Scores for Buena Park, Fountain Valley Rise

The Fountain Valley School District this year improved on already laudable standardized test scores, besting the national average, according to results released Tuesday.

Just one of the elementary school district’s test scores--eighth-grade spelling at Samuel E. Talbert Middle School--dipped below the 50th percentile on the Stanford 9 exam. Fountain Valley’s highest scores came from William T. Newland Elementary School, where math and language scores for second-graders were just shy of the 90th percentile. Most scores were in the 60th and 70th percentile range.

“We’re really pleased,” Fountain Valley Supt. Marc Ecker said. “The teachers, children and parents at the school sites have worked very diligently attempting to improve.”

Buena Park School District also bettered last year’s scores--by double digits in some cases. But the results in that district, where more than 40% of students speak little or no English, ranged mainly in the 30th and 40th percentile range. In two instances, both involving sixth-grade results, districtwide scores reached the 50s.

“I am so pleased,” Buena Park Supt. Carol Holmes Riley said. “We were really looking for improvement. We spent a lot of time training teachers [to improve reading]. I knew if we focused, we would have better success, because we have high-quality teachers in our district.”

This is the state’s second year administering the standardized exam to public school students in grades 2 through 11. Stanford 9 scores are a key element in the state’s plan to increase accountability in public education.

The Stanford 9 exam tests elementary and middle-school students in reading, language, math and spelling. High school students also are evaluated in science and social science.

So far, seven Orange County school districts have publicly released their scores on the important test; scores will continue trickling in through the end of the month, when state officials will post them on the Internet.

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.

Much to the confusion of some educators, this year’s Stanford 9 exam also includes math and language arts “augmentations,” extra questions that are supposed to align with the state’s tough new standards, in addition to the core test questions. The augmentation results are not blended into the scores reported to the state.

Many districts are not releasing their augmentation results, which are expressed as the percentage of questions answered correctly rather than as percentiles. Neither Fountain Valley nor Buena Park released augmentation scores Tuesday.

In Fountain Valley, district scores were strongest in math and language. Somewhat lower scores were posted in spelling--though most numbers climbed from last year’s levels.

“I think we’re starting to see the effects of class-size reduction” on the scores, Ecker said. The state campaign helped to whittle class sizes to 20 or fewer in primary grades.

Reading proved Buena Park’s biggest weakness--not surprising given the district’s high number of English learners. But those pupils--known in education jargon as limited-English proficient students--made reading gains in every grade on a districtwide level.

“The effect is that scores will be lower overall,” Riley said. “But the improvement among our LEP kids was across the board. That’s not to say we can’t be a lot better. We can. But the results tell me: When we focus on standards, we can make a difference for kids.”

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How to Read the Results

Fountain Valley students racked up impressive scores on the Stanford 9 standardized tests. Across the district, scores were above the national average, and in some individual schools scores reached into the 80th percentile range. Districtwide, Buena Park students made gains in almost every area tested, but most overall scores lingered below the 50th percentile. The following percentile listings 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.

Source: Fountain Valley and Buena Park school districts

Stanford 9 Scores

Fountain Valley

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Reading Math Language Spelling School Grade 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 Districtwide 2 61 70 70 78 70 77 59 67 3 62 64 70 73 68 70 59 62 4 65 69 67 71 70 72 65 71 5 62 66 66 69 68 74 61 66 6 62 63 71 71 69 66 62 60 7 64 67 72 76 71 76 63 65 8 64 64 70 70 70 71 53 53 Courreges 2 73 71 81 81 80 78 74 77 Elementary 3 73 78 77 85 82 83 72 73 4 78 80 76 81 80 79 79 81 5 74 77 79 82 81 83 70 76 Cox 2 62 70 77 83 77 76 58 71 Elementary 3 59 58 71 70 66 65 61 60 4 60 66 63 74 65 70 62 73 5 61 66 68 76 70 77 64 64 Fulton 6 70 68 80 80 76 70 67 61 Middle 7 67 72 79 84 77 81 69 72 8 72 69 80 79 79 78 58 59 Gisler 2 58 69 59 75 60 78 63 63 Elementary 3 54 56 64 63 60 62 56 61 4 65 77 82 79 70 72 65 74 5 66 64 65 59 66 69 57 59 Masuda 6 60 67 68 73 65 68 59 62 Middle 7 66 65 73 77 73 73 63 62 8 65 63 70 71 71 73 54 54 Moiola 2 65 72 63 67 63 73 56 60 Elementary 3 69 73 83 83 77 76 64 67 4 67 69 68 59 76 73 75 70 5 61 70 65 68 70 76 65 71 6 61 67 80 74 69 65 56 64 7 65 72 67 72 79 77 67 60 8 60 63 60 65 73 74 54 54 Newland 2 72 82 82 88 83 88 70 75 Elementary 3 63 67 64 67 67 67 53 57 4 64 67 56 61 61 67 57 67 5 56 63 56 52 59 60 48 55 Oka 2 51 60 60 72 64 68 46 50 Elementary 3 52 57 57 63 58 66 42 54 4 53 63 53 61 64 74 50 58 5 51 58 57 56 63 72 58 64 Plavan 2 49 75 75 87 59 82 49 65 Elementary 3 71 54 80 70 76 59 65 59 4 55 60 58 59 63 68 57 73 5 67 64 72 64 72 72 66 69 Talbert 6 57 54 64 59 66 59 62 54 Middle 7 56 63 64 66 59 74 57 61 8 53 59 59 60 58 59 45 44 Tamura 2 53 64 55 70 61 71 52 72 Elementary 3 59 60 60 75 58 72 58 60 4 69 65 69 74 72 69 65 69 5 56 63 59 76 57 74 59 67

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Buena Park

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Reading Math Language Spelling School Grade 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 Districtwide 2 33 36 35 43 35 37 35 41 3 26 33 30 48 32 44 32 47 4 32 31 32 35 39 42 32 33 5 32 33 39 39 39 42 34 37 6 37 39 45 54 47 50 38 41 7 27 35 34 45 37 48 33 39 8 34 30 41 39 42 41 34 32 Beatty 2 40 34 50 43 49 37 39 37 Elementary 3 27 31 35 48 33 44 36 51 4 32 26 27 33 35 39 28 30 5 34 35 41 52 39 47 33 37 6 41 41 46 59 49 49 40 39 Buena Park 7 27 35 34 44 37 48 33 46 Jr. High 8 34 30 40 39 41 41 34 32 Corey 2 43 51 45 62 47 56 52 57 Elementary 3 39 43 40 54 44 54 47 62 4 39 47 37 51 49 52 51 51 5 46 42 47 41 54 46 54 42 6 58 50 72 63 67 63 66 60 Emery 2 35 48 39 49 37 48 38 48 Elementary 3 32 43 34 56 40 54 35 50 4 55 49 53 56 65 61 51 53 5 48 58 48 67 56 67 43 66 6 49 59 59 76 59 73 46 58 Gilbert 2 26 36 22 49 24 39 27 42 Elementary 3 18 24 20 35 26 34 24 34 4 20 19 16 19 30 26 20 18 5 20 18 18 20 29 24 22 21 6 23 26 25 36 32 34 26 29 Pendleton 2 35 30 38 27 30 29 33 32 Elementary 3 27 37 28 53 30 44 33 42 4 32 42 24 38 41 43 32 45 5 29 23 29 28 32 34 36 32 6 38 35 37 47 44 41 39 30 Whitaker 2 25 24 21 28 21 23 28 31 Elementary 3 19 27 24 43 25 34 20 37 4 27 23 26 26 31 37 27 24 5 24 32 25 35 29 41 26 37 6 26 30 34 42 31 39 25 32

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