Fewer Schools Meet Goals

Far fewer Ventura County schools met academic goals this year than in 2003, but the performance of local schools still outstripped that of campuses statewide, according to results released Thursday.

“It’s a step backward in that not as many schools met their growth targets,” said county schools Supt. Charles Weis. “But we’re still doing better than the state. And we’ve identified the students we need to work harder with.”

Sixty percent of the 150 county schools that reported results from spring tests met or exceeded state goals. That compares with 48% of schools statewide, but far short of the 84% of local schools that improved enough to meet state targets last year.

Of elementary schools in the county, 58% met state improvement goals, compared with 88% last year. About 59% of middle schools met goals, down from 81%, and 74% of high schools improved enough to meet state standards, compared with 82% last year.

Twenty-seven schools in five districts--Fillmore, Moorpark, Oak Park, Rio and Santa Paula Elementary--received no scores because of data processing errors.

Ventura County results reflected distressing statewide trends, officials said.

“Frankly, this is unacceptable and I know, and educators around the state know, that we can do better,” said Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of public instruction.

The leveling off in the state’s Academic Performance Index was no surprise after mixed results were reported in August on the California standards tests that make up the largest part of the index.

This year, scores were up at 62% of the state’s roughly 7,200 schools, compared with 90% last year. In Ventura County, scores were up in 75% of the districts.

But the index growth report accentuates the flagging performance because schools can fail to meet their assigned goal even if their scores rise.

The index, which grades schools on a scale of 200 to 1,000, is a single measure of each school’s performance.

Besides rating the school as a whole, the state calculates an API for 10 subgroups at each school, including race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Every subgroup receives its own target, and every group must reach the target for the school to pass.

Though disappointing, the results should have been expected, Weis said.

“With any testing system, you see a lot of growth at first, but then you begin to reach a plateau,” he said. “And that’s when the real work starts.”

Schools with poorer students and large numbers of Latino youngsters -- especially those who speak limited English -- tended to improve less than hoped, Weis said.

“We’re not serving those students well,” he said. “We need to look at schools that are serving them well, and adopt their strategies.”

He pointed to Portola Elementary in Ventura as a model. About 42% of its students tested are categorized as socioeconomic disadvantaged and 36% are Latino, Weis said. Yet, each subgroup scored higher than 800.

“What they’ve done is implement the state program; they’re teaching the standards,” he said.

The same is true at Foothill Technology High in Ventura, a magnet school whose students are chosen in a lottery. One of every five students is Latino, a group that averaged 817 on the API, Weis said.

Indeed, Foothill posted the greatest growth of all local high schools, 48 points. Ocean View Junior High in the Ocean View District had the most growth among middle schools, 48 points, and Will Rogers Elementary in Ventura improved 65 points.

Among the schools with fewer than 100 students tested, Simi Valley’s Monte Vista, an independent study campus, showed the most growth, 109 points.

The schools with the highest API scores, regardless of improvement, were Mound Elementary in Ventura, 945, and Lang Ranch Elementary in Thousand Oaks, 923; Colina and Redwood middle schools in Thousand Oaks, both 872; and Foothill High, 864.