Majority of Escondido schools fail to meet federal standards

By:ANDREA MOSS - Staff Writer | Friday, July 25, 2003 5:43 AM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- A majority of Escondido's schools failed to meet tough new federal testing standards, reports released Thursday by the California Department of Education show.

All seven of the Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District's campuses also received failing marks on the reports, which are based on 2002 test scores.

Because the reports are new, there are no repercussions for campuses that did not meet the standards. Instead, the reports will serve as baseline measurements to compare with future reports.

Schools in the "failing" category now, however, face the possibility of federal punishments if their 2003 scores --- due to be released in August --- are also failing.

Fifteen of Escondido's 21 elementary schools and five of its six high schools fall into the failing category.

Superintendents for the Escondido Union School District and the Escondido Union High School District noted that the reports are based on year-old data.

"At this point, I consider it to be baseline data," said David Hughes, who heads up the high school district. "We'll be getting scores from the 2003 testing here very shortly. And I'm much more interested in those scores than I am in the 2002 scores."

Known as the Adequate Yearly Progress reports, the new ones represent the first federal attempt to hold schools accountable for what their students learn. The reports reveal whether individual campuses and districts are meeting the requirements of the 2001 federal No Child Left Behind law.

The reports are based on the results of standardized state tests in language arts and mathematics given each spring. Schools are rated on their ability to meet the federal standards in two categories: participation and performance.

At least 95 percent of the overall number of students at a school and 95 percent of those in several subgroups ---- including significant ethnic groups, special-education students and non-native English speakers ---- must take the tests, for that campus to meet the federal standards.

The requirement was a stumbling block for many California schools. That was the case for one elementary school and three high schools in Escondido.

The district took steps this spring to increase the number of students who take the statewide tests at the city's two alternative high schools, which failed in the participation category, Hughes said.

Escondido and Orange Glen high schools met the performance standards overall but failed to do so when it came to non-native English-speaking and poor students' language arts scores. The district has been working to improve those scores for the last three to four years, Hughes said.

"The overlay of the No Child Left Behind onto the state (testing) system has been kind of a moving target over the last 15 months," he said. "This is the first real data that we've had. I think it just reinforces that we're doing a good job with some of our students, and we have a ways to go with others."

Escondido's elementary district had 11 schools that failed to meet the performance standards, one that had problems with participation, and two that failed in both categories.

Mike Caston, who oversees the district, said it did well when it comes to scores for the entire student population at specific schools.

"The problem for us is that in (some) subgroups we did not," he said. "So we have some areas here where it looks like it's OK, but then others where it doesn't."

Several schools previously identified as underperforming have devised plans to boost students' performance and invested in new materials to support that goal, Caston said. Time will tell whether the efforts were successful, he said.

"We're now waiting for our most recent test scores to see where we have made some improvements," he said. "I think the bottom line for us is, (these reports are) data that we'll use to shape and continue to improve the schools."

Karen Jobe, superintendent of Valley Center-Pauma Unified, had a copy of the report but said she couldn't comment on it because she had not gotten a chance to look at it.

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.

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