SAT scores change little in Newport-Mesa

Deirdre Newman

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District continues to outperform

both the state and the country on the college-entrance SAT test,

according to figures released Tuesday.

Although the district average scores are down slightly from last

year, they are still higher than averages for the rest of California

and the U.S.

Forty-eight percent of district seniors took the test last year,

with an average score of 534 for verbal and 557 for math. Those

numbers were about the same as the scores from two years ago, when

district students scored 528 on the verbal and 560 on the math

portions of the test. The statewide average was 496 for verbal and

517 for math, and the national average tallied in at 504 for verbal

and 516 for math.

The highest scores were at Corona del Mar High School, where

students notched a 558 on the verbal and 586 on the math parts of the

test. Two years ago, Corona del Mar students scored 549 for verbal

and 582 for math.

Newport Harbor High followed with a 538 verbal, 556 math score.

That compared with scores of 541 and 563, respectively, in 2000.

Costa Mesa High students scored 512 on the verbal and 540 on the

math part of the test. Two years earlier, they scored 530 and 542,

respectively.

Finally, Estancia High had scores of 451 for verbal and 461 for

math. In 2000, students there scored 515 and 543, respectively.

The percentage of Corona del Mar seniors taking the test was the

highest at 85%. Estancia High School had the lowest with 21%.

Statewide, about 52% of graduating students took the exam.

Nationwide, 46% sat through the grueling test.

Peggy Anatol, the district’s director of assessment, said

Newport-Mesa Unified would continue to encourage more students to

take the test.

“That’s something we work on all the time,” Anatol said. “We need

to make sure the students understand all of the requirements and the

timelines.”

While the district does not have the number of test-takers and

scores broken down by ethnicity, the proportion of minority students

taking the test nationally hit an all-time high of 35%.

Anatol said programs such as AVID -- Advancement Via Individual

Determination -- at many of the district’s high schools and middle

schools have helped to increase the number of students who pursue

admission to four-year universities. And as more seniors elect to go

to four-year colleges, more students will follow suit, Anatol

projected.

The district might also consider reviving an SAT preparation

course that was taught by UC Irvine staff at Costa Mesa and Estancia

high schools in the past, Anatol said.

Trustee Martha Fluor said she was not concerned by the low

percentage of SAT-takers at some district schools, saying many

seniors opt to get their associate’s degrees at Orange Coast College

before making the leap to four-year universities.

“With the rising cost of colleges, you see a lot of students doing

that, and a lot of parents, myself included, encourage their children

to go to OCC to get their lower division courses taken care of before

they go on,” Fluor said.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.