Oxnard district exit exams fall below county, state averages
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

California High School Exit Exam results released this week show Oxnard Union High School District students passed the math portion at 56 percent and 55 percent in English.

Countywide percentage rates were 67 for math and 66 for the English/language arts section. Statewide, students passed math at 59 percent and English at 61 percent.

At 81 percent for math and 79 percent in English, Adolfo Camarillo High School's scores were significantly higher than those of the district and county. Principal Glenn Lipman attributed the success to higher expectations.

"Our results are indicative of our school," he said. "We are a college preparatory, high-achieving academic institution and so our scores reflect that."

Lipman said sophomore scores-91 percent for math and 89 percent for English-were even higher.

Students are first required to take the exit exam in 10th grade. If they fail to pass, they have several more opportunities in their junior and senior years.

At Frontier High School, only 20 percent of the students passed the math section and 26 percent the English portion.

Said Principal Wayne Lamas: "I wish more of our kids would have passed. But ... we're dealing with kids who haven't been successful in school. So I'm real happy at the effort of teachers and the kids at trying to meet this graduation requirement.

"Of course, we'd like to see everyone pass, but we have to recognize the type of students we're working with," he said.

Lamas said many students come to the alternative high school "with a lot of baggage" and are at risk of dropping out of school. The reasons for their lack of success in school are varied, he said.

Regular school attendance is a key to passing the exit exam. But Lamas said getting students to show up to Frontier each day is "an ongoing problem."

Scores for students at Rio Mesa High School nearly mirrored those of the district-59 percent in math and 58 percent in English.

Rebecca Buettner, the district's director of assessment and accountability, said looking at passing rates for sophomores gives a better account of how the school is doing.

"You're not looking at the same students failing over and over," she said.

Rio Mesa sophomores passed math at 78 percent and English at 76 percent.

Buettner said that, tracked by class level, only about 22 percent of Rio Mesa juniors and 12 percent of seniors still need to pass the exit exam.

"Districtwide, we're fairly pleased with the high school exit exam and Rio Mesa did fairly well," she said.

But Principal Rene Rickard prefers to look at results for the student body as a whole.

"I think we did well and we'll continue to improve," she said. "Here at Rio Mesa, we look at all our students because they all need to pass it."