definitely going to look at those schools and others that have made significant gains,” said Supt. Ruben Zacarias. “These practices need to be shared with all teachers.”

At Bright, Soto and Ivanhoe elementary schools:

* Teachers talk to one another about their work. They huddle regularly to analyze successes and failures, to share materials and to refine their instruction.

* Principals encourage practical reforms, facilitate an open exchange of ideas and create an atmosphere in which teachers feel free to be creative.

* Administrators and teachers routinely assess student progress to target deficiencies and buttress strengths.

* Teachers embrace the state’s return to phonics as the foundation of reading instruction, using lessons--and even games--that emphasize word skills.

* Students gear up for the state standardized exam, the Stanford 9, by taking practice tests and reviewing the format.

* And each school is learning to contend with its own world of problems.

Three-quarters of the students at Soto Elementary in Boyle Heights speak limited English, a significant hurdle when taking an exam in English. Even so, the school’s composite score for reading, math and language arts rose from the 15th percentile to the 25th percentile.

At Bright Elementary in South Los Angeles, every one of the 846 students qualifies for subsidized lunches. Although poverty is often a predictor of low achievement, the school’s composite test score jumped from the 30th percentile to the 42nd this year, approaching the national average.

Ivanhoe Elementary, which serves a mostly middle-class student body in Silver Lake, must work with inadequate facilities and a nagging annual deficit. But it has watched scores rise from the 57th percentile to the 69th after teachers reorganized themselves into teams to pool their strengths and design new approaches to instruction.

Visits to these campuses last week provided glimpses of how they are stretching their talents, using resources more efficiently and employing testing tricks to help their students conquer a daunting exam.

Soto Elementary

For the five months preceding the Stanford 9 in April, Soto devoted one hour each Friday to test preparation.

The regimen was strict. Classrooms fell silent from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. as students, pencils in hand, hunched over timed exams in “Test Ready” workbooks.

To lend an air of authenticity to the exercise, the public address system was kept silent and teachers hung signs from their doors reading: “Testing: Do Not Disturb.”

No interruptions were permitted. No visits to the bathroom. No drinks of water.

“The environment was totally test-centered,” one teacher recalled of the exams that covered vocabulary, reading comprehension, multiplication and other skills.

The workbooks also featured testing tips. For example, students learned to identify one or two answers per question that were obviously wrong and to pick the correct item from the remaining choices.

Although experts warn that intensive test preparation may sacrifice more in-depth instruction, teachers say such practice is bound to play a role in classrooms given the state’s new accountability system. Schools are now being ranked primarily by Stanford 9 scores.

“It’s what we have to do to prove our children are learning,” said Sara Lasnover, a first-grade teacher. “We have to teach them to learn, but also teach them to take the test.”

First-grade teacher Libbi Swanson said the exercises--practical strategies to “beat the test”--paid dividends for her students. (Unlike the state, L.A. Unified requires first-graders to take the Stanford 9.)

“I told my students, ‘If you don’t learn ways to figure out the best answer, you’re doomed for the next 11 years,’ ” said Swanson, who began giving the tests in September. “The practice every week made all the difference for my class.”

Students say the testing gave them confidence and insight.

“It made me feel like I could pass the Stanford 9,” said Anthony Diaz, a Soto fifth-grader last year. “My teachers told me how to try and how to reach my goals and how to achieve. They told us to practice and read and do math so we could get ready.”

Los Angeles school officials applaud Soto’s approach. Zacarias said he encourages schools to teach testing strategies as often as once a week but he warns against trying to teach the content of the Stanford 9, which is against state regulations.

“Practice makes perfect,” Zacarias said. “A lot of kids may know the answers to questions, but they are not used to taking tests.”

Soto Principal Steven Siry said test preparation was one of several factors contributing to the rise in test scores at his 548-student school.

He also cited valuable staff training on ways to apply new state standards to instruction, as well as growing parent involvement in classrooms and a collegial atmosphere among teachers that contributed to the exchange of ideas.

Siry said he stressed the importance of teaching basic skills. The staff also sought to integrate reading, writing and math into other subjects. A science experiment on seeds, for example, would be accompanied by a daily journal in which children chronicled the growth of a plant.

“I told the staff that I wanted their priority to be language arts and math,” Siry said. “If they needed to move other things out of the way, do it.”

Soto students improved in every grade in reading, math and language arts on this year’s Stanford 9. Fifth-grade language arts scores rose 15 percentile points, to the 25th percentile, while third-grade math scores rose 14 points, to the 26th percentile. Scores for students with limited English skills also rose.

But Soto has a long way to go. Its overall scores still trail the average for elementary schools in Los Angeles. The same is true of its scores for pupils who speak limited English.

Despite an emphasis placed on reading, Soto made the smallest gains in that subject, a byproduct of the fact that the mostly Spanish-speaking students were taking a test that demanded comprehension in English, Siry said.

Soto’s composite rank of the 25th percentile--a 10-point gain over the previous year--places it in the bottom quarter of schools nationally.

Siry believes his students can do better, but said, “We are moving in the right direction.”

Bright Elementary

Bright has been the target of intensive reforms for more than a decade, receiving millions of extra dollars in services through an initiative aimed at mostly black and Latino elementary schools.

As part of the Ten Schools program, the campus has received extra counselors and aides, plus smaller classes and additional staff development days, among other benefits.

The program has sought to raise test scores to the national median--the 50th percentile. Although other schools in the program have seen mixed results, Bright appears to be nearing that goal.

Its composite score in reading, math and language arts rose from the 30th percentile to the 42nd percentile. Virtually every grade that was tested surpassed the average for L.A. Unified elementary schools in the three subjects.

“Bright will never lower its expectations--realistic or not,” said Principal Marguerette Smith. “Not while I’m here.”

As at Soto, Bright’s teachers attribute their academic strides to a renewed focus on the basics.

The school supplements reading instruction with Open Court, a structured reading program that combines the word skills of phonics with rich literature. Teachers also require students to write and edit something every day--whether book reports, essays or letters--and they assign 600 minutes of extra recreational reading during the semester.

Another key lies in teacher communication. Teachers huddle weekly in the faculty lounge and in classrooms, poring over test results and other data from each grade to target weaknesses and craft strategies.

“At this school, showing a weakness does not necessarily mean a student has a problem,” Smith said. “It may mean we need to teach a skill or subject in a different way.”

For example, consider how Bright addressed problems with second-graders who were having trouble listening to instructions. The plan of attack included daily readings of detailed stories with complex plots--and oral exams that forced students to rely on memory alone for the answers.

Bright’s second-grade reading scores rose 17 percentile points this year; fifth-grade reading scores increased 14 points.

“This is an enormous amount of hard work,” said Helene Solomon, a fourth-grade instructor and the teachers union representative at the school. She also credits the leadership of Smith, the principal.

“To our benefit, Marguerette is an incredibly strong leader--but not a tyrant,” Solomon said. “If we teach to the standards, maintain discipline and manage our classrooms, she gives us the freedom we need. If we don’t, she buddies us up with a proper mentor.”

Everything at Bright is a reflection of the order that Smith brings to the school.

The brass nameplate near the main entrance is polished daily. The playground is litter-free. The hallways are spotless, the students cheery and well behaved.

“I want every one of my kids to feel good and do well here,” Smith said. “The real credit goes to my teachers. I’m just a facilitator.”

Ivanhoe Elementary

The jump in Ivanhoe’s composite score for reading, math and language arts from the 57th to the 69th percentile far exceeded the results of many schools in the county.

The composition of the student body played a role. The vast majority already speak English fluently, and many do not have to overcome the problems of poverty.

Ivanhoe serves children from mostly middle-class homes in the winding hills of Silver Lake. Just 17% of the school’s 350 students speak limited English, so few that their scores were not even reported separately for the Stanford 9.

But there’s more to it. Parents play an active role in running the school, and Ivanhoe has radically altered how it organizes instruction.

With the arrival of Principal Kevin Baker three years ago came new ideas that initially met resistance but have firmly taken hold.

The school divides teachers into grade-level teams--kindergarten-first, second-third, fourth-fifth. The teams meet twice a week, allowing teachers to design 10-week units of study that reflect state standards.

The teams draw on the strengths of their members, who take the lead in subjects that reflect their expertise. Teachers who specialize in math or reading, for example, meet regularly with their counterparts from other grades to ensure that the curriculum is suited to the abilities of students.

Teachers say the new organization has opened lines of communication throughout the school. “There are no grand egos,” Karen Park, a kindergarten teacher, said of the teams. “Nobody stands up and says, ‘I’ve got the right to do this or that.’ ”

Baker introduced another change that has gained popularity. Instead of traditional parent-teacher conferences, students lead their own assessments after every 10-week grading period--to engage them in their education and involve parents.

The children walk their parents through their schoolwork, explaining what they learned and what they need to improve. They also set down their goals on paper. Parents respond in writing, a process that some label “psychobabble,” but others find valuable.

Bela Messex, 9, said the conferences help. “I told my mom and dad that I was really good at social studies but that I needed to work on math--times tables and stuff like that,” the fifth-grader said.

Bela’s mother said the conferences offer an important link to her son. At a recent one, Bela wrote how he wanted help with math through drilling and memorizing formulas.

“Once I knew what he wanted, I was able to help him,” said Kim Jones-Messex. “I understood what I needed to work on at home.”

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Big Improvements

These three schools were among campuses in Los Angeles that saw the largest gains on the Stanford 9 this year.

Each school received one percentile score for a composite of reading, math and language arts in 1998 and 1999. The national average is the 50th percentile.

SOTO ELEMENTARY

Boyle Heights

548 students

Preschool-fifth grade

Students with limited English proficiency: 75%

Students participating in subsidized lunch program: 99.6%

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BRIGHT ELEMENTARY

South Los Angeles

846 students

Kindergarten-fifth grade

Students with limited English proficiency: 25%

Students participating in subsidized lunch program: 100%

***

IVANHOE ELEMENTARY

Silver Lake

350 students

Kindergarten-fifth grade

Students with limited English proficiency: 17%

Students participating in subsidized lunch program: 21%