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Rosa Parks Elementary School received failing marks and Washington Elementary School got an incomplete on the latest round of state testing, overshadowing an otherwise solid performance by Berkeley students on the California Standards Test. 

Results of the latest round of tests, required under President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, mandate that Rosa Parks Elementary School must rewrite its basic school plan and that Washington Elementary must provide extra tutoring services to struggling students. 

Mirroring a statewide trend, local students, rich and poor, black and white, scored gains on the English language and math portions of the exam, administered last spring to students across California in grades 2 through 11. 

Test results released Friday show that, in many categories, Berkeley students outperformed the rest of the state, cheering top administrators. 

“I think we’re pleased with the measure against the state,” said Superintendent Michele Lawrence. “But I think our school district, like 85 to 90 percent of the other school districts in the state, is grappling with No Child Left Behind.” 

Under the federal law, schools that repeatedly fail to make “adequate yearly progress” (AYP), as defined by the state, face increasingly strict reform. Subpar participation in testing or a failure by poor students, English learners or any statistically significant racial group to reach performance goals prevent a school from making “adequate” progress under the law. 

Rosa Parks, a largely Hispanic school, is entering the third year of the process, and has already ramped up teacher training and given parents the choice to send their children elsewhere. 

This year, after black, “socioeconomically disadvantaged” and English learner students failed to meet testing goals, the school faces intervention from district administrators. Carla Bason, the BUSD’s manager of state and federal programs, said intervention will come in the form of a revised education plan for the school. 

Bason said the district would work with Rosa Parks administrators and staff to determine precisely what the overhaul will entail, but he noted that it could, for example, include intervention for black students, who have traditionally struggled at the school. 

Second-year Rosa Parks Principal Shirley Herrera said she was concerned about the test scores. 

“It was really disappointing,” she said. “It’s kind of a bad way to start the year.”  

Herrera said she hopes to improve interventions aimed at struggling students and bring in a consultant to train teachers on test preparation. She said her return for a second year at the helm after years of rapid turnover in the principal’s office should help to stabilize and improve the school. 

Washington, which has large black, Hispanic and Asian student populations, met test targets for every student subgroup, but did not reach the 95 percent test participation rate required by the state. 

Parents and administrators cried foul, noting that, while the state requires lofty participation rates, it also allows parents who object to the state’s testing regimen to opt their students out of the process. 

“If they’re going to give this kind of test, they should give a school credit for the students who take the test instead of penalizing it for the students who opt out,” said Judy Greenspan, a Washington parent. 

Echoing the views expressed by many Berkeley parents, Greenspan derided the state testing system as a high stakes pressure cooker that does not accurately reflect student achievement. 

“I was so disturbed by how incredibly stressful the whole process was,” said Greenspan, who volunteered to help Washington prepare for the last round of tests. 

The number of Berkeley schools that must undergo reform could increase in October with the next batch of test results, said Neil Smith, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction. 

The numbers could balloon even further next year. Twelve of Berkeley’s 16 schools did not meet adequate yearly progress goals this year, setting the stage for possible intervention down the line. All but one of the 12 schools—Rosa Parks—met performance goals but fell short on participation measures. 

Under the law, a school in the fifth year of the reform process can face large-scale replacement of its staff or a state takeover. 

About 4.6 million students statewide took the California Standards Test this year. In addition to the basic English test for grades 2 to 11, and the standard math test for grades 2 to 7, students take exams in everything from world history to chemistry, based on their grade level and courses. 

The California Standards Test is aligned to state curriculum guidelines, but students also took an off-the-shelf national test, called the CAT6, which replaced the Stanford 9 exam they have taken since 1998. 

But the state’s testing system relies on the California Standards Test.  

In Berkeley, the biggest jump in scores came on the fourth- and sixth grade English tests and on the second- and fourth-grade math assessments. 

On the English tests, 49 percent of fourth-grade students scored in the “advanced” and “proficient” categories, up from 39 percent last year. Among sixth-graders, 44 percent were advanced or proficient, versus 36 percent last year. 

In math, the percentages leapt from 47 percent last year to 59 percent this year for second-graders, and from 41 percent to 52 percent in fourth grade. The biggest drop came on the tenth grade English test, where 61 percent tested as “advanced” or “proficient” last year, versus 55 percent this year. 

Smith said it was too early to determine what had lead to the upward and downward shifts at certain grade levels. 

But he did raise concerns about consistently poor participation rates at Berkeley High School. 

“We hear that a lot of students at the high school level do not see the impact on their grades,” Smith said. “It’s not a priority for them.” 

View the test scores at http://star.cde.ca.gov/.