Buena Park Credits Teachers, Outreach for Better Scores

The good news hit Carl E. Gilbert Elementary a couple days after school let out, so Monday’s celebration was muted. But Principal Jack Hay was decidedly excited that his school’s standardized test scores are up--way up.

“My first reaction was, ‘Whoa, baby!’ ” Hay said. The cause of his exuberance? The Buena Park school posted double-digit percentile jumps in 15 of the 20 subjects and grade levels tested on the state’s high-stakes standardized test. Stanford 9 scores improved in the other five areas too--just more modestly.

Most of the school’s marks are still a few points shy of the national median, but they are a vast improvement over last year’s. That’s no small feat in a school where three of every five students is still learning English and four out of five are poor.

Scores are measured against those of a national pool of test-takers. The 50th percentile is the national median.

Hay credits the growth to dedicated teachers, the school’s push to help students learn more English faster, new math programs and more parental involvement. But he could share the news with only a few teachers who stuck around Monday to clean their classrooms for the next school year.

“I’m real tickled, and my teachers, when I gave them the scores, they went nuts,” he said. “We’ve worked so hard.”

The school’s successes helped propel the Buena Park School District’s average scores past last year’s marks. Districtwide, scores ranged mostly in the 40th to 50th percentiles, with growth ranging from 2 to 18 percentile points.

The Stanford 9 measures basic skills, such as reading, math, language, spelling, science and social science, depending on the grade level.

Scores also rose, but more moderately, in the higher-achieving Los Alamitos Unified School District.

That 8,400-student school system boasted districtwide scores mainly in the 60th, 70th and even 80th percentiles--although growth is mainly measured in single digits.

Some of the biggest jumps districtwide came among high school juniors, who brought reading scores from a below-average 45th percentile to a strong 60th and improved math marks from the 64th to the 75th percentiles.

“Overall, we’ve done pretty well, but there’s always room for growth,” said Karen Lovelace, an assistant superintendent in Los Alamitos. “We’ll continue to analyze and look for ways to continue that positive pattern.”

Los Alamitos High Assistant Principal Gregg Stone credits some of the growth by 11th-graders to a new tack in teaching reading. Since the Stanford 9 is more likely to present passages about programming a VCR than those from Ernest Hemingway, Los Alamitos students are getting a bit more practice with technical writing, he said.

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Elementary and Middle School Scores

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.

BUENA PARK

Scores in the Buena Park School District jumped this year on the statewide Stanford Achievement Test.

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Reading Math Language Spelling School Grade 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 Districtwide 2 36 47 42 60 37 47 40 50 3 33 38 47 59 43 47 46 53 4 31 42 35 52 41 52 33 49 5 33 40 39 53 41 48 37 45 6 39 43 53 60 49 51 40 48 7 35 39 44 50 47 50 39 45 8 30 43 39 50 40 51 32 42 Beatty 2 34 43 42 56 37 51 37 46 3 31 36 47 52 43 45 50 54 4 26 44 33 51 39 52 30 52 5 35 41 51 54 46 51 37 42 6 40 46 58 62 48 56 39 50 Corey 2 50 63 61 68 55 56 56 60 3 42 50 53 62 53 62 61 65 4 46 58 50 61 51 62 50 62 5 41 44 40 63 45 53 41 59 6 49 52 62 69 62 62 59 63 Emery 2 47 56 48 66 47 58 47 60 3 42 52 55 67 53 62 49 62 4 48 51 55 57 60 56 52 57 5 57 59 66 70 66 62 65 60 6 58 60 75 72 72 61 57 60 Gilbert 2 36 49 48 70 39 47 41 48 3 24 36 35 63 34 47 34 49 4 19 26 19 42 26 41 18 36 5 18 29 20 46 24 42 21 33 6 26 31 36 53 34 39 29 33 Pendleton 2 30 39 27 56 29 38 32 43 3 37 31 52 61 43 38 41 45 4 41 46 38 64 42 54 44 50 5 23 40 28 49 34 43 32 50 6 35 33 46 48 40 37 30 36 Whitaker 2 24 32 28 38 23 29 31 44 3 27 26 42 50 34 32 37 42 4 23 33 26 41 37 46 24 35 5 32 32 35 35 40 37 37 32 6 30 40 41 55 39 49 32 46 Buena Park 7 35 39 44 50 47 50 39 45 Junior High 8 30 43 39 50 40 51 32 42 *--*

Source: Buena Park School District, California Dept. of Education

LOS ALAMITOS UNIFIED

Scores in the Los Alamitos Unified School District improved this year on the statewide Stanford Achievement Test.

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Reading Math Language Spelling School Grade 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 Districtwide 2 69 73 79 82 82 83 68 69 3 72 74 80 83 77 80 64 66 4 71 75 71 77 71 76 69 73 5 67 68 65 70 71 73 59 64 6 69 73 74 79 71 74 64 67 7 70 72 72 73 79 77 66 66 8 68 70 71 75 71 74 53 58 McAuliffe Middle 6 72 70 76 80 74 70 67 65 7 71 73 73 76 81 79 68 70 8 67 71 72 77 70 74 53 62 Oak 6 66 75 73 78 68 78 61 68 7 70 71 71 69 76 76 63 62 8 69 70 69 72 71 75 52 53 Hopkins 2 66 77 83 88 85 86 64 75 3 75 69 81 80 77 76 68 61 4 71 76 70 82 71 77 68 78 5 71 65 63 68 72 76 61 67 Lee 2 65 66 84 79 80 76 70 68 3 74 74 82 82 79 79 64 67 4 69 77 71 77 67 76 66 74 5 68 68 72 71 76 71 61 61 Los Alamitos 2 68 62 78 69 86 73 69 62 Elementary 3 67 69 78 85 72 79 62 65 4 64 68 70 73 66 69 64 69 5 59 61 56 63 65 64 49 57 McGaugh 2 71 75 80 86 78 83 64 66 3 72 77 81 84 77 81 62 65 4 71 76 69 74 72 78 68 74 5 64 71 63 72 65 73 57 67 Rossmoor 2 72 75 74 81 86 66 69 69 3 72 78 77 82 81 82 64 70 4 78 77 74 78 77 79 77 72 5 73 75 70 70 79 80 70 66 Weaver 2 71 80 76 88 73 90 73 77 3 74 81 78 88 77 85 59 72 4 NA 72 NA 80 NA 79 NA 69 5 NA 78 NA 92 NA 84 NA 84

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Source: Los Alamitos Unified School District

Los Alamitos High School Scores

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Reading Math Language Science School Grade 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 Districtwide 9 54 58 75 73 69 71 64 66 10 52 58 63 67 59 60 66 66 11 45 60 64 75 62 70 56 69 Los Alamitos 9 54 59 76 74 68 71 64 66 High 10 53 61 65 70 60 62 67 68 11 47 61 67 76 64 70 57 70 Laurel 9 39 23 34 29 45 43 43 40 Continuation 10 33 26 29 30 36 31 48 37 11 20 28 19 33 28 42 31 38

Social science School 1999 2000 Districtwide 61 60 59 63 71 76 Los Alamitos 61 61 High 61 66 72 77 Laurel 33 42 Continuation 32 29 36 46

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Source: Los Alamitos Unified School District