Schools

Los Altos Students Improve in STAR Scores

Individual test results should arrive this week, which will be used to calculate the API scores to be released in October. If you have questions about these tests, let us know and we'll ask the district.

 

In what’s become something of an annual ritual, the state school chief on Friday praised California’s public school students for doing better on its standardized tests than the year before, lamented the achievement gap that leaves black and Latino students scoring worse than their white and Asian peers, and warned that budget cuts imperil future progress. 

And in Los Altos, where individual test scores from the STAR prorgram are landing in mailboxes this week, students continue to do well, particularly at the elementary level. 

Find out what's happening in Los Altoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"In less than a decade, California has gone from having only one student in three score proficient to better than one student in two," said Tom Torlakson, state Superintendent of Schools. "As pleased as I am by the great progress many students are making, the deep school budget cuts of recent years make it ever less likely these gains will continue.

The results released Friday marked the ninth straight year that student performance improved on standardized tests in math and language arts.  

Find out what's happening in Los Altoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to the state Department of Education's press release, approximately 4.7 million students participated in the 2012 STAR program, with 57 percent scoring proficient or above in English-language arts and 51 percent scoring at proficient or above in mathematics, the highest percentage since the tests were fully aligned in 2003 to California’s content standards, which describe what students should know for each grade and subject tested.

In Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, students continued to improve in their year-over-year STAR scores, which will become part of the complex calculation known well to realtors and homebuyers alike—the API and AYP scores.  

In the K-8 , the majority of students (93 percent) scored at or above proficient in English-Language Arts, improving a percentage point from last year. The Santa Clara County average was 68 percent, and the state was 57 percent.

Alyssa Gallagher, LASD Superintendent of Instruction, said that they were particularly pleased with students' improvement in the writing component of the English Language Arts tests given to Grades 4 and 7. Ninety-seven percent of 4th-graders and 99 percent of 7th graders scored proficient or above. That's compared to five years ago, where they scored 79 percent and 91 percent, respectively. 

Also in Los Altos, part of the , had a 92 percent score of proficient or above, and scored 99 percent. Cupertino Middle School, to which Montclaire students continue, had 88.4 percent.

In math, 93 percent of LASD students scored at or above the proficient level. The Santa Clara County average was 73 percent and the state was 63 percent. Montclaire students scored 93 percent and Bullis students scored 96.8 percent. Cupertino Middle School students scored 80.9 percent. 

At the high school level, in the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District (MVLA) students scored 77 percent in English Language Arts, and 52 percent in math.

Below are some of the scores for LASD K-8 and Cupertino K-8 students. See the PDFs above for more in-depth scores. Go to the California Department of Education's website where you can search for results for individual schools. See the California Department of Education's description of the STAR series of tests students take.

Patch will include high school scores later this week. 

What do you want to know from the districts about the STAR test results? Let us know in the comments and we'll ask.

 

Los Altos School District  

English Language Arts (Grades K-8) Value Students with Scores  3,429 % Proficient or Advanced  93.6% 

Mathematics (Grades 2-7 and end of course)

Value Students with Scores  3,431 % Proficient or Advanced  90.4% 

Montclaire Elementary School

English Language Arts (Grades K-5) Value  Students with Scores  348 % Proficient or Advanced  92% Mathematics (Grades 2-5 and end of course) Value Students with Scores  348 % Proficient or Advanced  93.1% 

 

Cupertino Middle School

English-Language Arts (Grades 6-8)

Value

    Students with Scores  1,215      %  Proficient or Advanced  88.4 % 

 

Mathematics (Grades 2-7 and end of course) Value Students with Scores  1,235 % Proficient of Advanced  80.9% 

 

Bullis Charter School

English Language Arts (Grades 2-8)  Value  Students with Scores   341 % Proficient or Advanced  99.1%  Mathematics (Grades 2-7 and end of course)  Value  Students with Scores  340 % Proficient or Advanced  96.8% 


—Other Patch staff contributed to this report


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