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Fremont High School District fares well in statewide test

By Justin Berton

As expected, scores for reading dropped in the Fremont Union High School district after results of a controversial student test were released by state officials last week.

The drop was blamed on the state's requirement that schools include nonproficient English speakers in the test pool for the mandated Standardized Testing and Reporting program.

Though this is the first year the STAR test has been administered, the drop was compared to similar academic tests in previous years.

"It's our belief [the STAR test] is a slightly easier test, but because we tested kids that didn't speak English, we had a dip in the reading," said associate superintendent Maribeth Smith.

Smith said that it will be two years before the district can draw firm conclusions from the results of the STAR test. "We have to consider this as baseline data," she said.

The past two years, the district has administered the Iowa Test of Educational Development. Students who have lived in the country less than 30 months were excluded from the test pool.

In FUHSD, the district average scores of the new STAR test equaled or exceeded the national average in all areas, with the exception of reading comprehension for 10th-graders. Fifty-two percent of the students tested in the nation did better than sophomores in the Fremont district.

Only students at Monta Vista and Lynbrook scored above the average.

At Fremont High School, where 30 percent of the test takers were identified as nonproficient English speakers, scores fell well below the national average.

"They are very good students, and once they learn English, they typically score better," Smith said. "But when they are still learning, we would typically not test them," she added.

The STAR test is the state's first achievement test to compare how well students in California perform against other students in the country.

Everything from the test requirements to the releasing of the results has been mired in a spate of controversy.

School districts in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland complained that scores including non-English speaking students was unfair, based on the premise that students could not understand the test.

In San Francisco, district officials refused to administer the test and are currently involved in a lawsuit.

School officials in Oakland and Berkeley went to court June 25 and stopped the state from publishing the scores of children who do not speak fluent English.

Due to a court order, the state was forced to release English-only scores.

But many districts in the state and the Bay Area had already released scores that included the non-English speakers. Other districts however, refused to release any scores, until a July 16 court hearing rules on the issue.

Still, individual student scores are being mailed home to parents in the FUHSD as required by state law.

Because of the controversy, districts are not able to compare their scores to one another.

Still, Smith said given the circumstances, the district is satisfied with how FUHSD students scored.

"It wasn't a kind thing to do to our non-English speakers," Smith said. "We were concerned what the results would look like and we're pretty pleased with it," she said.

Maggie Benson contributed to this report.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 15, 1998.
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