District schools see drop in test scores

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

Clark County School District officials were deeply troubled by student scores on a statewide proficiency exam Wednesday that showed scores steadily dropped by grade level.

Students -- ranging from grades three to 10 -- scored close to the national average on the test. About half the students showed proficiency on test of language, reading, math and science.

"Are we satisfied with these numbers? Absolutely not," Superintendent Carlos Garcia said. "But at least we can see, grade by grade, what we need to work on."

Administrators said they were puzzled by the sharp dip in achievement level between the lower and higher grades.

The results of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, released by the district Wednesday, show:

Designed to be a benchmark for student achievement as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the Iowa test replaces the TerraNova, which was given last year. The federal act requires states to show yearly progress or face penalties. This year's Iowa test will be used as the baseline for measuring future progress.

The Nevada Education Department is expected to use the Iowa score results to determine designations for the state's schools in the spring. Campuses tagged as "in need of improvement" face sanctions as part of the No Child Left Behind Act, including being required to offer students transfers to better schools.

Under the new federal law, schools must count the scores of all students, including ELL and special education, toward the total score. Previously districts were allowed to report those scores separately.

Last year Clark County had four schools qualify as "needing improvement." That number could climb as high as 20 to 30 campuses this time around, Garcia said.

"I can pretty much assure you it will be significantly higher," Garcia said. "But we expected that going into this, once we knew the scores for every single student would be counted together."

In comparing this year's Iowa test results with the TerraNova given in 2001, the district showed declines in vocabulary and math at the fourth-grade level but improvement in reading and science. At grade eight, scores dropped in reading, language and math, while 10th-grade scores were down overall.

The sharpest dip in overall achievement was between the fifth and sixth grades. District-wide, sixth-grade students scored up to 10 points below the fifth-grade students in reading and language and 11 points lower in mathematics.

Judy Costa, director of testing for the district, said there are a number of possible reasons for the disparity, including the effect of larger class sizes in the higher grades. The district will also be studying differences in teaching methods between the grades and the alignment between curriculum and test content, she said.

There was a big gap in scores between students who qualified for free and reduced meals and the general student population.

Fourth-grade students who qualified for free and reduced-price meals scored an average of 23 points below their classmates, and at grade seven the gap was 20 points. Similar results were seen statewide and across the country. Studies have long shown that students who eat regular meals perform better on standardized tests.

"There's a lot to be said about the effects of socio-economic issues in testing," Garcia said.

There was some encouraging news for the district: Students who had progressed from the English Language Learner program to the general student population scored near or above average.

In the fourth grade, former ELL students outscored their native-English speaking peers in language and mathematics. At the seventh-grade level, former ELL students scored close to the general population in all subjects. The same was true in the 10th grade with the exception of an 11-point drop in reading scores for former ELL students.

"It's exciting to know we're reaching those students," school board member Shirley Barber said. "That's a segment of the population that's going to continue to be a challenge for us for many years to come."

The differences in scores between special education students and the general school population were marked. At the fourth grade level, special education students scored between 24 and 39 points below their classmates. At both the seventh and 10th grade levels, special education students scored an average of 32 points below the general student population.

The best scores on the Iowa test were posted by the third through fifth-grade students, a result attributed to the intensive literacy program adopted by the district in recent years, Garcia said.

"We know if you have a kid reading and reading well, that will translate into better academic performance overall," Garcia said.

Scores for the Clark County students who took the test, which was taken in October, mirror statewide results, which were released last month.

Compared with the rest of the nation, Clark County is "holding its own" when it comes to test scores, Garcia said. At the same time, the Las Vegas Valley has a higher percentage of special education, low-income and non-English proficient students, Garcia said.

"The scores tell us we have work to do, but in the long run these results will help us identify our weaknesses and develop a course of action for addressing those deficiencies," Garcia said.

Before this year, the district tested students only at grades four, eight and 10. With the addition of the other grades, educators will be able to track specific groups of students over a period of years, rather than just successive classes.

"We'll be able to see for the first time how our children are doing as they progress from grade to grade," said Mary Beth Scow, a member of the Clark County School Board. "That's going to make the whole testing process more valuable."