Test Scores Up Despite Lack of English at Tustin School

The newest standardized test scores at Lambert Elementary School are still on the low side--but in a sense, they show stellar results.

With only 3% of its students fluent in English, the Tustin school took extraordinary steps this year to boost student performance and managed to raise six of 16 categories by double digits this year on the Stanford 9 exam. Seven categories had lesser increases, and three categories were about the same as last year.

The Tustin Unified School District released its scores Wednesday, with most districtwide results above the national norms.

That wasn’t the case at Lambert, which posted scores ranging from the 13th to the 36th percentile. But those scores were a big improvement for a school that last year ranked in the teens and 20s and where almost all students struggled even to understand what the test questions were asking.

“When our kids come to us, they haven’t been in an English-speaking environment before,” Principal Karla Wells said. “This is their first time hearing and seeing English on a regular basis. They’re growing by leaps and bounds.”

Wells and her teachers made a major effort this year to achieve that growth. They opened the school doors for four hours each Saturday to help children learn English.

They also held school for parents to teach them how to help their kids succeed. More than 250 parents--about 60% of those with children at the school--graduated from the 10-week program, where for two hours each week they learned to quiz their children at home and have them talk about what they had learned--even if it was in a different language.

“We told them what questions to ask when your child reads aloud to you: Ask students to summarize and rephrase, which gets to comprehension,” Wells said.

She praised her students for their improvement, adding, “I think it shows if you have high expectations for kids, they will prove you right.”

For the most part, Tustin’s districtwide scores ranked in the 50th or 60th percentiles nationwide. They were earned on a standardized test given to California public-school students in grades 2 through 11.

Some districtwide marks were in the 40s, but most scores represented an improvement over last year.

Tustin school board President Jane Bauer attributed the higher scores to a renewed literacy push.

“A couple years ago we decided to put a really big emphasis on reading--not just in elementary school but everywhere,” she said. “We don’t care if you’re teaching high school math, you’re still teaching reading.”

Some 11,490 Tustin students--more than a quarter of them still learning English--took the Stanford exam this year, the second annual administration of the test.

The test is designed to evaluate students’ proficiency in reading, mathematics and language. Elementary and middle school students also answer spelling questions, while high schoolers focus on science and social studies.

About a third of Orange County’s school districts have received scores so far. The rest are due by the end of June.

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

In a district that serves both hillside mansions and working-class apartments, test scores varied widely from school to school in Tustin.

Guin Foss Elementary was another campus where test scores grew significantly this year. Second-grade reading scores soared from the 41st to 65th percentile, and math scores for the same grade went up from the 47th to 85th percentiles.

Principal Liz Friedrich thinks last year’s scores were artificially low because it was the first year of operation for Guin Foss. Nonetheless, she credited much of the gains to the school’s emphasis on reading and math.

Guin Foss offered after-school reading and math lessons for about 100 of its 400 students. Parents joined the effort by reading stories called “Moms and Muffins” and “Dads and Doughnuts” to students during gatherings.

When she received the official scores, she “ripped through the results, hurriedly checking out how we did,” Friedrich said.

“I was ecstatic,” she said. “What’s important, of course, is what happens in the classroom every day. But I’m glad it’s demonstrated in the numbers.”

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Tustin Elementary, Middle Scores

Tustin Unified School District’s standardized test scores rose slightly this year, with most districtwide totals increasing. Some schools posted big increases on the Stanford 9 exams. The following percentile listings show how scores ranked, on average, against a nationally selected group. A score in the 50th percentile, for example, is exactly at the national norm. Higher scores indicate better results.

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Reading Math Language Spelling School Grade 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 Districtwide 2 47 49 51 56 53 60 45 51 3 43 51 50 58 55 63 46 52 4 44 51 51 57 46 54 42 49 5 40 46 48 55 44 53 42 48 6 48 48 49 51 54 54 48 49 7 49 47 55 56 50 51 47 50 8 52 49 55 54 49 51 40 41 Arroyo 2 68 79 72 84 75 90 60 71 Elementary 3 73 76 71 76 75 81 57 66 4 84 81 75 75 78 79 72 72 5 76 80 72 80 77 84 61 70 Benson 2 67 61 69 69 65 64 57 66 Elementary 3 73 77 81 80 81 81 68 73 4 67 71 63 73 62 63 54 51 5 63 58 67 61 66 66 61 54 Beswick 2 25 30 29 35 37 44 32 38 Elementary 3 22 26 31 38 34 42 32 31 4 20 23 30 37 22 31 22 25 5 17 24 26 35 24 34 21 30 Estock 2 49 47 53 56 59 57 51 50 Elementary 3 35 38 44 50 49 49 49 54 4 37 38 48 49 43 39 42 37 5 40 34 51 47 45 38 39 36 Guin Foss 2 41 65 47 67 47 85 41 64 Elementary 3 42 58 42 76 45 69 41 55 4 64 62 62 62 59 65 47 51 5 33 56 30 63 32 64 33 54 Heideman 2 36 26 34 34 40 35 29 32 Elementary 3 12 29 19 37 24 37 19 38 4 23 21 39 29 32 27 23 27 5 16 23 32 39 19 30 30 34 Lambert 2 16 15 15 14 28 28 19 20 Elementary 3 11 16 17 29 22 35 20 26 4 13 18 23 36 18 28 13 26 5 11 13 22 32 18 21 17 24 Loma Vista 2 49 60 50 65 57 65 41 54 Elementary 3 65 62 68 69 69 74 55 53 4 64 69 64 66 59 64 56 64 5 54 70 65 71 58 70 49 63 Nelson 2 54 57 59 69 54 69 52 62 Elementary 3 55 58 59 63 67 70 58 58 4 55 61 55 60 53 60 49 58 5 49 52 55 55 50 60 59 58 P. Canyon 2 60 71 76 79 63 79 59 70 Elementary 3 68 76 81 77 74 80 63 67 4 56 70 66 78 63 78 62 71 5 55 60 58 69 55 65 51 57 Thorman 2 24 31 33 44 32 42 24 36 Elementary 3 23 20 32 29 44 37 31 28 4 20 22 28 34 30 35 19 26 5 20 24 30 33 24 31 26 30 Tustin 2 77 71 85 78 84 80 72 69 Memorial 3 77 76 82 78 83 83 77 73 Elementary 4 70 80 77 85 73 81 82 80 5 59 76 62 76 72 80 55 71 Tustin Ranch 2 63 61 71 67 70 67 62 66 Elementary 3 66 71 74 76 75 79 62 68 4 59 62 66 64 59 66 65 61 5 64 62 60 66 57 63 58 62 Veeh 2 40 47 42 44 40 43 42 47 Elementary 3 39 43 42 45 42 50 39 46 4 37 44 51 51 36 45 41 44 5 39 32 53 44 42 32 42 39 Columbus 6 36 37 40 41 41 42 37 41 Tustin Middle 7 34 31 41 38 36 35 34 36 8 46 35 48 38 37 37 31 28 Currie Middle 6 35 33 38 40 42 38 41 36 7 34 36 39 45 31 41 36 41 8 35 36 37 41 35 34 28 30 Hewes Middle 6 66 65 66 64 74 72 66 63 7 70 69 76 77 74 72 65 69 8 66 68 71 74 69 73 55 57 Utt Middle 6 52 51 52 57 55 58 49 53 7 54 49 57 59 54 50 49 51 8 58 53 57 59 52 52 45 48

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Source: Tustin Unified School District

Tustin Test Scores Rising

Tustin Unified School District’s standardized test scores rose slightly this year, with most districtwide totals increasing. 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.

Elementary and middle schools scores are on B12.

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Reading Language Math Science School Grade 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 Districtwide 9 37 41 50 56 53 57 45 50 10 37 36 42 42 51 50 47 50 11 35 43 45 53 48 56 44 52 Foothill High 9 42 47 52 60 56 64 49 54 10 46 41 52 46 61 57 54 56 11 41 54 51 62 57 68 54 66 Hillview High* 10 14 15 16 16 21 19 28 23 11 14 20 21 32 19 19 21 25 Sycamore High** 9 27 19 26 26 10 17 20 66 36 Tustin High 9 34 36 50 54 50 51 42 46 10 30 33 35 42 45 46 42 46 11 33 35 44 46 45 48 38 41

Social science School 1998 1999 Districtwide 47 50 44 44 54 63 Foothill High 49 52 54 48 61 73 Hillview High* 21 18 27 34 Sycamore High** 33 9 Tustin High 46 48 38 41 51 54

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* Continuation school; must be 16 years old to attend

** Teen parenting and independent study make some scores unavailable

Source: Tustin Unified School District