NEARLY HALF OF TEENS LEARNING ENGLISH DO WELL 48% MEET OR EXCEED STATE STANDARDS YOUNGER KIDS LAG BEHIND.

Byline: CONNIE LLANOS 

Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Almost half the Santa Clarita Valley's teenage students who are learning the English language met or exceeded the state standard, according to test results released Thursday.

Elementary school students didn't fare as well, but still did better than the state average.

In the Hart Union High School District, 48 percent of the 1,470 English-language learners scored at the advanced or early advanced levels -- the top of a five-tier scale designed by the state to measure language proficiency -- in the California English Language Development Test.

Scores for children in the area's five local elementary school districts ranged from 22 percent in the Castaic Union School District to 39 percent in the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District.

The test looks at listening and speaking skills in kindergarteners and first graders, and listening, speaking, reading and writing skills for grades 2-12.

The CELDT was revised this year to include questions that test critical learning, including communication skills and analytical skills. State Schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell said the change was done to ensure that students were advancing at each level.

"This test is much more accurate, and reflective of what these students need to do to remain competitive," O'Connell said.

O'Connell mentioned that while the new test could not be measured against last year's to determine progress because of the different format, California's English-language learners have maintained steady improvement.

Statewide, the 1.3 million students tested averaged 32 percent proficiency. Still, the achievement gap between students learning English and their English-speaking peers continues to grow.

"I believe that the achievement gap is the single largest threat to California remaining the sixth- or seventh-largest economic engine in the world," he added.

"We need a well-educated, well-skilled work force to survive in the global economy. ... It's more than education, it's cultural and it's having high expectations of all our students."

The new test also toughened up the scoring rubric on the language proficiency test, a change that some schools said threw off their progress.

Lisa Blume, coordinator for the Castaic district's English-language-learner program, said many of her students would have scored at the proficient levels if they had taken the test last year.

"They changed the test to align more with the language standards, but a student who might have scored advanced or early advanced last year scored lower this year," Blume said.

Blume said 43 percent of her students landed in the level just below proficiency -- a trend found in most elementary districts in the valley.

Blume said the district has been pouring much of its resources into community-based English tutoring, programs designed to teach parents English and basic study skills while the students are given homework help.

But no ground is gained if students are given a multitude of resources and then leave school.

"The most frustrating thing is when you've been working with a student for a year and then they move away," said Ernie Jackson, director of special programs at Newhall Elementary.

"It's a lack of continuity for these students with mobility issues."

As Santa Clarita's most diverse school district, Newhall has at least 35 languages represented in its English-language-learner population.

"We have big challenges," Jackson said. "But we all accept this is the way it works."

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CELDT scores

District Percent proficient

Hart Union High School 48%

Acton Agua Dulce Unified 39%

Castaic Union 22%

Saugus Union 36%

Sulphur Springs Union 27%

Newhall School District 38%

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CELDT scores (see text)