DIP IN STUDENT SCORES EXPECTED IN NEW TESTS.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

The state Education Department will release a flood of standardized test results today, and Los Angeles Unified School District officials are predicting a drop in students' scores.

Los Angeles students had been making progress in the past few years on the Stanford 9 basic skills test, which was replaced in the spring by the California Achievement Tests. District officials warn that parents may be dismayed by the results.

``The test scores are not comparable,'' said Esther Wong, assistant superintendent of planning, assessment and research. ``In the past, whenever we change the test, the test scores do go down. We expect it will go down not only in this district but other districts as well.''

Along with the CAT 6 scores, the state Department of Education will release results of the California Standards Tests in math, English, science and social science, which are considered harder and more rigorous. In the past, only a quarter of LAUSD students scored high enough to be considered proficient or advanced in core subject areas.

Based on the test results, the state Education Department will publish a list of schools deemed educationally inadequate, based on the stringent criteria of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The vast majority of the schools in LAUSD and throughout California are expected to fall short of program goals.

Educators said some of the standards used to measure which schools have made adequate progress are unrealistic.

To avoid being tagged deficient, elementary and middle schools must have 13.6 percent of all their subgroups - including English-language learners and special education students - demonstrate proficiency in language arts and 16 percent in mathematics. At the high school level, schools must have 11.2 percent of their students meet benchmarks in language arts and 9.6 percent in math.

Also, all schools must have at least 95 percent of their students in all subgroups take the standardized tests.

The achievement benchmarks are starting low but they will be gradually raised, with the goal of having all students be proficient by 2014.

Stephen Lawler, principal of Portola Middle School in Tarzana, said requiring special education students to meet the achievement and participation targets is unreasonable. Many parents opt not to test their special education children.

By his calculation, middle school special education students in the LAUSD average a proficiency rate of 2.7 percent. Districtwide, only 73 percent of the special education students participated in standardized tests this year.

``Is any school ever going to reach 100 proficiency? No way,'' said Lawler. ``It's a great goal to have, but there has to be some realism mixed with our goals.''

Based on test results from 2002, Portola would be labeled as educationally inadequate because it missed targets for special education students, even though it exceeded all other benchmarks.

High-poverty schools that receive federal money will face a range of sanctions if they fail to make adequate progress two years in a row. They will be required to either allow their students to transfer to better schools or offer tutorial services. If they continue to fail year after year, the schools can be eventually taken over by the state.

Principal Gregory Vallone of Monroe High School in North Hills said being labeled underperforming is dispiriting, especially when his campus is one of few secondary schools making steady progress year after year.

``I've got 5,000-plus kids at my school. You are telling me if I've got a subgroup of 150 kids not meeting the target, you will label my school as underperforming,'' he said. ``You are doing a disservice to the teachers and students who are working so hard.''

Charles Weis, Ventura County superintendent of schools and chairman of a statewide panel on the implementation of the federal law, acknowledged that the benchmarks need refinement.

``No one disagrees with the fact that all kids should achieve. What we disagree with is the way we should measure that,'' he said.

Helen Gao, [phone]

helen.gao(at)dailynews.com

ON THE NET

The California Department of Education will release test scores on the California Achievement Tests, or CAT 6, as well as the California Standards Tests at 10 a.m. today on the Internet at star.cde.ca.gov. Also available on the Web site will be a list of schools considered educationally inadequate under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

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ON THE NET (see text)