CALIFORNIA ASSESSMENT PROGRAM SCORES : HOW TO READ THE SCORES

Here are California Assessment Program writing scores earned by eighth-graders in some Los Angeles County public schools last spring.

The previous year’s scores are also provided for comparison purposes, although CAP officials warn against reading too much into one-year variations.

The scaled score is a combination of results on each of the various types of writing tasks assigned. The average score in the state was 259, up four points over last year’s score, while the average for students in Los Angeles County was 236, representing a six-point rise.

Relative rank is a way to compare a district or a school with another that is similar in terms of student socioeconomic makeup and students’ ability to speak, read and write English fluently, as well as how often those students move from school to school. The value listed is the school’s percentile rank within its comparison group.

State rank shows the school or district’s ranking (on a score of 1 to 99), comparing its scores to those of every other school or district in California.

Other scores will be appearing in appropriate regional and suburban editions of The Times.

Sample Essay Question

This is a sample of one of the eight different types of essay questions that make up the California Assessment Program’s writing test for eighth-graders.

Each student is assigned one type of writing task, and the grades on all work done by students at a given school are combined to give the school a single “scaled score.”

All essays must be completed within 45 minutes, and they are graded for thinking and writing process skills as well as for such mechanics of writing as spelling and grammar.

Writing Situation:

Your English class is putting together a project about incidents that individual class members have experienced at school. Think of a memorable incident that you would like to include in this class collection. It might be an incident that made you feel a sense of belonging at the school, a funny situation, an embarrassing one or any incident that is memorable to you.

Directions for Writing:

Write about an incident that you have experienced at school. Things to consider include what was involved, what the people and surroundings looked like, what exactly happened and how you felt about the incident. Try to make your readers, your classmates and your teacher understand why this particular event is memorable.

Glendale Unified DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 258 59 49 88-89 269 78 63

ROOSEVELT

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 215 53 17 88-89 211 49 17

ROSEMONT

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 295 75 77 88-89 292 64 80

TOLL

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 259 53 50 88-89 270 83 64

WILSON

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 247 46 41 88-89 287 91 76

La Canada Unified DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 381 97 99 88-89 363 91 98

LA CANADA HIGH

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 381 97 99 88-89 363 91 98

Los Angeles Unified

DISTRICT AVERAGE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 208 30 15 88-89 202 21 16

ARROYO SECO

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 245 37 38 88-89 222 11 23

BURBANK

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 237 79 33 88-89 209 37 16

EAGLE ROCK JR.-SR.

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 236 13 32 88-89 243 17 41

IRVING

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 205 34 12 88-89 204 34 15

KING

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 222 55 21 88-89 211 45 17

NIGHTINGALE

Scaled Relative State Year Score Rank Rank 89-90 177 16 4 88-89 175 15 5