ENGLISH LEARNERS GAINING MOST TEST SCORES UP IN VENTURA COUNTY.

Byline: Krystn Shrieve  Staff Writer

VENTURA - While they still scored lower than the national average, the Ventura County students learning English as a second language scored better this year than last year on the Stanford 9 test.

State officials, who released districtwide and school-by-school scores earlier this summer, on Monday reported scores of smaller subgroups, including the reading, math and language scores in third, sixth and ninth grades for students with limited English proficiency.

``The good news is that results for our English learners, although lower than results for English-proficient students, increased in almost all subjects and grade levels,'' State Superintendent Delaine Easton said. ``As these gains show, our English-language learners are holding their own. Indeed, this is a positive sign. I commend the schools across the state for their efforts to ensure that all students become sufficiently skilled in English to achieve academic success.''

In the Conejo Unified School District, the math scores of English- learning ninth-graders fell from the 41st national percentile to the 31st, but there were gains in all other categories for the ninth-graders and in all categories for the students in lower grades. District officials did not return telephone calls for comment.

The students in the Simi Valley Unified School District improved in all categories at all grade levels except sixth grade, where reading scores remained in the 23rd percentile.

``Our readers didn't show great growth, but the fact that they . . . maintained or even grew a little is a good sign,'' said Becky Wetzel, the district's director of elementary education. ``It's difficult to see great gains there because first they have to understand the language, then speak it, then read it, which is a pretty sophisticated level.''

About 1,305 or 17 percent of students in Moorpark schools speak English as a second language and are limited in their proficiency in it. Their most dramatic gain in test scores came in math in third grade - a leap from the 22nd to the 44th percentile. In sixth grade, scores declined by 5 percentile points in reading and math and 10 in language. In ninth grade, scores dipped by 3 points in reading, 4 in math and 4 in language.

Marilyn Green, the district's coordinator of special projects, said once students test at or above the 35th percentile, they are no longer considered limited in English. Green would not comment specifically on the figures, but said students are making progress.

``We set goals and students not only met them, but in many cases exceeded them,'' Green said. ``To help them achieve those goals, we set up in-class and after-school programs and intensive summer school programs, and we looked at our curriculum to see how well it aligned with what was tested in the Stanford 9 test.''

Scores for the English-learning students in the Oak Park Unified School District were not broken out of overall scores.

``We don't have enough ESL students in any of our grade levels to have them counted separately,'' Superintendent Marilyn Lippiatt explained.

Stanford 9 results for ESL students

The state Department of Education released Stanford 9 Achievement Test scores for English language learners Monday. The following districtwide results are for students in third, sixth and ninth grades in reading, math and language. Scores are released as percentile rankings, a way of measuring performance against a national norm. A percentile rank of 50 is considered the national average. Check out cde.ca.gov for a complete listing of school scores since 1998.

District/Grade Reading Math Language

99 00 99 00 99 00

Conejo Valley Unified/3 19 24 28 37 22 29

Conejo Valley Unified/6 21 24 31 37 28 27

Conejo Valley Unified/9 11 15 31 41 21 32

Fillmore Unified/3 16 22 22 32 18 29

Fillmore Unified/6 20 20 22 29 27 26

Fillmore Unified/9 10 7 21 25 17 15

Las Virgenes/3 57 39 73 60 65 43

Las Virgenes/6 56 44 62 64 64 50

Las Virgenes/9 23 16 59 59 49 43

Moorpark Unified/3 10 19 22 44 17 28

Moorpark Unified/6 16 11 26 21 29 19

Moorpark Unified/9 15 12 26 3025 21

Ojai Unified/3 26 31 36 44 28 29

Ojai Unified/6 20 33 24 45 26 37

Pleasant Valley Elem./3 23 25 28 34 24 29

Pleasant Valley Elem./6 13 27 18 49 19 35

Santa Paula Elem./3! 14 18 25 34 19 24

Santa Paula Elem./6 13 21 18 41 19 22

Santa Paula Union/9 15 20 24 48 25 33

Simi Valley Unified/3 15 16 27 33 16 20

Simi Valley Unified/6 23 23 34 41 26 31

Simi Valley Unified/9 1214 31 33 26 30

Somis Union/3 N/A 38 N/A 43 N/A 38

Somis Union/6 23 N/A 32 N/A 22 N/A

CAPTION(S):

chart

Chart: Stanford 9 results for ESL students (see text)