Elementary Schools Post Lower Scores

After several years of marked gains, most public elementary schools in California posted lower scores or showed no improvement this year on standardized English and math tests, according to data released Monday.

State officials tried to make the best of the disappointing results, pointing out that scores remained significantly higher than they did at the beginning of the current testing program four years ago.

But fewer than half of the state’s elementary schools showed any increases this year, compared with the nearly 90% that improved last year, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis that combined English and math scores.

Middle schools showed little change this year on the tests that are tied to the state’s academic content standards. High schools continued to struggle; only one-quarter did better this year, significantly worse than the previous year.

The slowdown put a dent in the state’s efforts to meet new demands under the federal No Child Left Behind education law. It requires all students to be proficient in English and math within a decade.

Even after the increases of the last several years, far less than half of California students are proficient in English-language arts or math. For example, just 30% of third-graders were proficient in English, down three points from last year. And only 35% of sixth-graders were proficient in math, up one point from last year.

“This is not where we want to be. This is not where we hoped we would be,” said Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of public instruction. “These scores should be viewed as a wake-up call for us all.”

Educators cited several factors to explain the lackluster performance, including budget cuts that have eroded teacher training programs and increases in the numbers of students who are still learning English.

Experts also said the results followed a familiar pattern found in other testing programs across the country: Scores begin to trail off about three years after new exams are introduced as schools’ initial focus and enthusiasm begin to fade.

“The first year or two it was brand new. People were really trying to make it work,” said Eva Baker, co-director of UCLA’s Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing. “Now the motivation is at a different place. No matter how hard we work, we’re getting incremental” change.

Nearly 4.8 million students in grades two through 11 took the standards tests last spring in English, math, history and science. Individual student scores are being sent home; district and school scores are available on the Times website, https://www.latimes.com/schoolscores. The state’s goal was for students to reach at least the “proficient” level in each subject.

Forty-five percent of the state’s elementary schools had a decline in the percentage of proficient students this year, 10% had no change, and the remainder showed an increase, according to The Times’ analysis.

On average, the state’s elementary schools showed only slight gains this year in the percentage of students at the proficient or advanced levels on the English and math tests combined.

Steven Keller, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the Laguna Beach Unified School District, said administrators and teachers were surprised at the drop in scores in English for elementary school students. The districts’ elementary scores fell from 70% of students testing proficient or advanced in English last year to 63% this year. The math scores increased from 70% to 71%.

The district began a new math program that officials say led to a significant increase in 2003.

But when they revamped the district’s English program, officials were surprised to see the scores drop in grades 2 through 4. He said, however, that fifth-graders increased their scores.

“When we implemented the new English program, we were meticulous, comprehensive, thorough,” Keller said. “In many respects we thought we were more engaged than with the math program.”

Keller said that he met with principals Monday to discuss the data. But the real work won’t take place until teachers return in two weeks to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the program. He also said the district will break down the test to determine in which sections students fell down, whether it was word analysis and vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing strategies or literary response and analysis.

Montebello Park Elementary, a year-round school where more than two-thirds of the 422 students are still learning English, struggled to keep its scores up. Overall, the percentage of students proficient in English and math at the East Los Angeles campus dropped by one point from last year, to 22%.

Principal Maria Nunez said it’s tough to consistently raise the scores of English learners at a school where the stop-and-start, year-round calendar gives teachers little chance to communicate.

“It’s always disappointing when there’s a slight dip, but you look and say, ‘Now I know what work needs to go on,’ ” Nunez said.

In math, L.A. Unified’s elementary grades improved generally but at a slower rate than the year before. Scores dropped precipitously in eighth-grade algebra, and high school students taking algebra and geometry also lost ground.

Los Angeles Schools Supt. Roy Romer touted the math improvement in the lower grades but acknowledged the slower pace of overall improvement.

“We have our work cut out for us, but we have made tremendous gains,” Romer said. “We should feel good that we’re on the right track. We have a course of action ... we need to stay with it. We need to do better.”

The Murrieta Valley Unified School District in Riverside County experienced a large dip in math scores. School district officials attributed the results to a new state policy that requires algebra to be taught in the eighth grade. As a result, more students are taking algebra.

“You have more kids taking a class and a test that may be a bit more difficult than what they are ready for,” said Guy Romero, the district’s director of assessment.

Statewide, the test scores revealed a great deal of variation in how different grade levels performed.

Although second, third and fourth grades showed little or no gains in English-language arts, for example, fifth-graders turned in a nice performance.

Forty percent of fifth-graders statewide were proficient this year in English, an increase of four percentage points over last year and a jump of 12 points over the last four years.

Educators were at a loss to explain the robust fifth-grade results, saying they expected the second and third grades to do better because of smaller class sizes and easier material to master.

“It’s counterintuitive,” said Mike Kirst, a Stanford education professor. “That’s really where reading gets more complex.”

The state results also underscored a long-standing concern over high schools, where test performance has remained flat since the state began giving exams.

This year was no exception. The percentage of students who were proficient in algebra and geometry declined this year. State officials said more students took the tests, including eighth-graders.

The data released Monday by the California Department of Education offered further glimpses into educational achievement:

* There was virtually no change in the percentage of the “far-below-basic” category of students in English-language arts except in middle schools. In math, schools were somewhat successful in raising students out of the lowest category, with most of that occurring in elementary schools. Statewide, 13% of students were in the far-below-basic category in English-language arts, and 9% in math.

* Students this spring also took the California Achievement Tests/Sixth Edition, also known as the CAT/6. State officials say the test, which compares California students against a national sample in reading, language, math, spelling and science, is a less reliable gauge of student achievement.

Elementary schools showed slight gains while middle schools had little or no increases in the percentages of students reaching the national median -- the 50th percentile -- in reading. High schools declined overall. In math, there was modest improvement at all grade levels.

* Tenth-graders also took the state’s high school exit exam of English and math, a graduation requirement for the class of 2006. Seventy-five percent of the 10th-graders passed the English portion and 74% passed the math.

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Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Erika Hayasaki, Cynthia Daniels, Jeff Gottlieb, Sandra Murillo and data analyst Sandra Poindexter.

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Test scores

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Statewide results of the English-language arts exam, showing the percent of students in three grades who scored:

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Proficient or advanced

4th: 40%

8th: 33%

10th: 35%

Below or far below basic

4th: 27%

8th: 31%

10th: 35%

Source: California Department of Education