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Local students do well on STAR
Neighborhood schools outscore county in almost all areas
By Michelle Ku
Local students fared well on this year's Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests despite fears that they wouldn't because of the section aligned with the new state standards in English and math.
Overall, students from the Cupertino Union, Fremont Union High and Sunnyvale school districts gained in every area and scored better than their county and state counterparts. Countywide, students outperformed the state.
All three districts experienced a 1 percentile to 5 percentile gain in the traditional sections of the test. Since it was the first time students were tested on questions meeting the state's new English and math standards--also called augmented items--the results cannot be compared to previous years. This year's scores will be used as a benchmark for future years.
"In general we're pretty pleased," said Maribeth Smith, FUHSD associate superintendent of educational planning and development. "Our students, in general, do very well on standardized tests. Even those augmentation items everyone was worried about I thought were pretty good, especially English."
CUSD officials were pleased with the 1 percentile to 2 percentile gains students made in reading, math and language, said Marilyn Miller, principal on special assignment.
There were also gains in Fremont's scores and the district plans to analyze the variations in the results from school to school, Smith said.
FUHSD also plans to examine the dip in 10th-grade reading scores. Ninth- and 11th-graders both scored in the 59th percentile, but 10th-graders scored in the 55th percentile.
"Across the state there's a funny little dip in the [10th-grade reading] scores," Smith said. "When you have that much and [are] that consistent, there's probably something wrong with the norm in the test. It was consistent with last year. You can figure if it was at one school or one district, it's something wrong with the curriculum, but if the ninth- and 11th-graders do OK across the state, then you figure something is wrong with that test."
At SVSD, students showed gains in nearly every area at every grade level. The only trouble spot for the district is fifth grade. Districtwide, fifth-grade scores went down in reading, language and math and held steady in spelling.
"We don't know why [scores are down in the fifth grade], but last year we recall that fourth grade was a little troublesome, and of course, this year they were fifth graders," said Bob Lowry, assistant superintendent for educational services. "We don't know if it's this particular group of fifth-grade students, but we'll want to carefully watch them as sixth-graders. It will be interesting to see how they do next year."
The standards section of the test received attention in the few weeks leading up to the release of the state's STAR results on June 30. Districts were concerned about student performance in the augmented portion, because the curriculum, training and texts aligned to the new state standards are not in place yet.
State superintendent Delaine Eastin was so concerned that she issued a letter to parents conceding students may not score well on the standards portion. "The first standards-based results will undoubtedly be disappointing, for children, schools and school districts," Eastin wrote.
CUSD was one district worried about parent perception of the scores. Notices were placed in school newsletters and letters were sent home to increase parental awareness and education regarding the meaning of the scores. CUSD also sent home copies of Eastin's letter. The district planned to hold parent forums and have principals make school-specific presentations in the fall.
Following the release of the state's results, CUSD and FUHSD learned they scored better than the state and did as well, if not better, in the county. In the English standard, CUSD scored an average of 11 percentage points higher than the county and 17 percentage points higher than the state.
Both districts were pleased with how well their students fared.
"We felt we did well on the [augmented portion]," Smith said. "In looking at the state and county scores, our students did quite a bit better on those. I assume that we've made a little headway on implementing our standards."
Although CUSD fared well in the standards section, the district will still hold parent forums. "We still feel it's our obligation to educate our parents on this kind of testing and what is happening in our classrooms," Miller said.
Since SVSD officials received their STAR scores fairly late, on June 24, they have yet to break down the standards section. But officials believe the results will be fairly positive.
"If it holds true with everything else, in almost all instances, we're higher than the state in most areas," Lowry said. "If it holds true, we'll do better than state on the augmented portion."
CUSD parents have already received their students' STAR results. Parents in the Fremont and Sunnyvale districts will receive the scores in the mail by the end of this week.
This was the second year student's took the state's mandatory STAR test, which was designed to let parents and educators see how their schools fare against others across the country.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
