ELEMENTARY SCORES SHOW LITTLE CHANGE.

Byline: Jennifer Radcliffe Staff Writer

After years of strong gains for the LAUSD, standardized test scores released Monday show that academic progress among the district's elementary school students has leveled off.

In a mixed batch of results from the California Standards Tests, the Los Angeles Unified School District's youngest students slipped in their language arts scores and made just slight improvements in math. Middle school scores, however, showed stronger gains.

``We have no reason to be jubilant today,'' LAUSD school board member Jon Lauritzen said.

The tests, which are the backbone of California's accountability system, measure whether students are learning the prescribed curriculum in English, math, social studies and science.

The LAUSD's results mirrored a statewide trend toward slower to flat progress. State leaders attributed the results to the more than $9 billion that has been cut from the state's education system in three years.

``These scores have to be a wake-up call for all of us,'' Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said. ``After five years of steady improvement and after five years of clearly climbing that education mountain, we have reached a plateau. It was flat for this year.''

For scores to continue to improve, education funding needs to be increased, teachers need to redouble their efforts and parents need to take an active role in public education, he said.

LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer said the results aren't all bad news. Sixth-graders made big gains - with the number of students testing as proficient or above increasing four percentage points in English and five percentage points in math.

Elementary math scores in other grades also made slight gains, but second-, third- and fourth-graders saw their much-touted English scores slip slightly.

``We've made some real gains here, but we still have work to do,'' Romer said.

In 2001, only 29 percent of LAUSD fourth-graders scored at proficient or above in math. This year, 40 percent reached that state goal. Language arts scores for fourth-graders increased from 19 percent to 27 percent over the same period.

At Portola Middle School in Tarzana, the number of sixth-graders who scored as proficient or advanced increased 7 percentage points in English and 9 percentage points in math.

Fifth-graders performed dismally on a new science test that debuted this year. Only 14 percent of LAUSD students scored as proficient or above, compared with 24 percent statewide.

In neighboring Ventura County, nearly half the students scored as proficient or above in math and English language tests. Second- and third-graders outperformed all other grades in math, while fifth-graders took the lead in English, followed closely by fourth- and ninth-graders.

Jennifer Radcliffe, [phone]

jennifer.radcliffe(at)dailynews.com