Westside Districts’ Students Score High on Tests

Among the more than 50 districts in Los Angeles County that have received their results on the Stanford 9 standardized test are Beverly Hills and Santa Monica-Malibu, both of which had generally above-average percentile rankings.

In Beverly Hills Unified School District, 4,130 students in grades 2 to 11 took the exam, said Diane Dawson, an assistant superintendent.

Districtwide scores ranged from a low of the 59th percentile in ninth-grade science to a high of the 83rd percentile in both third- and fifth-grade math. Across the board, the district fared relatively well in math, with all but three grade levels falling in the 80th percentile range.

Reading scores in grades two through eight hovered around the 70th percentile, while ninth- through 11th-grade reading were in the 60th percentile range. The lower reading rankings at high school level were also noted last year.

“This is the area we have to focus on for those grade levels,” Dawson said.

In the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, 8,529 students took the exam. Most scores went up 1 to 8 percentage points.

Scores generally fell within the 60th percentile range, including in reading. Like Beverly Hills, however, Santa Monica-Malibu saw lower overall scores in high school-level reading. The 10th- and 11th-grade scores were below average, at the 47th and 49th percentile respectively.