District outperforming county, state
SMMUSD HDQTRS Santa Monica and Malibu students continue to post high marks on state standardized tests, making a huge leap in English Language Arts, according to figures released last week by the California Department of Education.
The results from the 2008 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program showed that students in the Santa Monica- Malibu Unified School District once again outperformed their peers in the county and the state, a strong showing school officials attributed to updated textbooks adopted the past few years.
The test is given to public school students in grades 2-11, testing their comprehension of math, science, English Language Arts and history.
“We should be proud of the community, that our public schools outperformed the region and the state and in many instances are competitive on a national scale,” Board of Education President Oscar de la Torre said.
The percentage of students who scored as advanced or proficient — the desired achievement level as determined by the state — in all testing categories improved districtwide this year, the biggest jump seen in science, which went up by 8 percentage points.
The district last year adopted new science books at the elementary and middle schools.
“The exam in science is very rigorous,” Maureen Bradford, the director of assessment research an.d evaluation for the district, said. “The teachers in the middle school have really focused on their subject matter and have been aligning their curriculum to the state’s standards.”
Students also improved in the area of mathematics, the percentage of pupils scoring as advanced or proficient jumping four points.
Math proficiency has been an area of focus for the district, the Board of Education just recently adopting new math material that will be distributed this year.
The biggest improvement took place in the writing test for the fourth grade, which went from 27 percent of students meeting the target score of six last year, to 81 percent this year.
Bradford said the writing test is one of the most challenging in the STAR, the students and teachers unaware of the topic or even writing genre that they will receive.
“It could be that (this year’s test) could’ve been a particular genre more closely aligned to the kinds of writing the kids do more often in class,” she said.
But the success this year could also be attributed to the fact that many teachers are taking professional development courses in how to better instruct writing, she added.
Results of the seventh grade writing test saw a relatively modest increase, going from 77 percent of students who met the target in 2007 to 88 percent this year. “(The writing scores) are probably one of the things we’re most excited about,” Bradford said.
Both Will Rogers and John Adams Middle School, both of which are classified as Title I because they have a higher percentage of students from low-income families, saw double digit growth on certain tests.
The percentage of students at Will Rogers who scored as advanced or proficient in math went up 10 points, along with 13 points in English and 23 in science. John Adams experienced similar success in science, seeing a 19 percent increase.
While the district did show improvement this year, it does have a ways to go before meeting its target of 100 percent proficiency, areas like history and math showing slightly more than half of its students scoring as advanced or proficient.
The state, despite its relatively low marks overall, has seen gradual progress over the past few years, particularly in the English Language Arts tests. The percentage of the state’s students scoring as proficient or advanced increased from 35 percent six years ago to 46 percent today.
“California public school students are continuing to make solid, steady progress learning the skills and concepts necessary for success in school and in life,” Jack O’Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction, said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 18, 2008. Read the original PDF.