Aug 17, 2007

County test scores above average

Palo Alto numbers remain high, little changed from 2006

By Melanie Carroll and Kristina Peterson / Daily News Staff Writers

Santa Clara County students outpaced students around California on state achievement tests in every subject, but less than half of the county's 11th graders are proficient or advanced when it comes to English skills.

Overall, 54 percent of county students in grades 2 through 11 scored as proficient or advanced in English/language arts on the Standardized Testing and Reporting exams (STAR) - less than a percentage point more than last year. Statewide, 43 percent scored as proficient or advanced, up from 42 percent last year. STAR results were released Wednesday.

Forty-six percent of county 11th-graders are advanced or proficient in English, while statewide 37 percent tested at the same level.

In math, 60 percent of county students across all grades scored at proficient or advanced. Again, the county surpassed the state mark - 41 percent, unchanged from last year. In fifth-grade science, 51 percent of county students scored as proficient or advanced, up from 45 percent the previous year. Statewide, that number climbed three percentage points to 38 percent.

Dale Russell, director of standards and assessment for the Santa Clara County Board of Education, said the overall performance gains indicate that more and more students are studying higher levels of math than in previous years.

Test scores in high-performing districts such as Palo Alto Unified and Mountain View-Los Altos Union were largely consistent with last year's scores - above the county averages. As in 2006, both districts scored higher than the county and state in English, history and science.

Ninety-eight percent of Palo Alto Unified freshmen studying geometry scored as proficient or advanced, while only 60 percent of Mountain View-Los Altos Union ninth graders achieved the same scores. And 80 percent of 11th-graders in Palo Alto Unified scored proficient or advanced in English compared to 60 percent of juniors in Mountain View-Los Altos Union.

Barry Groves, superintendent of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, attributes some of the performance gaps between the two districts to demographic differences.

"We have socioeconomically disadvantaged students" in a district where about 20 percent of the students are Hispanic, Groves said.

Top-performing students in his district are on par with their counterparts in Palo Alto, he said.

"Our results are great," said Bill Garrison, director of assessment and evaluation for Palo Alto Unified. "Over 80 percent (of students) are advanced or proficient in math and language arts."

And within that high-performing group, roughly three times more students are scoring advanced than proficient, with some variation depending on age and subject level, he said.

Still, about 17 percent of Palo Alto's students are scoring "below proficiency," Garrison noted.

"These tests help us keep those students in focus," he said.

Though demographic-specific data was not available for Palo Alto on Wednesday, Garrison noted that while the achievement gap is closing, it is taking longer than expected.

"It's a little more stubborn than we thought it would be," he said.

MediaNews Staff Writer Jessie Mangaliman contributed to this report.


E-mail Melanie Carroll at mcarroll@dailynewsgroup.com.