FED GOAL HIT BY ALL BUT 1 SCHOOL IN VALLEY, ALL BUT FIVE MEET STATE TARGET.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Schools in the Santa Clarita Valley all met their federal academic benchmarks, except for one junior high that missed a target by only half a percent.

A separate test-score indicator, the state's Academic Performance Index, had showed that all but five schools in the area met their goals.

``I think, overall, this is one of our strongest years,'' said Vicki Engbrecht, director of curriculum and assessment for the William S. Hart Union High School District.

The only school in the Santa Clarita Valley that failed to meet all its federal benchmarks for adequate yearly progress was Placerita Junior High, where socioeconomically disadvantaged students missed the target in math by half a percent.

``Having almost every school in the district make their (adequate yearly progress) and having the district make AYP is incredibly positive and a testament to the incredibly hard work that our teachers and students are doing on a daily basis,'' Engbrecht said.

On the state's Academic Performance Index, big gainers in the Hart district included West Ranch High, which went from 748 points out of 1,000 to 833. State officials want all schools to eventually reach 800 or higher.

``There's a culture that exists at this school that says that learning is important,'' Principal Bob Vincent said. ``And our students took the testing seriously, and we are absolutely thrilled with the results.''

One of the reasons West Ranch posted such a big gain was that two years ago, the school had only ninth-graders, and since they were too young to take the high school exit exam, the school didn't benefit from those scores. Last year the school added 10th grade, so students did take the exit test.

Another high school that posted a big increase was Bowman, a continuation school that went from 494 on the index to 670.

Among districts serving children in kindergarten through eighth grade, the Castaic district increased its overall index score from 798 to 804, the Newhall Elementary district went from 850 to 866, the Saugus district stayed even at 855, and the Sulphur Springs district went from 805 to 818 on the state's index.

Under the federal indicator, a creation of the No Child Left Behind Act, at least 24.4 percent of students at elementary and middle schools must test as proficient in English, and 26.5 must as test proficient in math. For high schools, 22.3 percent must test as proficient in English and 20.9 percent in math.

The percentage of students expected to be proficient at each school rises annually until 2014, when all students must be proficient.

The Castaic Union School District met federal proficiency goals at each of its four schools, where populations of lower-performing English learners and special-education students are too small to be counted.

But districtwide, those populations are big enough to be counted. And because the district failed to meet proficiency targets for those groups, it automatically failed to meet the federal benchmark of having all subgroups perform at par,

``We showed improvement everywhere, but not enough to meet AYP for those two groups,'' said Superintendent Jim Gibson.

The Castaic district is entering the second year of being designated as a ``program improvement'' school, meaning it must roll out programs to help its roughly 200 English learners and 130 special-education students.

``This will be our major attack year, our major year of special programs to improve the instruction of those students,'' Gibson said.

At the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District, the overall district score increased from 738 to 746. But Agua Dulce Elementary saw its scores plummet 32 points to 733, and Vasquez High School didn't get a score because it didn't test enough students.

For not testing enough students -- a shortcoming that only 50 schools in the state were guilty of -- Vasquez High also failed to meet its AYP criteria. School district officials did not return calls for comment.

In the Santa Clarita Valley, the only schools that did not meet their state-index targets for improved scores were Canyon High, Valencia High, Castaic Middle School, Cedarcreek Elementary and Mint Canyon Elementary.

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

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