San Diego students' test scores up smartly

Non-English speakers show dramatic gains

Most San Diego city school students showed improvement across the board and sometimes dramatically in reading and mathematics, according to a much-anticipated batch of test scores released yesterday.

San Diego Unified School District’s 140,000 students — those who speak English and those learning the language — earned higher Stanford 9 exam scores the second time around. The only exceptions were English-speaking students in grades seven and nine, whose exam results were nearly unchanged from last year.

Most remarkable are the district’s test scores for non-English speaking students, those still learning to read, write and speak the language. Though the scores are well below the national norm, the sharp rise in test scores offers encouraging news just a year after California voters passed a law to essentially outlaw bilingual education.

For instance, English learners in the third grade improved their reading scores by six points and increased their mathematics scores by 10 points. The second-year results for ninth-grade students jumped 10 points in reading and 13 points in mathematics.

“We’re headed in the right direction,” said Superintendent Alan Bersin. “I hesitate to attribute this, but two things come to mind — class-size reduction and our (new) literacy (curriculum).”

This spring, about 4.2 million California schoolchildren in grades two through 11 took the Stanford 9 basic skills test. It was the second administration of the exam after a four-year standardized-testing drought when the state’s districts used a variety of exams, making statewide comparisons nearly impossible.

As scores trickle in statewide, most school districts have reported increased test scores. But improved scores do not necessarily mean students learned more this year, some cautioned.

“The second time a test is administered, scores very often go up just because the teacher is more familiar with the test format and has exposed the second-year students to the test (format),” said Barbara Miller of EdSource, an independent clearinghouse for information on California education. “This second year of results is going to be somewhat ambiguous as to whether it’s true improvement or familiarity with the test.”

Even so, some San Diego school board members are happy with the results.

“I think this is certainly encouraging and I’d like to believe that it shows the moves we made in the last year are heading us in the right direction,” trustee Ron Ottinger said. “I know a lot of people expected gains this year. I’ll be curious to compare our results with the other big urban (districts).”

Statewide scores will be released tomorrow and posted on the California Department of Education Web site,http://star.cde.ca.gov.

San Diego scores show that English-speaking students continue to climb above the national norm. However, the exception remains with ninth-and 10th-grade students, whose reading scores remained below the national norm.

“I’m concerned about the older kids,” trustee Frances O’Neill Zimmerman said. “But I think overall, people will feel encouraged with these scores. We are in a good position to do well.”

San Diego scores show sharp increases in the earliest grades in both math and reading. And English learners showed more improvement than their English-fluent counterparts.

“I think we need to always look at improvement of one’s record, it is the most telling score,” Zimmerman said. “It shows us which schools are working hard.”

Although San Diego Unified administrators are still working to analyze the test results, many believe the new three-hour literacy block in elementary grades helped boost the exam scores. The literacy push requires elementary teachers to devote the first three hours of instruction to reading and writing.

In the fall, the district will expand a literacy block to secondary grades, something Bersin said the test scores clearly call for.

“The scores also show us that we are on the right track in secondary grades by developing two-hour literacy blocks for all sixth-grade students at middle schools, and for seventh graders at junior high schools and ninth graders who are below average,” the superintendent said.

Critics have worried that the district’s focus on literacy has detracted from the instruction of other subjects, such as math, science and the arts. But the Stanford 9 scores show often-dramatic improvements in math.

“The scores show that for all those folks who said we were not teaching math that we’ve actually held our own and are making making gains,” Ottinger said. “This vindicates Alan (Bersin) and (chancellor of instruction) Tony (Alvarado), who said that a focus on literacy would not come at the expense of other subjects.”

School districts will use the test scores in a variety of ways. Some will use the scores to determine whether or not students are retained or advanced to the next grade. San Diego administrators are working to find a way to break down the scores in a way that will help principals and teachers improve instruction and student achievement, Bersin said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Gray Davis is preparing to use the test scores to compile an academic performance index, a ranking of California’s 8,000 schools. The state’s new accountability system will for the first time use test scores and student performance to determine which schools merit rewards and which deserve sanctions.

State and local educators, however are unclear what the test scores say about Proposition 227, the bilingual education law passed by voters in June of last year. The controversial law requires that classroom instruction be done overwhelmingly in English.

Proposition 227 author Ron Unz said the scores are a vindication of the new policy.

But others say it is too early to give Proposition 227 full credit for the sharp gains in test scores.

Despite the growth for non-English speaking students in San Diego, Bersin said the district should do more to help catapult English-learner scores to the national average, and above it.

“We can and must do better, especially for students for whom English is not their native language,” he said.

The Stanford 9 scores were released as Bersin completed his first year as superintendent in charge of the state’s second-largest school system.

School board president Edward Lopez praised Bersin’s freshman year. But he said the test score improvements were the result of collaborative work by teachers, principals and administrators.

The Stanford 9 is a norm reference test and scores are based on a national sample.

But the national testing pool hardly represents San Diego or California. As a result, critics say the scores are distorted.

Just 2 percent of the national test takers are limited-English speakers. By contrast, 28 percent of San Diego Unified students fall into that category. Meanwhile, 37 percent of students in the national pool are minorities, compared with 72 percent in San Diego.

Parents will receive test scores for their children in the next few weeks.

The Stanford 9 scores are just one of many assessments used by the district to gauge student achievement. Other measures include report cards and portfolios that chronicle student work.

Staff writer Chris Moran contributed to this report.



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