Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) , September 26, 2007

Educators rebuke the findings, which focus on middle- class neighborhoods.

Four Torrance schools are among hundreds in California that don't offer an education commensurate with the prices of homes in their neighborhood, claims a book released Tuesday.

Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice, written by Vicki Murray, Lance Izumi and Rachel Chaney, lists nearly 300 schools in California middle-class neighborhoods they say don't perform up to snuff.

Locally, the authors take aim at North High, Jefferson Middle, Hull at Levy Middle and Adams Elementary schools in the Torrance Unified School District.

No other South Bay or Harbor Area schools made the list.

The book's authors selected schools where less than half the students in any grade level or subject area met English language or mathematics proficiency skills.

Also, the schools needed to have less than a third of its students eligible for free or reduced lunches and less than a third considered "socially disadvantaged" by the state.

Murray said she used data provided by the California Department of Education.

Areas chosen were in ZIP codes where the median home price exceeded $600,000.

"If I'm a parent with a mortgage on homes that are that expensive and I'm moving to that area precisely because I have been told the schools in Torrance are good, I have every right to expect that a majority of its students at all grade levels are performing in the basics," Murray said. "That is not unreasonable."

The book, funded by the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco, drew quick rebuke from Torrance educators.

"I don't understand the purpose of it, and they're missing a lot of data that would make this much more understandable," said Laurie Love, Torrance's chief academic officer. "I am questioning this group and their legitimacy."

At North High, according to Murray, less than half of the 10th- graders (48 percent) for the 2006-07 year were proficient in English language arts.

Judging quality in schools often provokes heated debate, depending on which data are cited. In May, Newsweek listed North High as the 885th best high school in the nation, partly due to its extensive Advanced Placement courses.

However, Pat Furey, president of the Northwest Torrance Homeowners Association, acknowledged North High's last-place status among the four Torrance high schools. He said it's due to out-of-district transfers who don't matriculate from Torrance middle schools.

Of the 1,997 students, 329 live in areas outside of Torrance, Furey said. South High has 84 such transfers.

As for Hull, the school was honored as a California Distinguished School for 2007, state records show.

Murray discounts that award, saying its not based strictly on academic performance and there are "no clearly defined objective measures" for how schools are chosen.

Jefferson's eighth-graders were 49 percent proficient in English language arts, missing the book's mark by a single percentage point. And fifth-graders at Adams scored 44 percent proficient in math, according to the book.

Love said the study's use of proficiency rates for algebra in high school unfairly focuses on students who have fallen behind, since the class is typically offered in eighth grade.

In 2006, the district began offering algebra over a single year instead of two years. The district was still adjusting to that shift, she said.

paul.clinton@dailybreeze.com