An elementary school in Conejo Valley Unified School District will be the first in the district to enter a program to improve standardized test scores.

Conejo Elementary School will enter Program Improvement, which requires the school to collaborate with a local educational agency for up to five years to improve school performance. Two of the school’s groups—English learners and Hispanics—did not increase their scores as much as they should.

Fortysix percent of the students in those groups needed to test at the advanced or proficient levels on their tests, and, according to Adequate Yearly Progress scores, they did not.

“Conejo Elementary continues to achieve a great deal with their students,” said Janet Cosaro, assistant superintendent, instructional services. “The subgroups made great gains in API—up to 15 points. However, the stakes are so high now. . . . It’s a very difficult task for students learning English.”

The socioeconomically disadvantaged group didn’t meet the growth target either but qualified because of a “safe harbor” rule, according to CVUSD estimates. Safe harbor is when the percentage of low-performing students in a subgroup decreases by 10 percent from the previous year.

Conejo Elementary is a highperforming school, scoring 798 on the Academic Performance Index (API)—two points away from the state goal of 800.

“It seems a bit ludicrous,” said Superintendent Mario Contini. “They scored a (798). It’s one of the higher performing schools in the county.”

Cosaro confirmed that some groups of students scored well over 850 on the test.

“The law (on Program Improvement qualification) is just written very poorly,” Cosaro said. “Of the 21 districts in the county, 14 are already experiencing program improvement. There are 29 new schools at risk of entering the program in the county this year, and 36 have already spent several years in Program Improvement.”

Schools with students who don’t make the required growth two years in a row are sent into Program Improvement. If in the second year of Program Improvement the school again doesn’t reach the right numbers, the district must use certain state funds for supplemental services designed to help the students test better.

Glenwood Elementary also looked as if it would need to enter Program Improvement but, because of the safe harbor process, was spared.

When a school is in the program, the district must allow families to move to a nonProgram Improvement school if they wish.

The designated receiving elementary schools for Conejo students are Westlake and Westlake Hills.

A meeting was held earlier this month with Conejo Elementary families, and Cosaro said about 50 families attended.

“Many of the parents there love the school and are interested in staying,” Cosaro said. “Their children enjoy their friends and their teachers. They like the community feel to the school and realize the school receives extra funding from the federal government to hire specialists for reading.”

Conejo parents had until yesterday to fill out transfer forms. Cosaro said Tuesday that the district had received 32 forms.