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# Local students gaining ground
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/local-students-gaining-ground/
- Published: 2005-08-22T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:36:26.000Z
- Author: Ryan Hyatt
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*Ninth graders show greatest leap in scores*

SMMUSD HDQTRS. — Despite continued state budget cuts to education, Santa Monica public school students continue to make overall gains in math and language proficiency scores.

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District released last week the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program data for 2005\. The data show the district has experienced “significant improvement” in English language arts and mathematics scores for most grade levels since 2004, said John Deasy, school district superintendent. It’s an upward trend the SMMUSD has enjoyed at almost every grade level since the 2000-01 school year, when the district was required by the state to begin documenting the test results for some disciplines. through 11th grades take the California Standards Test in English language arts and mathematics. History and science also are tested at some, but not all, grade levels, Deasy said. Students attain one of five levels of performance on the CST, ranging among “advanced,” “proficient,” “basic,” “below basic” and “far below basic.”

California’s state board of education has established the “proficient” level as the standard by which public school students are measured. It’s a point of some contention with Deasy, who said that while the state expects much from its students, California continues to cut the K-12 education budget.

“It’s interesting to note that while the state continues to abandon the funding of public education, California’s academic goals are higher than most states,” Deasy said.

In the 2004-05 school year, 72 percent of Santa Monica-Malibu district students reached the proficiency level for the fourth grade, while 48 percent of the district’s 11th grade students were able to do the same. Student proficiency grew by as much as 7 percentage points for fourth graders and 8 percentage points for 11th graders, compared to the previous year.

Overall, the district has continued to see an increase in student proficiency in nine of 10 grade levels since 2001\. The greatest improvement has been among ninth graders, 48 percent of whom were proficient five years ago, when the results started to be measured. The most recent results show that 65 percent of ninth graders have met proficiency r e q u i r e m e n t s since then, a 17 percent increase.

Deasy attributes part of the a c a d e m i c improvement to changes in teaching methodology and curriculum at the ninth grade level. He also said Santa Monica High School’s “house system” has provided freshman with more one-on-one interaction with teachers.

By redesigning the large campus into smaller, individual ones, schools have higher attendance rates, higher grade point averages, lower dropout rates, and students and teachers report being more satisfied with the experience, studies show.

However, despite the changes, similar achievement has not been seen among 10th graders, a group that has experienced a 4 percent drop in proficiency over the past five years. Performing at 53 percent in 2001, last year they were only performing at 49 percent proficiency.

Deasy said the decline in performance for 10th graders is one the district is aware of and is working to correct. Although students have been experiencing a slight decline in achievement in recent years, they are doing better at both grade levels above and below.

Students considered to come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds have made substantial gains in the past five years at all grade levels, except for sixth graders, whose improvement was negligible.

The greatest improvement for economically disadvantaged students was among ninth graders. In 2001, they were performing at 15 percent proficiency. Last year, they were performing at 40 percent proficiency, meaning more than a quarter of that grade level is performing better than it was five years ago.

GROUPS LAPPING UP LANGUAGE ARTS Students categorized along racial lines generally improved at all grade levels in a one-year period in English language arts.

African-American students improved at all levels, except third grade, which had a 5 percent drop in proficiency from the 2003-04 school year. That grade level is currently at 25 percent proficiency. Ninth grade African-American students jumped from 25 percent to 40 percent proficiency.

African-American students, as well as other groups, show a long-term decline in proficiency performance on a year-by-year basis. While they peak at more than 60 percent proficiency as fourth graders, they attain the lowest level of student performance by 11th grade —18 percent proficiency in 2005.

Latinos, like African-American students, also had an impressive spike in their ninth grade performance level. It’s a change from 22 percent proficiency in 2003-04 to 40 percent in 2004-05, an increase of 18 percent. The group’s decline within grade levels was only statistically significant once, with 10th graders performing 4 percentage points below their level in 2003-04\. Otherwise, Latinos generally improved within their grade levels.

However, on a year-by-year proficiency basis, Latino students continue to struggle. Like African-American students, they peak in fourth grade, with more than half of them proficient. By 11th grade, their proficiency is less than 30 percent.

White students had substantial gains in the English language arts at all grade levels. Eighth graders seemed to have the biggest boost. Approximately 50 percent proficient in 2003-04, whites were 75 percent proficient by 2004-05 in eighth grade, an increase of 25 percentage points. However, their performance level seems to waver on a year-by-year basis, beginning to dip in ninth grade by more than 12 percent.

Special education students continue to struggle over the one-year performance period, all of whom performed at less than 30 percent proficiency at every grade level. While there has been little change in their performance from one year to the next, a few grade levels stand out.

Tenth graders have had the most difficulty. They dropped from 18 percent proficiency in 2003-04 to nearly 2 percent in 2004-05\. However, 11th graders had a 10 percent increase in proficiency.

MATH NOT ADDING UP FOR SOME STUDENTS Overall math proficiency continues to hover around 50 percent proficiency or above for elementary school students.

There were no district math statistics provided after eighth grade.

It becomes difficult to interpret the statistics for middle school math students, Deasy said, where students begin to differentiate among the kinds of math they are able to perform. In particular, 600 of approximately 1,000 Santa Monica eighth graders took the algebra CST, 50 percent of whom scored at the proficient or advanced levels.

Seventy-two eighth graders took the geometry CST, of whom 96 percent scored at or above the proficient level.

More than 300 eighth graders took the general mathematics CST, and a little more than 20 percent of them scored at a proficiency level.

More than half of eighth graders who are economically disadvantaged took the algebra CST. Of those 122 students, 39 percent scored at or above the proficiency level.

Focusing on elementary schools, math results for African-American students show general improvement, peaking at fourth grade with a 55 percent proficiency level. After that, there is a significant drop in proficiency, by as much as 20 percent in fifth grade. However, fifth, sixth and seventh grade students are seeing improvement within all of their grade levels. The most significant are the sixth graders, who went from 15 percent math proficiency in 2003-04 to 30 percent last year. Focusing on elementary schools, math results for Latino students peak in second grade, when last year students were 55 proficient. Then in sixth grade there is a noticeable drop, a change in 20 percentage points. That picks up in seventh grade, although not returning to previous plateau levels. Last year, Latino seventh grade students achieved 32 percent math proficiency.

White students in elementary school continue to have higher proficiency compared to other groups. They tend to decline between second and seventh grade. In second grade, whites students peak at 82 percent proficiency. By seventh grade, their proficiency decreases to 68 percent, a difference of 16 percentage points compared to second grade. However, whites at all grade levels averaged nearly 20 percent improvement last year.

Special education students peak in second grade with nearly 50 percent proficiency. Their biggest improvement was in second grade. Last year, they were 50 percent proficient, an improvement of 10 percent from 2003-04.

Deasy, who took the helm of the local school district five years ago, said he’s pleased with this year’s overall test results because it shows students are generally achieving better during the time his staff has been in place. However, he said, there is a long way to go in bringing up general proficiency levels for some groups.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 22, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/082205.pdf?ref=smdp.com)