Modest Gains and Some Declines in O.C.’s Scores

Unlike last year’s Stanford 9 results, in which schools touted consistent and dramatic improvement, the latest scores reveal a year of modest gains--and in some cases puzzling slips--on Orange County campuses.

Most county schools posted small improvements on the Stanford 9 test and bested state averages. More than 60% of Orange County elementary and middle school students scored at or above the national average in multiple choice tests of language and mathematics, several points higher than the state overall. More than half of local schools also hit or exceeded the national average in reading tests.

But the test results, made public Wednesday, also showed a disheartening drop at Lambert Elementary School in the Tustin Unified School District, which last year showed one of the greatest gains in the county and received laudatory attention for its Saturday classes, teacher brainstorming sessions and focus on reading.

The school’s principal, Karla Wells, who last year touted her innovative programs, this year said she had not had time to review the results and didn’t comment.

Tustin Unified officials, though, said they had expected a drop-off.

“When you put so much effort into raising scores in one year, you kind of expect a backslide the next year,” said Richard Blough, the district’s director of instructional support programs. “But am I concerned? You bet. . . . It happened. Now we need to fix it.”

Lambert had always faced the challenge of educating students besieged by poverty and lacking fluency in English. But one of the wealthiest schools in the county--Corona del Mar High--also saw a drop this year.

Educators at Newport-Mesa Unified School District were scratching their heads over the spotty results, with some of its academic powerhouses such as Corona del Mar High and Andersen Elementary showing small declines while other campuses with poorer, immigrant students achieved big boosts.

Perhaps, they said, it was the district’s focus during the last year on getting those lower scores up.

“When I first started putting my numbers down, I was like ‘Oh, my goodness,’ ” said Peggy Anatol, the district’s head of testing and assessment. “We have to look at what’s happening at the high-performing schools. We’ve been putting a lot of our efforts into the low-performing ones.”

Nevertheless, district officials said they are pleased with the results overall. Newport Beach students still performed better than most students across the state, and Costa Mesa campuses achieved gains beyond officials’ expectations.

“We are celebrating our successes,” Anatol said.

Such ups and downs are typical in the world of standardized testing, said a specialist on the topic.

Jerry Hayward, co-director of Policy Analysis for California Education, a UC Berkeley-Stanford University think tank, said that in most classrooms, dramatic improvements would have been next to impossible after last year’s huge boosts.

“Huge gains are not sustainable,” he said. “It would be very unusual for a district that showed tremendous growth in year one to have the same kind of growth in year two. It’s virtually impossible.” The important thing is to look at growth over time, Hayward said.

The Stanford 9 has become a cornerstone of efforts to reform education in California. The stakes of the tests are high; they are used to create statewide rankings that make some schools eligible for monetary awards while those that perform badly could face sanctions.

Last year across the county and the state, school officials crowed over massive and unexpected gains. Many districts posted increases of 10 percentage points and more. Scores were so high, state officials were forced to revise their bonus programs because so many schools qualified.

This year, however, educators said they were content with incremental gains. Even middle and high school students, who have stumped researchers for years by posting precarious dips once they leave sixth grade, improved their scores.

“It’s validation for us that our children are learning,” said Suzi Brown, spokeswoman for the Anaheim City School District.

The district, which has the second lowest scores in the county, has improved for three consecutive years, finally reaching national norms in math and language for its sixth-graders.

Brown said that is no small feat for a district where 62% of students do not speak English fluently and classes are forced to share rooms because of overcrowding. “We are proud of our steady progress,” Brown said.

As in years past, high school students in the county scored somewhat lower, but still performed better than their counterparts statewide.

Once again, Irvine Unified turned in the county’s highest scores, with 80% of students scoring at or above the national average. Santa Ana, with only 29% of students scoring at or above the national average, posted the lowest. Both districts, however, trumpeted their improvement over last year.

In Santa Ana, school board members were moved nearly to tears when they learned Tuesday night that the district’s students, two thirds of whom are not fluent in English when they enroll in school, have posted gains over four years.

“We’re excited that we’re seeing consistent and sustainable gains,” said Supt. Al Mijares. “But we’re nowhere near close to saying we’ve arrived.”

But given the district’s overall low scores, officials have unveiled a host of programs--from Saturday classes to teaching coaches--to boost student performance. The district also has reassigned the principals of two low-performing schools.

“What you really want to see are incremental gains,” said Linda Kaminski, Santa Ana’s chief academic officer. “Everyone likes to see the big win, but you can’t keep that up. What concerns me is that we as a district keep the focus.”

Educators plan to analyze the scores and revamp lesson plans to address students’ weaknesses.

“We’re on the right track, but we can’t let up,” said Carol Holmes Riley, superintendent of the tiny Buena Park School District where many schools last year posted huge gains. This year, scores did not go up as much, but neither did they slip, she said.

In Capistrano and Saddleback Valley unified districts, which traditionally score well above state averages, administrators said they were heartened by the continued success.

“We sort of expect this of ourselves,” said Tony Ignoffo, assistant superintendent of instruction services at Saddleback. “We spent a great deal of time aligning our curriculum to the state standards and the test results are a natural outcome of that.”