Test Scores

COSTA MESA ? When the Newport-Mesa Unified School District held a meeting to ask the public what to change at TeWinkle Middle School, the answer was, for the most part, not much. TeWinkle was the last Newport-Mesa district school this month to hold a public hearing after being placed on a federal list for corrective action. Three schools in the district ? TeWinkle, and Pomona and Wilson elementary schools ? are on year three of the No Child Left Behind Act's Program Improvement list, meaning that they must make changes in the next year or risk sanctions.

WESTSIDE — More parents in the classroom. Fewer students in the classroom. Parent training, staff meetings, a new curriculum for English-learners, and protection for an unscheduled afternoon recess. Those were among the suggestions made Wednesday evening at Wilson Elementary School, which became the first school in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District this year to hold a public hearing on how to boost its test scores. On a cold, dimly lighted street in one of Costa Mesa's poorest neighborhoods, more than 50 parents, teachers, school board members and administrators gathered in the multipurpose room to offer their personal takes on how to improve Wilson — and how not to improve it. The school must take corrective action this year or face federal sanctions, but some speakers argued that it was best to maintain the status quo. "I think we're getting the most bang for our buck with the system we currently have in place," said kindergarten teacher Jenny Dory.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District surpassed the state average this year on the Academic Performance Index, posting a higher overall mark even as some schools slipped. The district also bested the state on the federal Adequate Yearly Progress report, which was released Thursday along with the state marks. School district officials expressed concern, however, as three schools — Pomona Elementary, Wilson Elementary and TeWinkle Middle School — may be forced to adjust their programs after failing to meet federal standards for five years in a row. All three schools are identified as schools with low-income populations and flagging test scores.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District posted overall gains on its standardized tests this year. English scores rose at nearly every grade level, although math scores dipped from a year ago. The state released the results Tuesday for this year's Standardized Testing and Reporting program, which compiles scores from a number of tests. Newport-Mesa surpassed the state average in most categories and saw a number of its schools improve across the board. Every class in Newport-Mesa boosted its English scores during 2005-06 except for the seventh grade, which fell by one percentage point, and the 11th, which stayed the same.

What do you make of the latest Academic Performance Index, or API, scores for Newport-Mesa, which were released last week? First, I want to congratulate the teachers. I know many teachers who work on weekends and after school preparing their lessons and doing endless paperwork because of their commitment to see their students improve. The district's API score of 760 falls short of the state's goal of 800. As usual, the Newport Beach schools fare very well in the high 800s and 900s; most Costa Mesa schools are in the 700s, with a few in the low 800s, but the Westside schools are stuck in the 600s.

Statewide test results show Newport-Mesa students improving and scoring better than state average.English-learner students in Newport-Mesa Unified School District mastered the language more often than their average peers around the state this year, according to standardized test results released Wednesday. On the California English Language Development Test, which nearly all English-learners around the state took in September and October, 49% of the 5,050 Newport-Mesa students who took the test scored as either "advanced" or "early advanced," the two highest marks on the exam.

Newport-Mesa, a diverse district, saw each of its major subgroups advance at about same rate. Each ethnic group in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District achieved higher test scores in 2005 than it did the year before, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Education. Partly as a result, 93% of Newport-Mesa's schools met all of their state growth targets in 2004-05, an all-time record for the district. Only 68% of public schools in California achieved the same feat.

How pleasant to see a positive, happy headline grace the top of the front page of the Pilot on Aug. 16. "Local schools post gains in test scores," the headline declared and was followed by: "District sees strong increases in math and English...." Let's give the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, principals, teachers and students some well-deserved credit. Critics may claim that the schools taught to the tests. But that is not a bad thing if you believe that success in today's ever more complex and rapidly changing society requires that people be competent in English and basic mathematics and that California educators designed their tests to assess these required skills.