The statewide Stanford 9 student test scores, finally released Thursday after two delays, chart the great academic divide in California. Most English-speaking students outperformed the national average and showed sometimes significant improvement. Most English learners made modest gains but still did poorly, challenging the state to close this gap while boosting achievement for all students.

The test results did not reveal any major new lessons for parents or teachers. Children who started school proficient in English made the greatest progress, especially in the early grades. Reading and math scores rose significantly for third graders, the first group of students to benefit from the state’s ambitious class-size reduction effort throughout their primary grades and from renewed emphasis on phonics.

The trends held for the Los Angeles Unified School District, where English-speaking children posted significant gains in reading and math in the second, third and fourth grades and scores leveled off for older students. In Orange County, students scored five to 10 points above comparable state marks on the Stanford 9 exam, even though the county has a higher percentage of students who are not English-proficient than the state.

As expected, students from affluent English-speaking families scored well above the national average. These scores represent the marks by which students and teachers will be judged under California’s new school accountability system. Because a year-to-year comparison is critical, Sacramento is pressuring the test publisher, Harcourt Educational Measurement, to correct errors that delayed the results for nearly a month, including incorrect scores for students who are not fluent in English.Limited-English students make up about one-third of the state public school enrollment and represent nearly one-half of the children in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

By all demographic accounts, their numbers are expected to grow. Unless they become proficient in English as early as possible, and until teachers figure out what works in the aftermath of the Prop. 227 ban on bilingual education, most will be at risk of being held back by the state prohibition on social promotion. Unless test scores rise dramatically, they also risk failing California’s high school exit exam when it takes effect in several years.

Though accountability is important, California’s Stanford 9 results should not be treated like baseball scores, tallying winners and losers. They should be used as a diagnostic tool, useful for correcting the course of school reform both in theory and in practice in every classroom.



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