4 School Districts Show Big Gains in Standardized Tests

Schools in Cypress, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach released significantly improved standardized test results Wednesday--scores that soon will be tied to financial rewards and possible penalties.

In this, the third year of California’s latest standardized testing program, districtwide scores for the Fountain Valley, Ocean View and Huntington Beach City school systems showed improvement in nearly every grade and subject area tested.

All four school systems bested the national median in districtwide scores for all grades in topics tested--reading, math, language and spelling.

In the Ocean View School District, where 19% of students don’t speak English fluently, one of the keys to improvement was scaling back on fun-but-time-consuming projects to double the amount of language arts instruction. Some individual students learning English there saw their marks soar.

Each Fountain Valley School District campus identified an area of weakness from last year’s testing and developed an improvement plan. The Cypress School District focused on math this year.

This year, about 4.3 million public school children in grades two through 11 took the Stanford 9. The test measures basic skills, such as reading, math, language, science and social science, depending on the grade level. Student scores are ranked against those from a national pool of test takers.

The test has many critics--and a place of prime importance in California’s effort to hold schools accountable for student learning. For the time being, test scores are the sole ingredient in a statewide ranking system. Schools that make growth targets in that system are eligible for cash rewards. Those that don’t face penalties that range up to state takeover.

The test is often criticized because some of its questions are not covered by state-adopted textbooks. Taking it can be stressful for children under any circumstances --particularly those who do not know enough English to read the questions. Then there is the ranking system.

“When you [tie] financial rewards to the performance index, I think that has the potential for abuse,” said Bill Eller, superintendent of the high-scoring Cypress school system. “That gets away from what I see as the mission of educators: teaching children how to read and compute. The money becomes about the big people, not the little people.”

Concerns from grown-ups aside, the little people--the students--in Orange County seem to be getting the hang of the Stanford 9 test.

Ocean View Students Read More Each Day

In the 6,900-student Huntington Beach City School District, second- and third-graders showed significant year-to-year growth. Districtwide, second-graders brought their reading scores up to the 64th percentile this year, up from last year’s 58th percentile, and math marks rose 6 percentile points to the 73rd percentile. The lowest mark was a 55th percentile in eighth-grade reading.

By definition, the 50th percentile is the national median, with half the nationwide pool scoring higher and half scoring lower.

Ocean View school administrators credit their gains to increasing the time elementary students spend reading in class from 90 minutes to 210 minutes a day and raising daily math instruction from 50 to 70 minutes.

In return, Ocean View saw all districtwide scores surpass the national median--with most in the 60th and 70th percentile range. At the impoverished Oak View School, average reading scores rose into the high teens and low 20s. Math scores climbed out of the bottom third nationwide.

Assistant Supt. Karen Colby said some students displayed phenomenal growth. “A fourth-grade child in math went from a 7 last year to a 64 this year--the same child. Another student went from an 18 to 73 in math.”

Consistently high-scoring Cypress schools continued their strong performance, posting scores mostly in the 70th percentiles--with a few higher or lower.

In the Fountain Valley School District, performance was strong overall, with many districtwide scores in the 60s and 70s. Eighth-grade spelling, though, continued to dog the district--it lagged at the 55th percentile.

Assistant Supt. Catherine Follett said her 6,300-student school system enjoys many blessings.

“We have a good clientele,” she said. “Our parents are very involved and very concerned. We have a very experienced staff--most of our teachers have been with us 20, 25, 30 years.”

To build on existing scores, each Fountain Valley school identified one area in reading and in math--pronoun usage, say, or long division--where students had struggled a bit last year and decided to give it an extra push. Follett plans to analyze results in those particular areas soon to see what happened.

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A Measure of Success

The following percentile listings show how 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.

CYPRESS

Cypress schools achieved enviable results on this year’s Stanford 9 test, chalking up districtwide scores in the 60th, 70th and 80th percentiles.

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Grade Read Lang. Spell Math Districtwide 2 72 78 76 80 3 67 76 76 80 4 66 74 72 75 5 62 72 64 75 6 66 73 66 78 Arnold 2 72 81 72 83 3 68 78 78 79 4 66 76 72 71 5 63 79 65 73 6 62 65 62 71 Cawthon 2 82 85 85 82 3 67 73 68 79 4 78 79 75 83 5 72 78 70 84 6 72 80 69 87 Damron 2 60 74 74 74 3 62 74 70 79 4 56 71 65 73 5 50 62 51 65 6 57 65 63 67 Dickerson 2 77 79 76 84 3 71 80 87 85 4 67 70 67 65 5 62 71 60 72 6 64 73 67 79 King 2 51 50 57 57 3 56 68 64 72 4 50 63 56 57 5 57 63 54 64 6 49 61 53 62 Landell 2 80 88 86 84 3 78 84 80 87 4 79 84 84 84 5 75 83 76 89 6 77 77 73 82 Luther 2 77 86 80 85 3 70 81 76 86 4 65 76 74 74 5 58 67 70 71 6 73 82 73 88 Morris 2 79 87 84 91 3 64 74 80 76 4 79 81 84 83 5 69 77 74 87 6 69 74 76 81 Swain 2 61 53 65 63 3 57 65 79 78 4 42 52 59 51 5 45 50 48 58 6 51 62 47 65 Frank 2 75 81 77 81 Vessels 3 68 72 71 80 4 61 67 66 74 5 65 71 58 71 6 74 88 72 87

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Source: Cypress School District

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FOUNTAIN VALLEY

Continuing its strong performance, Fountain Valley School District showed gains across the board in almost every grade and subject tested. Marks were particularly strong in language and mathematics.

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Grade Read Lang. Spell Math Districtwide 2 71 77 69 78 3 68 75 68 80 4 71 75 73 78 5 67 74 68 74 6 69 76 69 78 7 69 75 65 78 8 66 72 55 75 Courreges 2 75 81 77 85 3 77 81 78 83 4 84 83 85 89 5 78 83 75 84 Cox 2 67 76 72 74 3 63 74 67 82 4 65 73 66 72 5 67 74 70 79 Fulton 6 73 81 74 86 7 73 80 69 84 8 72 80 63 85 Gisler 2 69 76 62 82 3 70 77 66 84 4 71 74 82 82 5 63 70 69 73 Masuda 6 71 77 71 77 7 69 74 66 78 8 65 67 50 73 Moiola 2 70 78 61 69 3 75 84 74 88 4 72 76 74 76 5 66 71 71 61 6 65 76 71 79 7 76 80 74 76 8 66 75 55 70 Newland 2 79 87 73 81 3 74 73 60 80 4 72 73 70 74 5 66 74 62 65 Isojiro Oka 2 63 61 53 71 3 55 64 53 64 4 63 76 64 65 5 59 74 60 67 Plavan 2 72 75 68 82 3 60 67 65 79 4 60 69 65 74 5 63 71 66 75 Talbert 6 64 67 62 67 7 63 67 54 71 8 63 66 53 65 Tamura 2 74 81 78 79 3 65 75 73 74 4 66 67 66 77 5 65 64 64 70

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Source: Fountain Valley School District.

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HUNTINGTON BEACH CITY

Huntington Beach schools continued their tradition of strong performance this year, garnering districtwide scores largely in the 60th and 70th percentiles.

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Grade Read Lang. Spell Math Districtwide 2 64 73 64 73 3 68 74 63 78 4 68 70 65 70 5 65 69 59 68 6 65 72 62 77 7 66 74 63 74 8 66 73 55 73 Dwyer 6 61 65 57 76 7 61 68 59 73 8 61 67 50 67 Eader 2 69 78 68 78 3 73 74 72 80 4 71 76 75 72 5 70 74 60 68 Hawes 2 69 76 69 81 3 80 88 72 87 4 78 78 78 79 5 67 65 70 75 Huntington 2 64 77 71 67 Seacliff 3 76 80 68 80 4 80 78 74 87 5 75 77 70 85 Kettler 2 65 71 59 74 3 63 72 58 74 4 66 67 59 60 5 61 66 52 61 Moffet 2 65 79 66 86 3 75 81 69 89 4 67 72 63 65 5 61 71 61 69 Perry 2 45 56 46 46 3 40 46 45 47 4 44 46 40 47 5 44 47 41 44 Peterson 2 72 80 72 79 3 74 75 63 81 4 71 70 69 74 5 77 77 66 80 Smith 2 65 70 66 66 3 70 76 62 84 4 62 71 55 67 5 60 68 58 64 Sowers 6 69 78 67 78 7 69 79 66 75 8 70 77 59 78

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Source: Huntington Beach City School District.

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OCEAN VIEW

Scores rose for Ocean View students this year, with all districtwide marks cresting the national median, or the 50th percentile.

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Grade Read Lang. Spell Math Districtwide 2 57 62 54 69 3 56 62 53 70 4 58 62 57 67 5 60 66 56 70 6 60 70 63 74 7 62 73 62 76 8 62 69 54 76 Circle View 2 76 86 69 88 3 73 74 70 84 4 77 81 75 83 5 85 85 77 91 College 2 57 63 53 63 View 3 55 59 53 62 4 51 50 52 60 5 55 55 44 60 Golden View 2 67 74 64 79 3 60 66 56 72 4 62 61 56 67 5 63 65 50 68 Harbour 2 71 79 67 86 View 3 70 75 54 77 4 69 73 64 80 5 66 74 62 77 Hope View 2 65 69 59 70 3 68 73 59 82 4 66 64 56 72 5 67 68 62 70 Lake View 2 55 59 54 71 3 52 63 59 74 4 52 59 63 65 5 52 58 51 59 Marine View 6 66 76 67 76 7 69 77 68 78 8 64 70 56 74 Mesa View 6 62 74 63 76 7 61 74 65 76 8 60 65 52 73 Oak View 2 26 24 28 33 3 17 22 21 34 4 19 33 20 39 5 22 38 26 36 Spring View 6 54 65 56 70 7 63 73 61 74 8 64 69 50 75 Star View 2 59 60 61 77 3 63 66 64 78 4 71 73 76 73 5 60 71 66 77 Sun View 2 39 41 37 47 3 48 57 50 55 4 48 57 47 62 5 50 52 44 54 Village View 2 68 74 61 70 3 65 75 56 77 4 61 61 55 60 5 69 75 63 71 Vista View 6 59 66 66 75 7 53 68 55 77 8 61 72 58 81 Westmont 2 35 40 41 56 3 34 44 46 55 4 44 53 48 57 5 43 50 40 56

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Source: Ocean View School District.