Posted on 08/16/2004 12:09:32 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's elementary and high school students are still improving their standardized test scores, but results released Monday indicate they're not improving as rapidly as before, state education officials said.
According to the results of the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program, fewer students are moving from the lower scores of basic, below basic and far below basic to the higher levels of proficient and advanced. The test compiles the results of two tests given to students in grades 2-11 and measures how well students are learning California's academic standards.
"This is not where we want to be. This is not where we hoped we would be,"said Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.
More encouraging, O'Connell said, were the results of the California High School Exit Exam, which showed that three-quarters of the class of 2006 passed the English portion and 74 percent passed the math test.
But those results, which came after state officials delayed the test and made it somewhat easier, also showed that special education students and English language learners are still struggling with the test.
Seventy percent of special education students failed the math test, and the same percentage failed the English portion. About half of English learners passed the math test, while about four in 10 passed the English and language arts portion.
California graduates, starting with the approximately 450,000 members of the class of 2006, are required to pass both the math and English tests to get a diploma. Students have several attempts to pass both portions before they graduate.
A year ago, the state Board of Education delayed that requirement for two years after a report found that about 20 percent of the class of 2004 would fail the test's math portion and not graduate. The report found that half of students not fluent in English and three-quarters of special education students would also not be eligible for diplomas because of poor test performance.
The 1999 law that created the test gave the board had one chance to postpone it. Any more delays would require an act by the Legislature, as would making new exceptions for students, such as those in special education classes or who are still learning English.
Last year, the state board shortened the test from three days to two and made it easier by eliminating some of the harder math and English questions. The test is aligned to the state's academic standards.
Missing from this year's tests were questions about data analysis that required students to calculate the lower quartile, median and maximum of a data set. Students were also spared problems that had students use "stem-and-leaf" and "box-and-whiskers" plots for data displays.
Instead, students saw more questions about computing averages - a skill taught in 6th grade - and using estimation to check whether results are reasonable, a 7th grade math standard.
Some English questions were also cut. Students this year didn't have to write a bibliography of reference materials, develop research questions and methods to "elicit and present evidence from primary and secondary sources" or demonstrate proper manuscript formats, such as title page, spacing and margins.
State officials say the exams allow schools to identify students who are having problems with the basic concepts of math and English so they can help those students early.
Schools send home individual students' STAR results, so parents can see how their child did compared to his classmates and students across the state.
The STAR results combine data from the California Standards Test, which tests curriculum unique to California classrooms, and the California Achievement Test, or CAT-6, which allows educators see how California students compare to children around the nation.
Students' scores are increasing, O'Connell said, but not nearly fast enough.
"These scores should be viewed as a wake-up call for all of us," O'Connell said.
O'Connell said he was particularly concerned about the STAR scores of high school students.
"The bottom line is that our high schools are not performing at the level they should be," he said.
More than 4.7 million children took the tests this year that make up the STAR results.
The STAR results show that in English, all grades, except third grade, have made progress in the past three years toward the state's goal of having all students score proficient or advanced. But that progress is largely slow, O'Connell said, with most grades increasing by one or two percentage points in those categories.
About 30 percent of third graders scored at proficient or advanced levels, the same as in 2001, but a 3 percent drop from last year.
Fifth graders have shown the largest improvement, with 40 percent scoring proficient or advanced - about 12 percentage points higher than in 2001 when 28 percent hit that mark and 4 percentage points higher than last year.
This year, 37 percent of ninth graders made proficient or advanced levels in English, down 1 percentage point since last year. But it's a large increase over the 2001 level, when 28 percent made those marks.
In math, grades 3-7 showed increases in the percentage of students performing at proficient or advanced, except 2nd graders who dropped from 53 percent to 51 percent at those levels.
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On the Net:
The California Department of Education: http://www.cde.ca.gov
Don't worry, Jack...Help is on the way. :-\
Easy solution.. Throw more money at the system...
We can always raise taxes as it's all for the children, yaknow. Right!
High school exit exam results at-a-glance
http://www.bakersfield.com/state_wire/story/4878569p-4931804c.html
The Associated Press
The California Department of Education released the results of the California High School Exit Exam, which is now required for graduation starting with the class of 2006.
Here are some of the details of the results:
- More than 450,000 students took the CAHSEE in spring, most of which were sophomores who will have to pass both the English and math tests to get a diploma.
- 75 percent of students passed the English test and 74 percent passed the math test. Students who didn't pass one or both tests have several more attempts before graduation.
- Girls did slightly better than boys on both tests. For English, 79 percent of girls and 70 percent of boys passed. On the math test, 74 percent of girls and 73 percent of boys passed.
- 70 percent of special education students failed the math test and the same percentage failed the English test.
- 49 percent of English language learners passed the math test, and 39 percent passed the English test.
- 61 percent of low-income students passed the math test, and 60 percent passed the English test.
- Of Asian students, 91 percent passed the math test and 85 percent passed the English test.
- 87 percent of white students passed the math test and 88 percent passed the English portion.
- 61 percent of Hispanic students passed the math test and 62 percent passed the English section.
- 55 percent of black students passed math and 62 percent passed English.
Incredible, and damn near half the state budget goes towards education in one way, shape or form in California.
I have just two words for public education, "home schooling!"
Only because the standards have been steadily dumbed down. Jack O'Connell himself had a hand in making sure the test required to graduate from high school was at the junior high level.
This doesn't come as any sort of surprise to me. I would have expected the percentages of success to be lower. What does surprise me is that this supposed to somehow be the schools' fault, and dissolving the school district (i.e. under No Child Left Behind) is going to solve it.
Are you basically saying that everyone "has" to homeschool?
The test scores are inversely proportional to the percentage of students without adequate preparation. The joke is that those students who enjoy English as a second language are generally excluded form these statistics.
Can you imagine the test results if they were included? As the rate of unregulated immigration continues to rise these scores will continue to trend downward.
In defense of the California Department of Education, no public school system can improve the mean academic achievement of it's students measured by first world standards in the face of a rising tied of unregulated immigration from a third world country were English is not the primary language.
If the children of illegal aliens were excluded from public schools in California the scores would improve almost 30% within the testing cycle and we would all be congratulating the educational professionals.
Exactly. Every point you make is spot on. But what people have to realize is that the No Child Left Behind law allows for the *dissolving of school boards* and school districts if *any identifiable subgroup* (i.e. illegal immigrants, or retarded children) fail to come up to "proficiency" within a certain span of time. It's a situation that ultimately has no solution, because by those criteria virtually every school district in the US will ultimately "fail."
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