* UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBERS / READING THE TABLES
In California, almost 4.3 million public school students in grades two through 11 took the Stanford 9 standardized tests this spring--for the third year in a row. All of them were tested in reading, math and language skills such as grammar and punctuation. Students through eighth grade also took a spelling test, and students in higher grades took exams in science and history/social science.
On Monday, the state Department of Education released scores for each of its schools.
Readers who want to know how a school in Orange County is doing can use this cross-section of scores as a gauge. But keep in mind that these are results for selected grades only, not the entire school. Scores can vary from grade to grade--and from classroom to classroom--even at the same school. Scores were not available for Lowell Joint School District.
Results for all grades, schools and districts are available on the Internet at http://www.cde.ca.gov.
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* TO FIND YOUR SCHOOL'S SCORES
* Look first for the grade level: "Grade 4" for elementary school, "Grade 8" for middle school or "Grade 10" for high school.
* Search down the column to find your school district. Schools are listed underneath in alphabetical order.
* The scores are to the right of your school's name. The columns report 2000 testing data for reading and math and the change in each of those subjects from 1998, the first year of the test. Use the guide at the top of each column of numbers to determine which category the score is in. (These scores do not include a separate category for students who are not fluent in English. State officials do not plan to release the breakdown of scores by subgroups, including "limited English-proficient" students, until mid-August.)
* For each test, the chart shows the percentage of students in each school who scored at or above the 50th percentile, the national average. This is a change from the two previous years when The Times reported the average percentile rank achieved by students in each school. (See below for more information.)
* The far right columns, labeled Std. 00 and Std. Change, report student performance on questions matching California's standards in language arts and how that performance has changed from last year. The score is the average number of questions answered correctly by students. (Students in fourth grade answered 35 such questions; in eighth grade, 65 questions; and in 10th grade, 35 questions. Last year, students in those three grades answered 50 such questions.) This is the second year for this portion of the test. As yet, the state has no definition of what is "good" or "bad" performance on the standards-based section.
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Note: - means the number of students tested was 10 or fewer.
* HOW TO INTERPRET THE NUMBERS
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Beginning with this year's data, The Times is reporting the percentage of students scoring at or above the 50th percentile, which is the national average.
In the past, the newspaper reported the "percentile rank," which compared the test results with those of students in the same grade across the country.
The number being reported this year is the one the state Department of Education uses in the year-to-year comparisons posted on its Web site. The differences in year-to-year comparisons represent the percentage of students who moved up (or down) in the rankings.
The percentage at or above the 50th percentile is considered by most education experts to be the best statistical measure of progress at a school over time.
How to Read the Scores
Reading 2000: Percentage of students scoring at or above the national average on the 2000 Stanford 9 test. A 50 means that half the school's students were at or above the national average.
Reading Change: Change from 1998 percentage of students scoring at or above the national average. (When 1998 comparisons were unavailable--for example, with a new school--1999 data were used, if available.)
Math 2000: Percentage of students scoring at or above the national average on the 2000 Stanford 9 test.
Math Change: Change from 1998 percentage of students scoring at or above the national average. (When 1998 comparisons were unavailable--for example, with a new school--1999 data were used, if available.)
Standard 2000: Average percentage of language arts questions answered correctly. These items are included in the portion of the test designed to assess knowledge of California's content standards.
Standard Change: Change from 1999 average percentage of language arts questions answered correctly.
For more information, see first page of tables.
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Note: - means the number of students tested was 10 or fewer.
Main story, A1
* Orange County Grade 5
California
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Read Read Math Math Std. Std. Name 00 Chg. 00 Chg. 00 Chg. Statewide 44 3 50 9 52.4 1.3
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Orange County
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Read Read Math Math Std. Std. Name 00 Chg. 00 Chg. 00 Chg. Orange County 51 4 59 9 55.6 1.4
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Anaheim Elementary
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