Seniors in L.A. District’s High Schools Show Modest Skill Test Gains

High school seniors in the Los Angeles Unified School District made modest gains in reading, writing, spelling and mathematics this year but still performed lower than the statewide average, according to results of a standardized state test of basic skills released by the district Tuesday.

The district’s 12th-graders, who took the California Assessment Program test in December, scored an average of 63.9 in mathematics, up 1.4 from last year. Reading scores rose an average of 1.1 to 57.8, and writing went up 1.0 to 58.5. The smallest increase was in spelling, which rose 0.6 to 67.4.

Over the last three years, the district’s high school scores have shown steady improvement in all areas except reading, which dipped slightly last year, district officials said.

The good news included 12 of the lowest-scoring high schools in the district, which made significant gains.

Floraline Stevens, who oversees testing for the district, said she was heartened by the continued trend of improvement, which she attributed to greater efforts by high school staffs to prepare students for the test. The state Department of Education’s emphasis on raising the level of achievement in high schools was also a factor in the overall improvement, she added.

The district’s scores, which were an average of five points below the statewide averages, tend to be low because of the diverse educational backgrounds of the district’s students, Stevens said. About one-third of this year’s senior class, for instance, are not native English speakers.

CAP SCORES Comparative average California Achievement Program test scores among 12th graders:

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Reading Writing Spelling Math 84-85 62.9 63.2 69.7 68.3 85-86 62.7 63.4 70.1 68.7 86-87 63.6 64.1 70.6 70.0

LOS ANGELES UNIFIED

Reading Writing Spelling Math 84-85 57.3 57.4 66.7 62.3 85-86 56.7 57.5 66.8 67.4 86-87 57.8 58.5 67.4 63.9