Anaheim’s Stanford 9 Scores Rise

The Anaheim Union High School District’s scores on the statewide Stanford Achievement Test continued to rise this year, although they remained below average in most cases.

District officials were happy.

“What makes my socks go up and down is the fact the scores have improved each year,” said Mary Dalessi, coordinator of research and evaluation for the district. “That’s what you want to see with this testing. It’s not going to be dramatic.”

The exam, commonly known as the Stanford 9, is a standardized basic-skills test given to about 4.3 million students in grades two through 11. The scores will be used to set improvement goals and to form a base for determining whether schools should receive future rewards or sanctions.

Districtwide, the highest scores were in the 53rd percentile, achieved by ninth-graders in mathematics and 11th-graders in social science. The 53rd percentile is slightly above average.

The better the score, the higher the percentile.

The largest jumps occurred among ninth-graders in language, where the score jumped from the 44th percentile to the 52nd.

Dalessi was most impressed that reading scores continued to rise, especially at Anaheim High, since English is the second language for nearly 80% of the students.

“We know that for the vast majority of the kids, reading is their weakest area, and test scores show that,” she said. “So for them to make these consistent increases, even though they don’t look very big, that’s what pleases us because it shows they’re improving their skills.”

The biggest jump occurred in language among ninth-graders at Anaheim High, where the score jumped 25 points from the 18th to the 43rd percentile. Dalessi, however, said she doubted the accuracy of this particular score, because improvements on the test usually are incremental.

Charting School Progress

Scores in the Anaheim Union High School District continued to rise this year on the statewide Stanford Achievement Test. 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 score.

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Reading Math Language Science School Grade 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 Districtwide 7 33 38 42 51 45 49 39 44 8 37 37 46 47 43 42 45 47 9 28 33 48 53 44 52 38 44 10 26 27 44 50 33 37 40 43 11 30 32 48 51 40 43 40 44 Anaheim 9 18 19 37 40 18 43 31 38 10 16 14 33 36 24 24 32 35 11 18 21 33 40 27 32 29 42 Cypress 9 47 49 65 72 58 68 51 58 10 42 49 60 71 47 61 54 60 11 46 48 66 70 54 61 57 60 Katella 9 29 32 47 50 43 47 39 43 10 29 30 51 49 34 34 41 41 11 30 31 49 50 39 41 40 39 Kennedy 9 40 44 67 69 60 61 50 52 10 41 41 64 67 53 54 55 57 11 46 43 73 67 56 57 62 58 Loara 9 26 35 48 56 43 53 37 45 10 25 33 42 58 34 42 39 45 11 26 38 45 61 45 49 36 52 47 Magnolia 9 21 24 42 46 35 40 31 37 10 19 21 35 42 21 27 33 37 11 25 23 44 45 34 31 37 33 Oxford Academy 9 -- 71 -- 84 -- 85 -- 70 Savanna 9 26 32 44 53 45 51 39 42 10 28 26 45 47 37 37 43 41 11 31 35 49 53 42 45 38 46 Western 9 27 30 50 53 46 52 39 41 10 22 27 43 54 29 41 38 45 11 25 28 44 47 37 44 35 40

Social science School 1999 2000 Districtwide 38 41 43 44 37 42 33 36 47 53 Anaheim 32 36 23 25 38 47 Cypress 47 55 45 52 62 68 Katella 37 37 35 34 45 46 Kennedy 48 49 49 48 64 63 Loara 37 42 32 42 11 60 Magnolia 33 37 29 30 46 44 Oxford Academy -- 75 Savanna 36 42 37 42 47 56 Western 37 39 29 36 43 54

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Junior High Schools

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Reading Math Language Science School Grade 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 Ball 7 31 34 38 48 35 44 34 37 8 35 33 43 44 36 38 36 37 Brookhurst 7 27 27 41 42 44 41 37 38 8 38 32 49 43 45 43 47 42 Dale 7 27 33 41 42 44 41 35 36 8 31 33 49 43 45 43 42 38 Lexington 7 58 62 62 67 68 67 59 67 8 59 63 58 67 59 63 62 71 Orangeview 7 27 36 36 54 34 47 37 42 8 32 36 40 45 36 40 52 50 Oxford Academy 7 78 90 82 94 89 95 76 88 8 76 79 81 87 81 87 81 88 South 7 25 26 37 41 35 40 35 38 8 29 29 41 38 33 31 37 40 Sycamore 7 19 23 28 36 30 29 27 32 8 22 24 32 33 30 27 31 34 Walker 7 45 52 55 62 58 61 47 56 8 55 62 56 63 54 54 51 57

Social science School 1999 2000 Ball 31 37 36 38 Brookhurst 34 37 43 42 Dale 33 32 41 36 Lexington 61 62 59 67 Orangeview 31 37 39 41 Oxford Academy 79 85 77 88 South 30 34 35 36 Sycamore 27 29 30 33 Walker 54 51 54 52

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Source: Anaheim Union High School School District