TEST TELLS TALE OF 2 SCHOOLS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

Unlike other schools situated in tony neighborhoods or wealthy enclaves that scored high in state school rankings, Irving L. Branch Elementary School is a middle-class campus on a remote desert Air Force base.

A second- and third-grade school with 325 students in the main housing section of Edwards Air Force Base, the Branch campus is the Antelope Valley's top-ranked school, according to state's Academic Performance Index, or API.

``We are just an average economic school, not wealthy or extremely poor. All our parents work,'' said Principal Joyce Ambre. ``We are just lucky because our community is dedicated to schools. So are the staff and teachers, and we continue to look for ways to improve our schools.''

By contrast, Linda Verde Elementary School in east Lancaster, which scored the lowest among Antelope Valley public schools, shares characteristics found at other schools that performed poorly.

The 930-student, kindergarten-through-fifth-grade school has a 40 percent mobility rate - meaning 40 percent of its students change schools before the year is out - and a high number are not fluent in English and qualify for subsidized school meals.

Twenty-five percent of Linda Verde's students speak limited English, the highest percentage in the Lancaster School District. School officials say that was a factor in the school's API score, which is based on a school's composite standardized test scores.

These same students perform much better when they take a similar standardized test in Spanish, school officials said.

``These kids are being forced to take the test in English. A lot of them don't understand the test,'' Principal Raul Maldonado said. ``I personally think it's unfair.''

The API ranked schools on a single score between 200 and 1,000. The median score for all California schools this year was 630. Branch's score was 768, while Linda Verde's was 435.

Schools also were ranked in comparison to other schools around the state. A school that received a rank of 9, for example, scored equal with or above 90 percent of all California schools for the same grade level. Conversely, a rank of 1 means a school scored in the bottom 10 percent of schools in the state.

Branch and the other elementary school on Edwards, Forbes Avenue Elementary School, were the only two Antelope Valley schools to score a 9. Linda Verde scored a 1, one of three Antelope Valley schools to do so. Three other schools scored a 2.

When compared to schools of similar characteristics, such as wealth or poverty of its students, the amount of education their parents have, and the percentage of its teachers who are fully credentialed, Branch scored in the top 10 percent, while Linda Verde scored in the bottom 10 percent.

Demographic profiles of the two schools released last week along with the API rankings show some similarities between the two schools. Average class sizes are 18 at each school in grades kindergarten through third grade. That number, however, jumps to 32 at Linda Verde in grades 4 through 6.

Statistics indicate differences in the schools' ethnic and racial makeup, the number of students who are learning English, teachers who are fully credentialed, and pupils who are poor enough to qualify for government subsidized lunches.

Branch's student population is 66 percent white, 19 percent African-American, and 9 percent Latino, while Linda Verde's is 48 percent Latino, 23 percent African-American, and 27 percent white. Twenty-five percent of Linda Verde's students are English language learners, compared to Branch's 1 percent.

Eighty-five percent of Linda Verde's students are in the free and reduced-price lunch program. Three of 10 students at Branch participate in that program.

Ninety-five percent of the teachers are fully credentialed at the Branch school, which is on a traditional nine-month schedule, compared to 78 percent at Linda Verde, which is on a year-round calendar.

Ambre said there was no one factor that can be singled out as key to Branch's academic success. The school places a strong emphasis on reading and has incentives for student improvement. School officials say parents are active in school as volunteers and helpers, and base personnel are strong supporters.

``If you can read, you can do just about anything. Our responsibility at the primary level is teaching children to learn how to read. When they get to the upper grades, they are reading to learn,'' Ambre said. ``I think you can do just about anything if you read.''

Branch has an accelerated reading program, where students earn points for reading books and passing tests taken on computer. Students can then use those points to buy things like magnets, pencils and little balls.

Students who accumulate a certain amount of points meet with Ambre once a month to do an activity, such as read a book or play games like Trivial Pursuit in which Ambre makes up the questions.

The school has family reading night two to three times a year, and a homework policy agreed to by parents and students that students will read for 20 minutes a day at home.

The school has after-school reading clubs, a buddy system where upper grade-level students pair up and help students who are having difficulty reading, and a reading program for gifted students, who read and discuss books and put out a quarterly two-page newspaper.

The majority of the children are from military families. Between 40 and 45 students whose parents work on base have transferred into the district from Lancaster, California City and Rosamond, Ambre said.

Ambre said military parents stress the importance of education.

``They are supportive of schools. It's a nice community that way. Every policy and any incentive, they are right there to help us,'' said Ambre, who has been an educator for 21 years and principal for five at Branch.

The school is named after a former commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center who died in January 1966 when his plane crashed near Seattle, Wash.

The officers' wives club donates money to buy the accelerated reading program goodies. The student of the month from each class gets an award from the 445th FLTS Logistics Squadron and a chance to sit in a squadron airplane.

The PTA has a ``spirit tree'' decorated with the names and pictures of students, recognizing their outstanding citizenship for their acts of friendliness, kindness and good manners.

``We have everything we can think of to motivate them,'' Ambre said. ``Incentives, encouragement and real commitment is the answer.''

In addition to dealing with a high student mobility rate and more bilingual students, Linda Verde has had to grapple with a burgeoning student population.

In the last two years, enrollment has grown by 300 students because of redrawn district attendance boundaries, said Maldonado, who has been principal at Linda Verde for four years and an educator for 15 years.

``When you add 300 kids to a campus, it's going to make a big difference,'' Maldonado said.

Despite the school's poor showing this year, Maldonado is confident Linda Verde's ranking will improve to the level desired by the state. The school has involved parents, a bilingual advisory council, and a strong team of teachers and staff, he said.

``We've got some great programs at our school. The targeted growth is something we're confident we are going to achieve,'' Maldonado said. ``I've got a wonderful staff, and we will make a huge impact in bringing up the score.''

Students are using materials to help them prepare for the next round of standardized testing, and the school has implemented programs to improve student performance.

Those include an accelerated reading program begun this year in which children have read a combined 5,000 books. The school also is in the second year of a three-year early intervention literacy program through which teachers get extra training.