 |
|||||
|
Students score higher on STAR
by Carly Mayberry
From the looks of the just-released results of the latest standardized academic testing, students of the Redondo Beach Unified School District have cause for relief, if not reserved celebration.
"Our district's state test results from May's test administration appear to have improved in most areas," Superintendent Bill Nunan stated after a preliminary look at the 2001 STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) scores.
"What we look at is patterns," Testing Director Jerry Klein said. "By our scores, our kids are improving.
In most every category, students ranked on average a couple points higher than last year's percentile.
Students in grades second through eleventh participated in the fourth year of testing.
Students in second through eighth grade took the reading, mathematics, written expression, and spelling sections of the Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth Edition (Stanford 9). Ninth, tenth and eleventh graders took tests in the science and history-social science areas, but did not test in the spelling category.
This year was the third consecutive year that students were given California Standards Tests in English-language arts and mathematics that are calibrated to California's content standards adopted by the state Board of Education. In addition, last spring of this year, standards tests in history/social science and science, as well as writing tests in grades 4 and 7 were administered.
"These are important because they are new items," Klein said.
He said this is the first year that scores will be listed on the Internet by performance levels.
Results of all standards tests, except for the writing tests in fourth and seventh grades, include the number and percent of questions answered correctly. The English-language portions are reported according to performance levels achieved. These performance levels consist of advanced, proficient, basic, below basic, and far below basic.
"In the RBUSD, we use multiple measures in assessing student achievement," Klein stated. "We do analyze the STAR test results but we also look at report card grades, writing portfolios, teacher tests, and a plethora of student work. Now that we have four years of results from the Stanford 9, we can continue to use this data with other achievement information to see if our efforts to strengthen curriculum and instruction are having an impact. Generally we are improving with each school year."
Scores from the year 2001 will become part of the baseline for the Academic Performance Index (API), California's more detailed index of school achievement.
For a thorough listing of Redondo Beach schools, see the next issue of The Easy Reader.