Fullerton Test Scores Up Slightly in Most Categories

In California’s second year of standardized testing, Fullerton high school students moderately improved scores almost across the board in reading, math, language arts, science and social science, according to results released Wednesday.

The 8,700 students who took the Stanford 9 exam in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District ranked at or just above the national average in nearly all subjects, but they struggled with reading.

“If I were to point out an area that we need to focus on most, it’s in . . . reading and reading comprehension,” said Ken Stichter, an assistant superintendent in the Fullerton district. “Reading is the key to success in school and most anything else in society.”

The Fullerton district comprises six comprehensive high schools and one continuation school. Two Fullerton campuses that boast competitive academic programs--Troy, a science and technology magnet, and Sunny Hills, with an International Baccalaureate program--tallied the highest scores in the district.

Troy and La Vista, the continuation high school, scored the biggest gains over last year’s results on the high-stakes Stanford exam.

The Fullerton district on Wednesday became the second of Orange County’s 27 school systems to release partial results from this year’s Stanford 9 test, which will be trickling in district by district through June 30. The exam is administered to public school students in second through 11th grades.

Results are expressed as percentiles, which rank students against a nationally selected group of peers. By definition, the 50th percentile is the national average, with half the pool scoring higher and half scoring lower.

Most Fullerton district scores landed in the 50th to 60th percentile, with reading marks lingering in the 40s. About 15% of the district’s test-takers do not speak English fluently, which contributed to the below-average reading scores.

In the 10th grade, for example, Fullerton’s native English speakers ranked in the 47th percentile. Those still learning English scored in the ninth percentile--for a district percentile of 40.

While Fullerton’s district scores were around the national average, scores were uneven from school to school.

Even though Troy High concentrates on math and science, its students earned the district’s highest reading scores--in the 65th to 71st percentile. Scores were even more impressive in other categories, with marks between the 71st and 86th percentile.

The biggest gains came at La Vista High, which mainly educates students who have wrestled with academic or discipline problems at other schools.

La Vista’s percentile scores, while still in the teens and 20s, almost all improved from last year. Reading and language arts scores for 10th-graders both doubled this year, to the 16th and 20th percentiles, respectively.

Stichter was cheered by the gains, which he attributed to the school’s increasing emphasis on reading instruction. But he cautioned against reading too much into the gains, because continuation high schools have transitory populations, with the student population not the same week to week, let alone year to year.

That said, Linda MacDonell, director of instructional services for the Orange County Department of Education, was impressed by the gains at La Vista and Troy.

“It’s tough to make significant gains at either end of the spectrum,” she said. “It’s hard to move another 5% when you’re at the 10th percentile. And when you’re already at the 70th percentile, moving even higher is really difficult. I want to know what those schools are doing right.”

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Reading Still a Problem

Fullerton high school students rank near or above average in four of five subjects tested in the Stanford 9 examinations. Reading continues to be the district’s weak spot. The following percentile listings for Fullerton Joint Union High School District show how scores ranked, on average, against a nationally selected group. A score in the 99th percentile, for example, is equal to or higher than all but 1% of the comparison group’s.

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Reading Math Language Science School Grade 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 Districtwide 9 42 43 62 62 58 59 51 52 10 39 40 59 58 48 48 54 55 11 43 44 57 59 52 56 50 55 Buena Park 9 22 22 39 38 36 38 35 33 10 20 19 39 33 28 24 37 35 11 24 25 37 35 34 35 32 32 Fullerton 9 30 30 47 46 44 46 41 42 10 27 27 43 39 35 37 37 41 11 33 31 42 46 43 46 38 43 La Habra 9 38 35 56 48 56 48 48 44 10 33 39 51 48 42 44 49 53 11 36 40 48 49 44 49 43 51 La Vista* 10 8 16 16 22 10 20 20 25 11 21 15 19 20 23 18 23 19 Sonora 9 41 37 58 58 54 54 50 50 10 38 37 53 51 42 42 51 56 11 39 39 48 48 49 51 48 55 Sunny Hills 9 54 56 77 79 72 72 59 60 10 54 49 78 76 65 60 66 59 11 59 60 81 81 71 72 67 68 Troy 9 64 71 83 86 77 82 69 73 10 63 65 81 83 69 74 74 76 11 66 70 80 85 71 76 72 78

Social science School 1998 1999 Districtwide 52 51 46 46 61 64 Buena Park 33 31 28 26 47 47 Fullerton 41 38 35 34 50 51 La Habra 46 41 37 44 57 61 La Vista* 14 22 22 29 Sonora 52 50 41 42 56 61 Sunny Hills 62 62 60 55 76 72 Troy 72 77 68 71 80 84

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* No 9th grade

Source: Fullerton Joint Union High School District