Stanford 9 Test Scores

* Re “State’s Students Score Key Gains on Stanford 9 Test,” July 18: As a third-grade teacher I was pleased to see that the efforts of so many educators have caused increased scores in reading and math.

What concerns me is that the Stanford 9 exam is a “norm-referenced” test. This means 50% of the students who take the test must score below the 50th percentile. Do the State Department of Education, your newspaper and the general public understand this?

Your paper points out that the highest scores in the county were seen in the most affluent districts. This should come as no surprise, since these students come to school the most prepared and receive a great deal of parental support and enrichment. And these same schools and teachers are set to receive the greatest financial incentive money from the state.

I will continue to use the best practices to help my students develop the academic and personal skills they will need to succeed in the future. I’m not sure the results will always be accurately reflected in their test scores.

SUSAN BRANMAN

Los Angeles

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Re “2 Experts Say Stanford 9 Test Has Many Flaws,” July 14:

As an eighth-grade teacher in the LAUSD, I cannot reveal the actual culturally biased questions that I object to on the Stanford 9, but I can disguise the questions. For example, if a question mentioned Harvard, I will say Yale. On a grammar item, a famous name similar to Michelangelo Buonarroti was part of the sentence. Spelling questions asked students to spell words similar in yuppiness to “parfait” and “shallots.” My students asked, “Where’s ‘menudo’?”

SARA LEIBER McKINNEY

Los Angeles

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Having obtained an illegal copy of the Stanford 9 exam, The Times made the highly questionable decision to publish actual items from the test. Further undermining the state’s efforts to measure student achievement, The Times then chose as its only analysts of the exam two men who at the outset opposed California’s testing and accountability program. One is a representative of an organization dedicated solely to opposition of such testing programs.

The Stanford 9 is a valid, nationally accepted assessment that provides parents, schools and teachers valuable information about how students compare with their peers statewide and across the nation in the acquisition of basic academic skills. It is being augmented with a bank of questions specifically linked to California’s challenging academic standards. The California standards-based test--representing the sort of “criterion-referenced” exam favored by UCLA education professor emeritus W. James Popham--will be included on the state’s Academic Performance Index as early as next year.

Californians were rightfully fed up prior to 1998 when the state’s public school students were scoring near the bottom of national assessments, yet the state had no single method for measuring or comparing student achievement. The Stanford 9 has helped provide a consistent focus on academic achievement.

SUSAN K. BURR

Interim Secretary for Education

Sacramento