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Campbell schools make good showing in statewide achievement test
Results show marked improvement in most subjects and grades
By Genevieve Roja
Campbell schools are living up to their school mottoes, as results from the statewide Standardized Testing and Reporting Program showed vast areas of improvement.
Officials from Campbell Union High School District (whose motto is "Turning Potential Into Performance"), Campbell Union School District ("Education Beyond the Expected") and Moreland School District ("Quality Education Since 1851") all reported significant increases in the program, which uses the standardized Stanford-9 test used to gauge math, reading, language and spelling levels. Students answered multiple-choice questions in each area and also questions in the test's "augmented" section, which compares children in the district against the English and math standards established by the state.
All students who attend California public schools are required to take the test unless parents request a waiver or obtain an Individual Education Plan from their respective districts.
These numbers represent figures compiled from the test's various categories, which include economically and non-economically disadvantaged, limited english proficiency and non-limited english proficiency.
Blackford Elementary, Capri Elementary, Castlemont Elementary and Forest Hill were some of the CUSD schools whose math scores show marked gains over 1997-1998 figures. Sixty-five percent of the district's third-graders made the biggest leap by scoring at or above the average in math. Compared to last year, Blackford second-graders improved across the board in all four areas; they jumped seven percentiles in reading, 20 in math, 12 in language, and nine in spelling. Capri's second-graders leaped the most in math, by 19 percentiles, while its fifth- graders went from a score of 48 to 66 in math. Second-graders at Forest Hill also jumped considerably in math, going from 65 to a whopping 81. Second-graders from Sherman Oaks Elementary improved by 30 percentile points, from 30 to 60, and third-graders improved from 20 to 51.
"We are pleased," says CUSD superintendent Marcia Plumleigh. "We are actually in most cases doing better than the state. What's more important is that most students are scoring above the 50th percentile; we're moving more kids who are below the line to average and better, and I feel very good about that."
CUSD's scores sagged at its other schools, including Hazelwood, which dropped slightly in all subjects in all grades, except for third-grade math and fourth-grade spelling. The district fared well in the state standards section, with 61 percent of its students answering correctly in the following areas: second- and third-grade language arts and math, and seventh- and eighth-grade language arts. The district had 62 percent correct answers in language arts.
Compared to all California students, Campbell Union High School District students placed at or better than the state's average in five subjects: reading, math, language, science and social science. Terry Peluso, CUHSD's director of educational services and student assessment, reported the district's strongest areas were math and science, while the weakest was reading--apparently a nationwide trend. On a national scale, CUHSD performed at the 33rd percentile in reading; the county scored at the 42nd percentile while the state placed 36th.
In Moreland elementary schools, several scores were encouraging. At Leroy Anderson Village, third-graders moved nine percentile points to 39 since last year, while students' scores at Gussie M. Baker went from 63 to 77 in math and 67 to 80 in language among second-graders. Third-graders also improved from the 57th percentile to the 72nd percentile in language. At Country Lane Elementary, scores went from 72 to 84 in math compared to last year. The school also posted the most correct answers of all the Moreland district schools on the state's standardized English tests; second-graders answered 76 percent of the questions correctly, while the third-graders answered 78 percent correctly.
Moreland Discovery School--the only K-4 school in the district--jumped from the 54th percentile to 66th in spelling. At Latimer School, students' scores improved in all subjects in grades K, 1, 3, 4 and 5. The second-graders, dropped to the 59th percentile in reading, language and spelling. Last year, second-grade students placed at 72, 71 and 63 respectively. They also took a dive in math, from the 67th percentile to the 52nd. Sixth-graders at Elvira Castro Middle School went from 76 to 78 in math, and its eighth-graders jumped seven percentiles to a 68 in math as well. At Sam Curtis Rogers Middle School, students' scores dropped in all subject areas and grades, with the exception of seventh-grade reading, which rose from 55 to 58, and eighth-grade math, 61 to 69.
Next week: What school districts are doing to improve reading scores.
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Campbell, California
