Orange Unified Elementary Schools’ Scores Rise

Every school district waits anxiously for its Stanford 9 test scores--they are the state’s primary measure of how well schools do their job and can build up or erode a district’s educational reputation.

Perhaps no district in Orange County has been as anxious as Orange Unified, which endured a year of such upheaval and strife that many thought the district’s standardized test scores would surely suffer.

Stanford 9 scores released Friday, however, indicated that the turmoil did not extend to the classroom. Continuing a countywide trend, the district’s scores showed modest increases in grades two through eight, with most schools scoring at the 50th percentile or higher.

Scores in middle schools were up in all grade levels and subject areas except seventh-grade spelling, while high school scores were stayed the same or dipped slightly. “We’re pleased with the rising test scores that we’re seeing in our elementary and middle schools,” Supt. Barbara Van Otterloo said. “We have some concerns about reading scores at the high school level, and we’ll be putting together plans to bring those scores up.”

Also releasing their Stanford 9 test scores Friday were Brea Olinda Unified and Garden Grove Unified school districts. Both saw solid increases in test results from the lower grades, while high school scores remained the same or fell slightly.

“Overall we’re very, very pleased--our elementary and inter mediate scores are higher at all grades and in every subject,” said Al Sims, director of evaluation and research for Garden Grove Unified.

Like most school districts across the county, Garden Grove is trying to puzzle out why the most improvement is occurring at the elementary level.

“I think class-size reduction may be important here,” Sims said. “I don’t think we can use cause and effect just yet, but I look at our scores, and our biggest jumps are down with the primary kids.”

Officials in Orange Unified said they feared that dissent in the district during the weeks before the test was administered would hurt scores.

“There certainly was a concern about it, especially because of the coincidental timing of one of the teacher’s one-day strike with the testing period,” said Phil Morse, administrator of the district’s research and assessment department.

“But in terms of whether you can actually see it reflected in the test scores one way or another, I would personally be uncomfortable taking a leap and saying scores are affected by that factor,” Morse said.

Teachers union officials said the solid increases showed that, while teachers may have picketed on their campuses and at school board sessions, inside the classroom they did their job.

“Virtually every teacher in the district made sure whatever kind of job action we had against the school board did not have any effect on our children,” said John Rossmann, president of the Orange Unified Education Assn. “The vast majority of teachers insulated their kids from that and focused on preparing their children for all the academic areas.”

Stanford 9 scores are measured against those of a national pool. The 50th percentile is the national median.

This year, about 4.3 million public-school children, in grades two through 11 statewide, took the Stanford 9. Because different school districts take the test at different times, scores will continue to trickle in through mid-July, when the state will post them on the Internet. The test measures basic skills, such as reading, math, language, spelling, science and social science, depending on the grade level.

* STANFORD 9 SCORES

Scores of Garden Grove Unified schools will appear in Sunday’s Times. Brea Olinda District scores will appear next week.

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Elementary and Middle Schools

Orange Unified School District showed gains over last year in every category in grades 2 through 8. High school scores remained on par or dipped slightly below those of 1999. The following list shows Stanford 9 percentile 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 Spelling School Grade 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 Districtwide 2 50 52 61 65 57 59 52 55 3 47 49 57 63 51 56 49 54 4 50 50 54 58 54 56 49 51 5 48 50 52 57 53 57 49 53 6 54 57 61 67 59 64 52 57 7 52 53 57 58 62 65 55 55 8 53 55 57 61 58 61 48 49 Anaheim Hills 2 70 74 84 81 80 77 77 73 3 80 75 88 85 83 77 76 77 4 69 74 68 76 67 73 55 71 5 70 65 77 73 73 69 63 63 6 70 69 74 82 76 80 68 66 California 2 27 26 33 32 26 23 32 30 3 20 27 19 33 27 34 27 40 4 22 20 21 20 29 31 25 26 5 24 27 31 35 33 37 33 38 6 26 35 22 50 32 50 29 42 Cambridge 2 31 40 37 53 42 54 32 42 3 28 34 35 53 35 45 32 42 4 35 33 32 39 37 44 34 31 5 33 34 27 33 34 35 32 44 6 47 47 53 55 52 54 47 45 Canyon Rim 2 69 77 75 82 79 83 68 74 3 65 71 74 83 69 76 62 66 4 63 65 64 68 63 70 65 67 5 64 64 75 71 68 69 59 60 6 -- 72 -- 86 -- 76 -- 72 Chapman Hills 2 75 75 87 83 81 76 73 73 3 64 66 69 78 63 74 58 65 4 69 71 78 79 71 69 64 70 5 59 73 66 72 65 79 58 70 6 72 73 77 82 70 78 63 72 Crescent 2 70 67 76 69 74 72 67 68 Primary 3 69 65 77 81 75 71 59 63 Crescent 4 74 74 74 75 75 76 73 62 Intermediate 5 72 68 73 69 76 69 71 61 6 73 75 75 81 71 79 70 72 Esplanade 2 36 37 54 54 33 34 34 38 3 26 26 48 52 36 34 30 40 4 23 29 30 33 27 39 23 28 5 19 21 24 24 33 34 22 27 6 41 33 55 52 49 39 38 34 Fairhaven 2 22 43 27 55 22 42 24 46 3 21 25 24 34 19 26 25 29 4 23 20 29 26 30 26 24 22 5 17 23 21 32 23 33 20 32 6 35 30 41 43 42 40 29 31 Fletcher 2 53 49 55 53 57 52 49 48 3 57 59 65 64 58 61 57 56 4 52 42 50 50 51 47 48 48 5 51 49 46 54 56 57 46 48 6 57 63 63 66 68 75 56 60 Handy 2 47 44 60 54 56 50 48 46 3 32 35 42 50 36 43 38 48 4 35 35 32 35 43 40 33 30 5 31 41 33 38 37 42 35 42 6 38 41 49 41 50 45 44 39 Imperial 2 75 68 73 71 78 76 77 70 3 71 71 87 84 79 77 69 69 4 66 69 63 72 71 75 57 62 5 60 61 73 65 68 68 66 61 6 71 72 75 83 69 79 62 74 Jordan 2 20 21 42 48 28 23 22 25 3 18 15 32 31 24 23 31 24 4 15 19 27 35 26 29 16 25 5 19 17 32 29 30 26 19 19 6 22 22 42 42 31 32 20 18

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