District defends results amid criticism

Adams Elementary School is a good school, district officials said Wednesday, and they don’t know how the group of parents calling themselves the Mesa Verde Education Committee can argue otherwise.

Newport Mesa Unified School District officials on Wednesday emphasized what they characterized as academic success at Adams after parents complained to school board members at their meeting Tuesday about various issues at Adams.

“I don’t have any data that tells me that Adams is not successful,” said Newport Mesa Unified School District spokeswoman Laura Boss. “I’m not sure what they’re measuring success on. The measurable success at Adams is there. I think that’s one of the things we need to explore with this group.”

Adams Elementary has increased by nearly 100 points to last year’s score of 760 since the state launched its Academic Performance Index in 1999. The state’s goal is to have schools score an 800 or above on a scale of 1,000. By federal standards, white students’ proficiency in English and math has grown significantly and Latino proficiency scores in both subjects at Adams have nearly doubled since 2002.

The group does not rely on California standardized test scores because the state changes how it measures success from year to year, according to the Academic Performance Index manual. Instead, they look to Adams’ annual ranking to similar schools in the state. On a scale of one to 10, Adams was ranked a nine in 1999 compared to similar schools statewide. In 2006, the latest rankings, Adams was ranked fifth.

“We’re trying to empirically look at the stats and not the people,” said Hope Morgan, whose family lives in Adams’ enrollment area but instead go to school out of the district. “What is the administration doing to increase scores, and why don’t they want the local kids to go there?”

Morgan and the parents’ group claim that the district encourages interdistrict transfers to Adams Elementary, most of whom she said are learning English as a second language. Failing is acceptable there, Morgan said.

“We’re catering to the immigrants, in a bad way. We have a moral obligation to educate everybody, but let’s raise the standards,” Morgan said. “In the next 10 to 15 years there’s going to be a shift [in demographics], and we need to get ready for that.”

“That’s absolutely inaccurate,” Boss said. According to district numbers, there are only 20 interdistrict transfers at Adams. State law prevents Newport-Mesa from accepting students from other school district because Newport-Mesa receives only modest state funding.

Parents point to Victoria Elementary School’s success as something Adams should model. Adams had 51 more students learning English as a second language tested last year, state records show.

Adams Principal Candy Cloud echoed Supt. Jeff Hubbard’s message Tuesday night to concerned parents: Come see the school before judging.

“What we have stated is that the door is always open,” Cloud said. “The ones that have made a choice to come here have been very happy here.”

Morgan said the district needs to “sell” the school to parents, and officials say parents need to enroll neighborhood kids to continue the school’s improvements.

“We don’t go out and recruit, we’re not a professional football team,” Cloud said, chuckling. “I don’t have the budget to wine and dine people. But we do have the budget to put out [annual] brochures and let people know the kinds of programs available at Adams. I would call that selling, wouldn’t you?”

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.