Some schools test better; others slip

Michael Miller

Low-performing schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District

showed improvement on statewide tests for the second year in a row,

even while the district’s average dipped slightly from last year.

In the 2004 Academic Performance Index scores, released Tuesday,

two of the district’s three lowest-ranked schools, Rea Elementary and

Wilson Elementary, achieved higher base scores than they did in 2003.

In addition, nine other elementary and high schools lifted their

marks from a year ago.

The district’s overall Academic Performance Index score was 729,

down four points from last year and 71 below the state target score.

Administrators, however, were pleased with the improvements in

low-performing schools, which are largely less affluent and feature

greater populations of non-English-speaking students.

“We’re on our way to 800,” said Peggy Anatol, director of K-12

assessment. “We continue to want to improve that district Academic

Performance Index, and the way to do that is to improve student

performance at each school.”

The Academic Performance Index -- based on scores from California

Standards Tests, California Achievement Tests and California High

School Exit Examinations -- rates schools on a scale from 200 to

1,000 and also ranks them in percentiles from one to 10. In 2004,

eight Newport-Mesa elementary schools scored higher than 800, and

five of them ranked at 10, the top percentile.

Among elementary schools in the district, Pomona, Rea and Wilson

ranked in the lowest two percentiles. However, the latter two schools

made gains over last year’s scores, with Rea rising three points and

Wilson adding 28.

While many of the higher-ranking schools in the district lost

points or had little change from last year, public information

officer Jane Garland said the gains on the lower end were more

meaningful.

“The higher you get, the harder it is to get any kind of increase,

because you’re at the top,” Garland stated. “If you’re a

lower-scoring school, you have more wiggle room. For those schools at

the bottom, even 20 points is a big increase.”

Garland praised the poorer schools’ efforts to begin after-school

programs for students, including Project Success, a tutoring and

reading program cosponsored by Houghton Mifflin. Ten of the 11

elementary schools in Costa Mesa now feature the program, with Davis,

Paularino and Killybrooke joining the list this year.

Christine Anderson, the principal of Sonora Elementary, said

extracurricular programs were a key to her school’s 27-point gain

over last year.

“Basically, we have outstanding teachers,” Anderson commented.

“They all go above and beyond. They do a lot of interventions in

their classrooms, pulling kids aside, working with kids in recess and

lunch, anything that might help them do better. They give a lot of

their own time.”

Wilson principal Candy Sperling, whose school contains 80% English

learners, credited her gain to individualized instruction.

“You look at what you have and provide instruction that’s

appropriate for them,” Sperling said. “In our case, we provide what

we call universal access. We’re giving them grade level standards and

also the background knowledge they need to attain those standards.”

Newport-Mesa currently has five schools -- Wilson, Pomona and

Whittier Elementary School, TeWinkle Middle School and Estancia High

School -- listed as program improvement schools under the federal No

Child Left Behind Act. Estancia, which ranked in the third percentile

in 2003, did not receive an Academic Performance Index score this

year due to lack of students taking the tests.

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.