Interpreting the Stanford 9 Test

The Stanford 9 basic skills exam was given in the spring to 4.3 million California students in grades 2 to 11. This is the third year schools statewide have administered the test.

School districts have begun mailing home individual student reports that tell parents how their children performed on this year’s exam. The reports will not provide comparisons to last year’s results, state officials said. But the report forms are essentially the same, allowing parents to compare them to last year’s report.

Overall scores for schools, districts, counties and the state will be posted on the Internet on Monday. The results can be found on the state Department of Education’s Web site at https://www.cde.ca.gov or https://star.cde.ca.gov.

Individual student reports will not be posted on the Internet, but the Web site will contain all three years of scores for schools, districts, counties and the state.

Experts issued a word of caution on the reports now in the mail. They say no single number or test can precisely capture a student’s level of achievement. In evaluating your child’s progress, you should consider report cards, teacher input, writing samples and other factors.