Dissect Success

Rising Stanford 9 test scores chart significant progress in California, especially in the primary grades, where the state and the local school districts have placed the greatest emphasis on reform. The gains deserve praise--then a thorough analysis of the schools that made the greatest progress, to determine how to keep scores moving upward.

Gov. Gray Davis lauded the statewide results, released Monday, at Niemes Elementary School in Artesia. There, students improved in every grade; the governor noted that the school doubled raw scores in spelling and rose threefold in the language category. Davis praised the principal, teachers who collaborate weekly, hard-working students and involved parents.

Still, California has a long way to go. The good news in the primary grades diminished in the grades immediately higher and all but disappeared in high school.

In reading, nearly half of all second-grade students scored at or above the national average, a 9% increase over two years. In math, as many as 57% matched or exceeded the average, a 14% increase since 1998, the first year the state required the test. Third-grade students also improved dramatically in reading and made the greatest progress of any grade in math.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin credits the strong showing in the early grades to California’s renewed emphasis on teacher training, the state’s class-size reduction program in primary grades and remedial programs after school, on Saturdays and during summers that target struggling students.

The rate of improvement dwindled to statistical insignificance in the higher grades. Eleventh-grade students made zero progress in reading and social studies, though in math the students scoring at or above the 50th percentile did rise by 5%. Those disappointing results ought to do two things: raise concerns about sustaining the gains of the lower grades and focus more attention on high schools, whose students will have to start taking a statewide exit exam in two years in order to graduate.

The Los Angeles Unified School District still lags behind the rest of the state significantly, in part because most of its students are low-income and many are learning English for the first time as they start school and thus are at a steep academic disadvantage. But the district did make continued and significant progress, proving that no matter what the initial disadvantage, learning can improve.

Gains in the L.A. schools were more dramatic in reading than in math, which is not surprising given the districtwide concentration on improving reading.

That barriers of income and language need not lead to failure was proven by the gains posted in reading at several elementary schools cited by the LAUSD, including Crescent Heights Boulevard, Selma Avenue in Hollywood, Harding in Sylmar, 42nd Street in South-Central Los Angeles and 54th Street in Southwest Los Angeles.

The Stanford 9 test does not measure all that every student knows, but it is California’s only current barometer of student achievement. Schools will be rewarded by the state on the basis of the scores; it is clear that having goals and insisting on reform have helped.

What should come next is intense study of the schools that rose above the pack, especially those that did well with low-income and minority children. Who are their principals and how do they operate? Who are their teachers and what do they do differently? Many of the answers will seem self-evident: Good management and skilled teaching usually go hand in hand. But there is still much to be learned, and there is no time to lose.