Saturday, April 20, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
How do you raise test scores among student populations that typically perform poorly throughout the nation?
Put another way, how do you teach low-income minority students from broken homes, who live in areas plagued with violent crime, to place the same value on a test as middle-class students who don't face those same obstacles?
The Clark County School District has taken the first step -- admitting there is a problem.
"We have to do more," said Superintendent Brian Cram. "We have additional services going to these kids, but what's apparent is that we have to do more. It's not that these kids aren't intelligent, but they need more support than others."
Cram and other district officials say that changing the poor academic trends at such schools will take family involvement, committed teachers and, most important, time.
"There really is no quick fix," said Judy Costa, the district's director of testing and evaluation. "We realize that it's not easy to encourage a student to do something they aren't good at. The older they get, the more they tend to resist. But it can be done."
School officials brim with positive platitudes about the human spirit overcoming any obstacle. But when pressed, most admit that the chances of success are slim for the same reasons that contribute to low test scores -- home environments that fail to instill education as a top priority for children.
"It's not the children's fault and we hope that they will get better, but the sad thing is that many of these kids" don't catch up, said Shirley Barber, a veteran principal in low-income areas. "It's really heartbreaking."
In the fall, Booker, Fitzgerald, Madison and Kelly elementary schools will be the first in the state to adopt schoolwide Title I programs. The federally funded program provides extra money for at-risk populations.
The money must be allocated for specific educational improvements. Prime 6 schools, characterized by low-income student populations in West Las Vegas, have always received this funding, but programs could not include the entire campus population. Nine more schools will adopt similar programs next year.
Booker is planning a program for 3-year-olds. The school also will have all-day 4-year-old and kindergarten programs, instead of the traditional half-day classes. Funding at each school will range from $150,000 to $400,000, based on an allotment per low-income student.
"We want the schools to look at innovative approaches to educating, because we realize that doing the same old thing doesn't work," said Mark Lange, a director of Title I programs. "Staff development will be an important ongoing component of the programs."
Once students leave elementaries, middle schools don't have as many remedial programs and high schools have even fewer.
Len Paul, assistant superintendent for secondary schools, said students performing below grade level when they enter sixth grade are placed accordingly. Remedial sections are available at every level, but they don't focus on "catching students up." Instead, they attempt to keep them from falling further behind.
Only a tiny percentage of struggling students is ever held back a grade.
Barber, like most district educators, favors social promotion. If students are held back in elementary school, they could lose any momentum they have gained, she said.
"Once they leave us, the fun is over," the Fitzgerald principal said. "The middle schools don't put up with nearly as much (behavioral) stuff as we do and I'm not saying whether that is right or wrong. Maybe we put up with too much, but I am saying that it definitely makes it harder on these students to get an education."
Cram said that holding a low-performing child back is not always the best solution.
According to district policy, the parent, teacher and principal must be in agreement to not promote a child at the end of the school year and students cannot be retained in the same grade more than once.
Booker Principal Beverly Mathis contends that poor test scores among low-income students are not a reflection of potential, but that that these students lack experiences relevant to the test questions.
"It's hard for me to say that the testing is valid for these kids," Mathis said, alluding to cultural and environmental differences. "As I read the test, some of the wording and stories are things these kids have never experienced in their life.
"If you're tested on something you've never heard of, how are you supposed to come out at a so-called normal level?"
Her advice to students before testing begins is not to get upset if they encounter something they don't understand, because "it's OK not to know everything."
Mathis said the public uses test scores to rank schools, but it's impossible to rank teaching and learning accomplishments when you're dealing with such different student populations.
She asks: How do you compare the accomplishments of a 10-year-old who's never owned a book, never been read to by a parent and may be malnourished to those of a student who doesn't yet know that children like that exist?
David Ferris, a Booker counselor, related stories of pupils who have received books from the school as birthday presents and then attempted to return them within a few weeks, as if they were library materials. He explained that the students had never owned a book and didn't understand that it was theirs to keep.
Costa acknowledges that testing is an imperfect science.
"Some of the test scores aren't accurate," she said. "It just means these kids were low enough that this wasn't an accurate measure of their achievements."
She said a longer test that starts at a lower level would more accurately show student progress. To that end, Costa said the district will be using a different achievement test for fourth-graders next year.
The old test queried students on 140 questions in 90 minutes. The new test will consist of 251 questions and last 235 minutes.
The reading passages are longer and the math problems more complex. It will require students ages 9 and 10 to sit for an hour at a time concentrating on test questions with short breaks in between. Costa admits that could be asking a lot of students at an age characterized by short attention spans.
Costa said the only certainty is the new tests "will bring a whole new set of problems. I'm not real optimistic, but we keep trying."
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