Lowest Scorers Predict Progress--and More Work

Much like Hester Prynne, condemned to wear a scarlet A, Broadous Elementary School in Los Angeles, Montebello High School, Del Valle Elementary School in La Puente and dozens of other Southland schools have been tagged.

According to the state’s new Academic Performance Index, they are the bottom of the barrel, the lowest of the low, with rankings of 1 on a scale of 1 to 10. They also scored at or near the bottom when measured against a group of 100 schools with similar ethnic and socioeconomic traits.

Having this information trotted out for all the public to see has been a disheartening experience, many educators confess.

“Of course, it’s demoralizing,” said Linda Heckenberg, assistant principal at Elizabeth Learning Center in Cudahy. “We need to work harder and try harder, but we are trying very hard.”

Still, many principals and superintendents acted remarkably upbeat Wednesday, saying that their students are making progress that is not yet reflected in the numbers.

On Tuesday, the day the California Department of Education released its first school accountability ratings, Broadous Elementary School in Pacoima passed its Coordinated Compliance Review with flying colors. The 200-point review assesses how wisely a school is using special state funds to further students’ educations. Broadous garnered a score of 93%.

“That was the only way I could look at the Los Angeles Times this morning and not be sad,” said Karen Glasgow, assistant principal, referring to the API listings for Los Angeles County.

Broadous students are improving, thanks in particular to a new reading program, she said. While only 6% of students read at grade level a year ago, 24% do now.

“That’s a lot of growth,” she said, “but when you look at the API you don’t see that. It’s just bleak.”

Staff members at other schools agreed, saying that they are plugging away at improving students’ performance on the Stanford 9 basic skills test, which serves for now as the sole component of the state’s index. Many said they are optimistic that they can attain the growth targets set by the state, even if they are at rock bottom now.

“I don’t want people feeling like they are in the cellar,” said Jeff Seymour, superintendent of El Monte City Elementary School District, which had three of 17 schools ranked in the lowest band statewide. “There was recognition starting two years ago of the need for progress, and we’ve been attacking it.”

Many teachers, he said, went through intensive summer training to learn how to address reading weaknesses in young children. When Seymour visits classrooms now, he said, he sees that teachers are better able to diagnose problems.

Come the next round of API scores this fall, he said, “I know they’re going to improve.”

Many schools noted that the index makes it tempting to teach test-taking skills. But Jeffrey Schwartz, principal of Montebello High School, said his staff is working hard to teach the state’s rigorous standards in hopes of boosting students’ basic skills.

Attendance and grades at his school have been steadily improving, he said. He views the school’s requirement of a 16-point gain--to an index score of 487--as tough but manageable.

“There’s a lot of work we need to do to bring our students up,” he said.

The rankings of similar schools provided a bright light for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which had a grim showing overall. Statewide, 44.5% of schools had a rating among similar schools that was higher than their statewide rank. In the Los Angeles district, 78% of schools fared better against peer schools.

But the Department of Education noted some problems with the reliability of the similar-school rankings. Pat McCabe, an administrator in the California Department of Education Office of Policy and Evaluation, said hundreds of schools provided inaccurate data and thus were ranked against schools with marked differences. In many cases, he said, schools provided erroneous counts on students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches, an indication of poverty, and parental education levels.

API scores and rankings for more than 6,700 schools are posted on the California Department of Education World Wide Web site (https://www.cde.ca.gov/psaa). The site continued Wednesday to be crippled by technical problems because of an unexpectedly high number of attempts to access it.

Parents seeking scores for three high-performing schools--the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies and Palisades Charter High School--were disappointed to find no listings. McCabe said those schools classify themselves as “alternative” schools and therefore were not included.

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Richard O’Reilly, Times director of computer analysis, and Sandra Poindexter, data analyst, contributed to this story.