State Test Scores Prove a Mixed Bag

Ventura County’s students have again, on average, outscored those across California on the Stanford 9 exam, while also surpassing their peers on more exacting tests based on rigorous English and language arts standards.

But, according to the results released Wednesday by the state Department of Education, about 60% of Ventura County’s students are not achieving proficiency in those English standards. Statewide, the figure is 70%.

“It doesn’t mean they can’t learn it, it just means we have more work to do,” said Ventura County Supt. of Schools Chuck Weis.

Most of the 105,269 public school students in Ventura County who took the standardized tests last spring exceeded the national average in reading and math on the Stanford 9.

As in past years, the largest performance gains were in the elementary and middle-school grades. Ventura County’s high school students, however, remained below the national average in reading for a fourth consecutive year.

Still, the local high schools scored above statewide averages. The county’s students also outperformed their peers statewide on an initial testing of fourth- and seventh-grade writing samples.

“Kids are achieving at higher levels than ever before, and though the whole state is getting better, we are getting better even faster,” Weis said.

The Stanford 9 tests students in grades two through eight in reading, spelling, math and language skills. In grades nine through 11, students are also tested in science, history and social science.

Scores are measured against those of a national pool of test-takers. The 50th percentile, which is generally considered “grade level,” is the national average. Statewide, 44% of students scored above the national average, compared with 38% four years ago.

The more-rigorous California Standards Test, however, aims to gauge student performance on state content standards in a variety of subjects. Although the test has been given for three years, this year--for English only--students were grouped according to language proficiency.

Within Ventura County, performance on both tests again varied drastically between districts in affluent areas and those in low-income areas struggling with large populations of English language learners.

The highest-performing districts, according to an analysis by Weis’ office, were Oak Park Unified in Oak Park, Conejo Valley Unified in Thousand Oaks and Pleasant Valley Elementary in Camarillo. Scores soared far above state and national averages in those districts--all in the affluent, white-collar east county.

By contrast, the lowest-performing districts were in Santa Paula, Oxnard, Fillmore and Port Hueneme, which are among Ventura County’s poorest communities. Santa Paula Union High School District was the county’s only district to see drops in Stanford 9 scores across grade levels in both reading and math.

The same trend has existed statewide since Stanford 9 testing began in 1998, said Delaine Eastin, state superintendent of public instruction.

Among the state’s fifth-graders classified as low-income, for example, more than 50% scored below the national average in reading. Among the subgroup considered not low-income students, 65% scored above the national average on the same test.

Superintendent Says New Strategies Needed

“The fact is, on average, our curriculum and our classrooms are designed for white, middle-class, English-speaking kids,” Weis said. “We need to discover and invent new teaching strategies that will help our poorest youngsters--who don’t speak English--to achieve. I know all of our schools are trying to invent that, but there’s no menu you can pick and choose from. This is the cutting-edge work of schooling.”

That ever-present disparity is also one reason why many have criticized the state’s accountability system being so reliant on standardized tests.

Ventura County educators, though, said they were encouraged to see improvement even in those districts with large minority and English-deficient populations.

In Fillmore, where more than one-third of pupils are learning English as a second language, students across grades posted a nine-point hike in math scores this year on the Stanford 9.

“Each year it gets better and better,” said Jane Kampbell, assistant superintendent in Fillmore. “Have we arrived? No, not yet. But I’m encouraged we’re definitely going to get there.”

In reading, the most impressive gains countywide were in the Hueneme Elementary School District, which went from 38% of students performing at grade level in 2000 to 42% at grade level this year. Elementary schools in Oxnard and El Rio also increased scores by two percentage points over the year.

“The gap appears to be closing here,” Weis said.

High-achieving districts, meanwhile, continued to show marked growth in all areas. But the percentage increases have slowed slightly since last year, which was the first time big gains meant sizable cash rewards from the statewide ranking of schools known as the Academic Performance Index.

“When you’re ratcheting it up one to two percentage points a year--and your scores are already high--you’re pretty much in the ozone there,” said Richard Simpson, Conejo Unified’s acting superintendent. “You’re not going to find dramatic pluses or minuses.”

In Oak Park, 76% of students are scoring above the national average in reading and 83% are doing the same in math, up two and three points from last year, respectively.

Camarillo Closes In on Conejo Valley District

A similar trend played out in Camarillo’s Pleasant Valley Elementary District, which is close to replacing Conejo as the second-best performing district in the county.

“We are very pleased,” said Barbara Wagner, an assistant superintendent there. “It’s been a total team effort.”

Though performance on the standards-based tests followed a similar pattern, results in some districts were particularly bleak. In Oxnard and Santa Paula, an average of 85% of students scored below levels considered proficient, which is the state’s goal for all students.

Among those learning English as a second language in Ventura County, as many as 97% performed below proficiency.

“We’ve got a long way to go on that,” said Oxnard School District Supt. Richard Duarte. “Our curriculum and materials are just now catching up to match the standards. But we are dedicated to continuous progress.”

Similarly dreary were the results of the first state writing test, which Eastin called “sobering” for California. About half of Ventura County’s seventh-graders received the lowest possible grade, and only 1% earned a perfect score.

“It’s clear that filling out a multiple-choice test doesn’t make you a better writer,” said Supt. Weis. “My guess is the emphasis on writing may not have been there as much as it will be in the future.”

Educators admit one reason results on the standards-based tests lagged behind was because the rewards and sanctions of the state’s accountability system are, for now, based entirely on the Stanford 9.

“Whether we like it or not, what gets measured is what gets done,” Eastin said.

In Simi Valley this year, teachers at two high schools were found to be inappropriately preparing for the test by using past exams to drill kids. Officials there said the error didn’t affect scores, but the schools won’t get any cash awards this year because of the technical violation.

In all the jumble of numbers released Wednesday, there were a few notable success stories.

One of them was Newbury Park’s Manzanita Elementary School, which failed to meet state improvement goals last year and was labeled as the only “underperforming school” in the high-achieving Conejo Valley district.

The K-5 school, which has about 52% English-language learners, saw scores go up by about 10 percentage points in English and 20 points in math--the most of any school in the district--after a yearlong effort led by Principal Beverly Eidmann.

“It helped me in terms of validating how I felt all year,” she said. “While there are great things happening behind these walls, the test scores don’t always show that.”

MORE INSIDE

Test scores: Listing of results from Ventura County’s fourth, eighth and 10th grades. B4-5

FYI

Stanford 9 results can be found on the California Department of Education Web site at https://star.cde.ca.gov/. The site contains all four years of scores for schools, districts, counties and the state.