Districts Rich and Poor Show Stanford 9 Gains

The 81 public school districts in Los Angeles County serve some of the nation’s most deprived children as well as some of the most privileged. Yet despite the diversity of circumstances, surprisingly uniform patterns emerge after four years of results from the state’s Stanford 9 testing program.

In reading, the youngest students are making the greatest gains. In math, progress is dramatic and virtually across the board. A few districts have sorted out middle school reading. But high school progress remains elusive.

Countywide, students remain below state and national averages in both subjects in every grade. But math scores went up this year in every grade tested except 11th (12th-graders are not tested); the same was true in reading.

Even with the gains, many school districts continue to perform poorly. Students in Lennox, Paramount, Pasadena and Compton have made only slight gains in the last four years. The Los Angeles Unified School District, which released its scores Tuesday, has made gains in most grades and subjects but also continues to lag.

By contrast, the districts serving the county’s wealthiest families--Palos Verdes, Beverly Hills, San Marino and La Canada--have scores that bear little resemblance to those of their less-well-off counterparts.

The differences are particularly stark on a set of test scores produced by the state for the first time this year. In addition to the Stanford 9 test, students this year took a test to see how they measure up against the state’s demanding standards for language arts.

On that test, 75% or more of the students in high-performing districts have reached proficiency. Meanwhile, in the lowest-performing districts, 90% or more of the students have failed to reach that level.

The Paramount Unified School District, just east of Compton, serves about 17,000 students, of whom more than 40% are not fluent in English and almost all are from low-income families. It is also a district that has trouble attracting qualified teachers.

There, around one in every 10 students in each grade this year could demonstrate proficiency in language arts.

By contrast, the La Canada Unified School District serves a community in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains where the average house sells for more than $500,000. There, 70% or more of the students are proficient in language arts.

With the release of its test scores, California is participating in what has become an annual ritual of American education. Detractors say the relentless focus on performance has degraded learning.

But whether they work in a million-dollar beach community or a hot and crowded inland enclave, local educators say the state’s prescriptive academic standards and high-profile testing program are forcing them to get serious about student achievement. And that seems to be reflected in an apparent willingness to abandon methods that aren’t working and to embrace those with promise.

“The good thing about the standards is that it ends the debate about what we ought to teach,” said Wendy Doty, who took over last month as superintendent of the El Segundo Unified School District. “Now we have to focus on teaching it.”

A relatively high-achieving district tucked between the San Diego Freeway and Santa Monica Bay, El Segundo saw gains in test scores that reflect such a focus. Although its students are well off and its test scores were strong four years ago, they have risen dramatically over the years, particularly in math. The percentage of students scoring above the national average on the Stanford 9 test has risen at least 14 points in every grade through high school since 1998.

Across the county to the east, in the 12,000-student Azusa Unified School District, two-thirds of the students are from low-income households and half are not native English speakers. But math scores there have been surging in recent years and about half the students in grades two through six are now above the national average.

Mary Delk, the district’s testing coordinator, said low test scores several years ago prompted a search for more successful methods. That led the district to buy a math program from Saxon Publishers that involves intense, scripted lessons that give students lots of practice.

“We’ve been very, very pleased with the results it’s given us,” she said. Students like it too. Last year, they wrote to state education officials to urge them to endorse Saxon for use in schools statewide.

Many teachers say they dislike the Saxon approach because it boils lessons down to a script and limits their creativity. But as evidence of its effectiveness has grown, so has its popularity.

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District serves an increasingly affluent community dominated by entertainment industry executives, lawyers and stockbrokers. It is consistently one of the highest performing in the state.

“Our biggest enemy is complacency,” said Kate Nelson, an assistant superintendent.

The district appears to be winning that battle. Over the last four years, the percentage of students scoring above the national average went up 19 points for second-graders and 12 points for third-graders. And part of the reason is that, like Azusa and other districts, Manhattan Beach began using Saxon.

“We had some resistance from teachers who said it stifled their creativity, but they really became converts when they saw how well it worked with kids,” Nelson said.

The district has adopted other strategies as well. Teachers in grades four through seven are learning how to get students ready for algebra earlier. The performance of every student is closely monitored with frequent diagnostic tests in reading and math. Students who start to fall behind get immediate help.

A focus on academics and improved teaching seems to be a common thread in the school districts across the county making the most dramatic gains.

Three years ago, Burbank Unified School District officials looked at test scores in math and reading and were not terribly proud of what they saw. That prompted them to examine their textbooks. They discovered that the lessons in those books bore very little resemblance to what the state expected students to learn.

The arithmetic concepts of mean, median and mode, for example, were being taught in middle school. But the state’s math standards said those topics ought to be taught in the fourth grade.

“We found the voids; we found the weak spots,” said Caroline Brumm, who is in charge of evaluating programs for the 15,000-student district.

Extra materials were purchased to fill in the holes, and teachers were trained in the standards. Then the school district wrote its own end-of-the-year math tests to keep everyone on track.

The results have been dramatic. The percentage of students scoring above the national average has risen between 12 and 25 points in every grade since 1998.

In reading, the Burbank district looked at test scores a few years back and found that although girls were doing fine, boys were lagging behind, particularly when reading nonfiction books. To address that shortcoming, the district purchased more books about sports, science and off-road car racing.

“We couldn’t just be doing ‘Little House on the Prairie’ anymore, even though it’s a powerful story,” said Brumm of the classic tale by Laura Ingalls Wilder of a young girl growing up on the frontier.

The district also hired reading coaches--a strategy that will debut this fall in L.A. Unified--and trained hundreds of teachers in intensive, after-school seminars.

“We never paid teachers to come to it, they never got salary credits for it but they came because it helped them become better teachers,” Brumm said.