Burbank Unified’s scores beat state average

Students in Burbank Unified landed above state and county averages for their scores on the new standardized exams, according to data released on Wednesday, but they ranked lower than their peers in neighboring districts, including Glendale and La Cañada.

Of the 9,192 students tested last spring, 39% met or exceeded the math standard, while 56% met or exceeded the standard in English language arts.

Those figures compare to the Los Angeles County average of 42% of students meeting or exceeding the English standard, while 31% achieved the same on the math portion.

Across the state, 44% met or exceeded the English portion, while 33% met or exceeded the math standard.

In Glendale, 49% of students met or exceeded the standard in mathematics, while 58% did the same in English language arts.

La Cañada students outperformed neighboring students by far, with 85% of students meeting or exceeding the standard for English, and 82% doing the same for math.

The computerized exams replace the former STAR tests students took for the last time in 2013. They adapt to a student’s knowledge level as they take them, so if a student responds with the correct answer to a question, the test asks a more difficult question. If a student answers incorrectly, they will be prompted with an easier question.

Educators have said the new tests are better than the former pencil-and-paper exams, where students bubbled-in answers from multiple choices. The new tests give teachers insight into a student’s achievement level.

On the new exams, students’ scores land somewhere among four achievement levels: standard exceeded, standard met, standard nearly met and standard not met. The students who took them this past spring were enrolled in third through eighth grades as well as the 11th grade.

“I think we scored pretty much where we thought we would be,” said Sharon Cuseo, assistant superintendent for Burbank Unified. “As we become more familiar with the standards, our scores will improve.”

Statewide, school officials are focused on how well high school juniors perform on these exams ahead of entering the job market or enrolling at a college or university.

Of the 1,244 juniors at Burbank High who took the exam, 37% exceeded the English language arts standard while 39% met it, 16% nearly met it and 8% did not.

On the math exam, 15% exceeded the standard, 26% met it, while another 26% nearly did and 33% did not meet the standard.

Burroughs students achieved lower scores on the exam than Burbank High students.

Of the 1,165 juniors who took the test, 24% exceeded the English standard, while 34% met it, 24% nearly met it and 19% did not.

On the math exam, just 9% of students exceeded the standard, 15% met it, 27% nearly did and a staggering 50% of Burroughs juniors did not meet the standard.

Cuseo said that the overall scores are likely to improve as a result of the school district’s recent adoption of new Common Core math textbooks this year and another round of English language arts textbooks slated for adoption during the next school year.

She said that this exam is just one of many tools Burbank educators use to gauge student success.

“What we have to keep in mind is it’s baseline data,” she said, which marks the first round of scores that will be compared to next year’s scores for the first significant year-to-year comparison of this exam.

“We have so many other pieces that we look at to make sure our students are doing well and that we support our teachers. It’s more than just one test,” she added.

State officials also caution that the new exams and these results from about 3.2 million California students who took them last spring are only a prelude of what’s to come with the teaching of the new curriculum.

For State Supt. Tom Torlakson, he said the results “show our starting point as a state,” in a statement released on Wednesday.

“California’s new standards and tests are challenging for schools to teach and for students to learn, so I am encouraged that many students are at or near achievement standards. However, just as we expected, many students need to make more progress. Our job is to support students, teachers, and schools as they do,” he said.

Burbank families can expect to receive students’ individual scores in the coming days. The school district hasn’t yet received the scores from the state, but when they do, they will turn around and mail them to Burbank homes.

“We could get them any day, and as soon as we get them, we’ll be mailing them out,” Cuseo said.