39% of Schools Rated as Underachieving

Ventura County’s public schools received a jolting reminder Tuesday of how far they need to go to reach demanding new standards as California ranked its schools for the first time in a push for improved pupil performance.

The new Academic Performance Index showed that 39%--or 65 of the county’s 165 schools--are considered underachieving by the state. Most of them are in the west county, especially the poorer, limited-English-speaking communities of Oxnard, Fillmore and Santa Paula.

That compares with 50% considered underachieving statewide.

Conversely, 18% of Ventura County schools have already reached the state target for high-performing campuses. Most of those are in the white-collar east county, especially Thousand Oaks and Oak Park.

About 12% of schools statewide have reached that target of at least 800 points out of a possible 1,000.

Oak Park High, with 846 points, was the county’s only high school to reach the state target. Thousand Oaks had four of the five high-performing middle schools and 11 of the 24 top elementary schools. The top-scoring elementary school was Westlake Hills with 885 points, while Oak Park Middle School led the county in its category with 848.

Overall, 61% of schools in the county considered in the survey--those with at least 100 students--ranked above the state norm.

A Times analysis also shows that among the 18 largest California counties, Ventura County ranks 6th with an overall score of 671.

Among Ventura County’s 18 high schools, 12 exceeded the state norm. Following Oak Park, Conejo Unified’s Westlake, Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park high schools all scored in the top five countywide.

Simi Valley High placed fourth, and Simi Valley’s other two high schools--Santa Susana and Royal--were ninth and 11th. Nordhoff High in Ojai was sixth, Camarillo High seventh and Moorpark High eighth. Ventura’s two high schools, Buena and Ventura, were 10th and 12th. The final six rankings went to Oxnard, Rio Mesa, Channel Islands, Santa Paula, Fillmore and Hueneme high schools.

Although scores were generally high, county educators saw plenty of room for improvement, which is the goal of the new ranking system.

“It’s like when you look in a mirror, you can see lots of problems or you can see things you need to improve--and begin to work on them. That’s what we want from this,” said county schools Supt. Charles Weis, a member of the state advisory committee that helped shape the new system.

The rankings, based on the Stanford 9 test of basic skills, are the cornerstone of a set of educational reforms approved by the Legislature and Gov. Gray Davis last year. The scores provide a baseline to measure future performance.

Schools that score well are eligible for cash bonuses, while those that fail to improve face state sanctions, ranging from removal of principals and transfer of teachers to a state takeover in extreme cases.

“We wouldn’t expect anyone to accept this number as showing the quality of a school because it’s not,” Weis said. “But it’s a beginning point in figuring that out.”

Several other educators--while backing greater accountability--said implementation of the new system may be premature because the rankings reflect only the Stanford 9 scores and not other key benchmarks the state intends to include to make the comparisons more meaningful.

For example, a test of writing ability will not be added until next year, and that score will not be figured into school rankings until 2002.

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In future years, attendance rates, graduation rates and scores on senior exit exams will also be considered when ranking schools.

Another large flaw in the current system, several educators said, is that the Stanford 9 test is not reliable or valid for students who speak limited English. That test was shaped from norms nationwide, where only 2% of students are limited English speakers. In California, about 20% of students speak little English.

“More than 50% of our kids are limited-English-speaking,” said Connie Sharp, assistant superintendent in the Oxnard Elementary School District, where 16 of 17 schools were rated as underachieving. “So I’m not sure it’s a fair test for us. Our Spanish speakers took the Spanish-language equivalent of the Stanford 9 and scored extremely high.

“But the bottom line is that we obviously have work to do. And we’re going to do it.”

Another criticism of Tuesday’s ranking was that the state used incomplete information to compile a separate ranking on the index that compares schools of similar ethnic and socioeconomic traits.

For example, administrators in several local districts said they did not provide the state information on student mobility or on how many low-income students receive free lunches because the state made the data optional. The lack of such information could hurt those schools when compared with similar campuses, they said.

“I wish we had more time to do this right,” said Supt. Joseph Spirito of Ventura Unified. “But the governor is hellbent on accountability. He’s moving like the train’s leaving the station on his reforms. So we can sit back and complain or we can move with him.”

Not that Spirito was complaining.

Nineteen of his district’s 23 schools scored above the state norm, and Poinsettia and Mound elementary schools scored higher than the 800-point high-performance standard.

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Statewide, schools received between 200 and 1,000 points. The statewide median was 630, which means that half the scores were above and half below.

In Ventura County, 60% of elementary schools scored above the state median, as did 62% of middle schools and 67% of high schools.

For all the flaws of the new ranking system, however, local educators said they have already changed the way they do business because it is clear that the state means business this time.

In Thousand Oaks, where 15 of 26 schools met the high state standard, principals have been discussing ways to boost test scores and school rankings since the beginning of the semester, Conejo Valley Assistant Supt. Richard Simpson said.

“The next test is in April, so if schools have waited till now to make changes, they’re not going to make a big difference in the score for next year,” he said.

“This concept of helping kids achieve is a positive,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with public accountability. The negative is that over the next five to seven years, they’ll be adding more components, so no two years will be alike. It won’t be comparing apples to apples.”

Oak Park Supt. Marilyn Lippiatt said her district spent months identifying its “at-risk” pupils and building special programs to help them. One provides reading and math teachers after school at the middle school, she said.

“We know that we do well, but there’s always room to grow,” she said. “We’re always interested in improving.”

In Ojai, where one of six ranked schools reached 800, teachers from throughout the district have been meeting for months to share teaching strategies aimed at improving test scores--particularly of students not working to their potential. The elementary teachers meet in grade-level teams, and middle and high school instructors by topic.

Like other districts, Ojai hired a consultant on test taking who told teachers the most important variables to improving student performance on standardized tests.

“What we’ve done is really address these standards,” Ojai Assistant Supt. Sharon McClain said.

Spirito said he met with principals Tuesday morning to talk about what more could be done to hike student performance. They discussed the accuracy of the socioeconomic information they’re sending to the state, he said, because bad information can hurt a school when it’s compared to similar institutions.

He said he thinks that’s what happened to Cabrillo Middle School, which scored an 8 on a 1-10 scale, in which 10 is highest, but only a 4 when compared with 100 similar schools statewide.

“My question was, ‘Is the information we sent accurate?’ ” Spirito said. “If the information is accurate and we only did better than 40% of similar schools, then I’m nervous, and the principal is nervous and the teachers are nervous.”

Simi Valley’s director of elementary eduction, Becky Wetzel, said scores in her district reflected in part the commitment of two back-to-basics elementary schools, Hollow Hills and Vista. There, parents must work as partners with the school or their children will not be admitted, she said.

A third elementary, Wood Ranch, also exceeded 800 points.

“I don’t think there’s value in comparing schools,” Wetzel said. “But I do think the way the state has organized this allows individual schools to address where they are and where they want to go and make it realistic.”

How the API Was Computed State officials took each school’s Stanford 9 scores from last spring and used a seven-step formula to obtain a score between 200 and 1,000. The national percentile rank (NPR) for each student tested was used to make the calculation. The percentages of students scoring within each of five NPR performance levels (called performance bands) were weighted and combined to produce a summary result for each content area.

Summary results for content areas were then weighted and combined to produce a single number. Reflecting the state’s emphasis on literacy, language skills carried extra weight in the early grades.

In grades 2 through 8, content areas were weighted as follows: mathematics, 40%; reading, 30%; language, 15%; spelling, 15%. In grades 9 through 11, mathematics, reading, language, history-social science and science each carried a weight of 20%.

To satisfy the Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999, officials set a statewide API performance target of 800 out of 1,000. The annual growth target for a school is 5% of the range between a school’s API and 800. For example, a school with a 1999 API of 500 is 300 points below the statewide target; 5% of 300 is 15 points, so that school’s goal for the 2000 API would be 515.

Of the state’s 8,000 schools, 7,000 will be ranked in the API. Among schools not included were those with fewer than 100 students and alternative schools. Scores of students who had been in a district for less than a year were not counted. Scores for English learners who had been in the district for more than a year were included.

VENTURA COUNTY

Briggs Elementary

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Briggs Elementary 545 4 5 558 10

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Conejo Valley Unified

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Acacia Elementary 786 9 9 787 0 Aspen Elementary 837 10 5 * 0 Banyan Elementary 832 10 5 * 0 Conejo Elementary 560 4 3 572 0 Cypress Elementary 802 9 3 * 0 Glenwood Elementary 731 8 8 734 0 Ladera Elementary 769 9 7 771 0 Lang Ranch 871 10 5 * 0 Madrona Elementary 861 10 9 * 0 Manzanita Elementary 627 5 5 636 0 Maple Elementary 861 10 9 * 0 Meadows Elementary 842 10 7 * 0 Park Oaks Elementary 591 5 6 601 0 University Elementary 789 9 5 790 0 Walnut Elementary 705 7 5 710 0 Weathersfield Elementary 854 10 8 * 0 Westlake Elementary 861 10 5 * 0 Westlake Hills Elementary 885 10 6 * 0 Wildwood Elementary 816 9 6 * 0 Colina Intermediate 807 10 4 * 0 Los Cerritos Middle 805 10 4 * 3 Redwood Intermediate 846 10 8 * 0 Sequoia Intermediate 800 9 8 * 0 Newbury Park High 744 9 5 747 0 Thousand Oaks High 767 10 6 769 2 Westlake High 797 10 7 798 1

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Fillmore Unified

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Piru Elementary 542 3 8 555 5 San Cayetano Elementary 515 3 5 529 3 Sespe Elementary 527 3 7 541 11 Fillmore Junior High 507 2 5 522 15 Fillmore Senior High 493 2 3 508 20

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Hueneme Elementary

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Bard Elementary 547 4 5 560 5 Hathaway Elementary 531 3 7 544 11 Haycox Elementary 419 1 4 438 16 Hollywood Beach Elementary 782 9 8 783 7 Hueneme Elementary 621 5 10 630 7 Larsen Elementary 500 3 9 515 8 Parkview Elementary 562 4 10 574 6 Sunkist Elementary 543 4 9 556 6 Williams Elementary 603 5 8 613 6 Blackstock Junior High 592 4 10 602 4 Green Junior High 629 5 10 638 13

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Mesa Union Elementary

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Mesa Elementary 704 7 8 709 0

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Moorpark Unified

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Arroyo West Elementary 777 9 7 778 3 Campus Canyon Elementary 664 6 5 671 9 Flory Elementary 638 6 4 646 8 Mountain Meadows Elementary 755 8 7 757 5 Peach Hill Elementary 589 5 5 600 0 Walnut Canyon Elementary 659 6 5 666 10 Chaparral Middle 758 9 7 760 5 Mesa Verde Middle 677 7 4 683 2

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Moorpark High 707 8 8 712 9

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Oak Park Unified

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Brookside Elementary 855 10 5 * 3 Oak Hills Elementary 836 10 1 * 0 Red Oak Elementary 831 10 5 * 3 Medea Creek Middle 848 10 7 * 5 Oak Park High 846 10 9 * 11

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Ocean View Elementary

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Laguna Vista Elementary 619 5 4 628 4 Mar Vista Elementary 508 3 9 523 7 Tierra Vista Elementary 601 5 9 611 13 Ocean View Junior High 580 4 10 591 6

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Ojai Unified

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Meiners Oaks Elementary 678 7 3 684 9 Mira Monte Elementary 721 8 3 725 10 San Antonio Elementary 822 10 8 * 0 Topa Topa Elementary 736 8 8 739 3 Matilija Junior High 748 9 8 751 3 Nordhoff High 724 9 7 728 13

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Oxnard Elementary

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Brekke Elementary 441 1 4 459 16 Chavez Elementary 387 1 1 408 32 Curren Elementary 525 3 6 539 12 Driffill Elementary 495 2 6 510 17 Harrington Elementary 493 2 6 508 9 Kamala Elementary 456 2 3 473 28 Lemonwood Elementary 569 4 9 581 5 Marina West Elementary 535 3 5 548 11 McAuliffe Elementary 610 5 6 620 7 McKinna Elementary 492 2 6 507 17 Ritchen Elementary 656 6 7 663 7 Rose Avenue Elementary 611 5 10 620 12 Sierra Linda Elementary 555 4 8 567 12 Frank Intermediate 509 2 8 524 0 Fremont Intermediate 618 5 5 627 4 Haydock Intermediate 500 2 6 515 12

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Oxnard Union High

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Camarillo High 724 9 5 728 2 Channel Islands High 539 3 9 552 6 Hueneme High 490 2 7 506 14 Oxnard High 608 5 10 618 9 Rio Mesa High 561 3 7 573 5

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Pleasant Valley Elementary

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Bedford Open Elementary 839 10 6 * 0 Camarillo Heights Elementary 785 9 3 786 4 Dos Caminos Elementary 762 8 9 764 0 El Descanso Elementary 657 6 8 664 9 El Rancho Structured Elementary 599 5 6 609 8 Las Colinas Elementary 829 10 5 * 8 Las Posas Elementary 720 8 7 724 0 Los Nogales Elementary 710 7 3 715 5 Los Primeros Structured Elementary 834 10 10 * 7 Santa Rosa Elementary 809 9 8 * 0 Tierra Linda Elementary 782 9 4 783 0 Valle Lindo Elementary 708 7 8 713 0 Los Altos Intermediate 739 8 6 742 3 Monte Vista Intermediate 778 9 9 779 3

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Rio Elementary

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg El Rio Elementary 589 5 7 600 19 Rio Lindo Elementary 590 5 4 601 22 Rio Plaza Elementary 486 2 6 502 22

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Rio Real Elementary 452 2 6 469 17 Rio Del Valle Elementary 536 3 7 549 25

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Santa Paula Elementary

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Bedell Elementary 575 4 3 586 20 Blanchard Elementary 495 2 2 510 10 Glen City Elementary 503 3 7 518 23 McKevett Elementary 458 2 4 475 24 Thille Elementary 484 2 9 500 17 Webster Elementary 425 1 3 444 11 Isbell Middle 542 3 6 555 11 Santa Paula High 524 3 7 538 21

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Simi Valley Unified

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Atherwood Elementary 780 9 4 781 0 Berylwood Elementary 616 5 3 625 0 Big Springs Elementary 799 9 6 800 0 Crestview Elementary 670 7 2 677 0 Garden Grove Elementary 708 7 2 713 0 Hollow Hills Elementary 873 10 10 * 7 Justin Elementary 652 6 1 659 0 Katherine Elementary 730 8 3 734 8 Knolls Elementary 686 7 2 692 0 Lincoln Elementary 615 5 1 624 0 Madera Elementary 745 8 4 748 9 Mountain View Elementary 609 5 1 619 0 Park View Elementary 653 6 2 660 0 Santa Susana Elementary 672 7 5 678 0 Simi Elementary 796 9 7 797 0 Sycamore Elementary 667 6 1 674 0 Township Elementary 787 9 4 788 0 Vista Elementary 843 10 6 * 0 White Oak Elementary 758 8 3 760 0 Wood Ranch Elementary 811 9 5 * 3 Hillside Junior High 704 7 3 709 5 Sinaloa Junior High 709 8 4 714 3 Valley View Junior High 758 9 6 760 4 Royal High 670 7 4 677 0 Santa Susana High 706 8 6 711 5 Simi Valley High 751 9 7 753 0

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Somis Union Elementary

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Somis Elementary 614 5 3 623 5

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Ventura Unified

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School 1999 State Sim. 2000 Pct API Rank Rank Tgt Emrg Blanche Reynolds Elementary 644 6 2 652 11 Elmhurst Elementary 679 7 3 685 6 Foster Elementary 614 5 9 623 8 Juanamaria Elementary 674 7 7 680 7 Lincoln Elementary 648 6 5 656 8 Loma Vista Elementary 784 9 2 785 4 Montalvo Elementary 643 6 7 651 22 Mound Elementary 847 10 7 * 4 Oak View Elementary 681 7 5 687 4 Pierpont Elementary 749 8 2 752 7 Poinsettia Elementary 825 10 5 * 3 Portola Elementary 692 7 3 697 4 Saticoy Elementary 653 6 4 660 5 Serra Elementary 714 7 6 718 5 Sheridan Way Elementary 451 2 6 468 24 Will Rogers Elementary 588 5 8 599 12 Anacapa Middle 741 8 7 744 5 Balboa Middle 723 8 7 727 5 Cabrillo Middle 732 8 4 735 11 De Anza Middle 545 3 5 558 3 Buena High 676 7 4 682 4 Ventura High 651 7 4 658 15

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