Five schools lose status as 'distinguished'

Five Conejo Valley schools had their 2009 California Distinguished Schools designations revoked after it was revealed that the test scores submitted were incomplete.

Earlier this year, the California Department of Education named Colina, Redwood and Los Cerritos middle schools, and Newbury Park, Westlake and Thousand Oaks high schools as several of the 261 middle and high schools given the award.

However, last month the list was updated with corrected test score information, and five of the six campuses were deemed ineligible. Westlake High School remains a 2009 California Distinguished School.

"They had submitted data that was not complete," said Kim Hanks, lead consultant for the California Department of Education's School Recognition program. She said some subgroup scores, those from special education students or English Language learners, were omitted.

"It made it look like their scores were significantly higher than what they turned out to be," Hanks added. "Some scores just weren't included, and when we got them, they lowered their overall AYP and API significantly. The cut off for scores is pretty high. We tell people that we will continue checking the data."

"It is kind of frustrating," Contini said. "We'd been told and everyone was really happy. Our schools really are that good. It's just that one little deal (test scores)."

Contini said that, to his understanding, all scores were included but some were missing the code that indicates if they belonged to a subgroup. In other words, some special education students or English language learners were not identified as such. Therefore their scores were not separated. Once they were, the subgroup's scoring average dropped the schools out of eligibility.

Contini said the district submitted the right information in January, but the state waited until April to decide the schools were ineligible, after the list was released.

"There's a system in place for this kind of thing," Contini said. "If you spot errors, you can make corrections. We saw some demographic codes were missing, so we dug in on that and corrected everything to our best ability."

To apply to become a California Distinguished School, schools must demonstrate that they are closing the achievement gap and show exceptional test scores. This year, the selection process also required schools to provide an indepth description of two signature practices implemented at the schools that are directly related to the success of their students. A site visit allowed representatives to observe the practices, which needed to be replicable by other schools in the state.

For example, Redwood described its AVID program and Intervention Model, both credited for closing the achievement gap at the school. Los Cerritos highlighted its peer academic coaching model.

Contini said that when the team comes out for the school site visits it observes and looks into the practices but doesn't look at the test scores. So after being impressed with the visits, a recommendation was made. It wasn't until weeks later that the state determined the corrected scores in some subgroups weren't high enough.

Contini said he's spoken with several state representatives and given suggestions about how to make the process more fair.

"Even though several groups' scores have gone up tremendously, just because one or two subgroups might not have hit their target, we're disqualified," Contini said. "The state is really looking seriously into changing that. The targets are still moving and getting harder to meet. Even the most severely handicapped have to meet those targets."

Representatives from the program said there are often corrections but usually to add more schools to the list. Hanks did say that two schools in Malibu were pulled off the list this year as well, for similar reasons.

"When schools do their testing, they submit their complete data and sometimes mistakes are made," Hanks said. "It's very unfortunate that this happened. We hope that it doesn't happen to anyone. We feel terrible too. It wasn't intentional on our part. We weren't trying to exclude anyone."