L.A. Elementary Students Show Gains on Stanford 9

Los Angeles elementary school students made substantial gains on this year’s Stanford 9 test, but improvement was slight at the high school level, scores released by the district this week show.

Middle school scores improved in all subjects but not as sharply as in the elementary grades.

Overall, the district bumped its average up three percentile points to 34, a modest acceleration of the two-point gains in each of the previous two years.

Stanford 9 scores for every public school in the state are due to be released July 17. Los Angeles Unified School District officials decided to release districtwide scores this week, although results for individual schools will not be available until the 17th. Also, scores were not broken down separately for students with limited English.

After a year of intense concentration on primary-grade reading, school board members took special satisfaction in the performance of second-graders, who posted a six-point gain in the subject, and third-graders, who improved by five points.

All elementary grades had large improvements in spelling, with the second and third grades each scoring seven-point gains to reach the 39th percentile.

Board of Education President Genethia Hayes said the scores should reassure the community that the reforms undertaken in the last year are having an effect.

Board member Valerie Fields agreed. “This proves that when attention is focused where it should be focused, you get results. It makes me feel like sunlight going through a magnifying glass. It reaches that fine point and sets things on fire.”

Nonetheless, the sense of gratification was tempered by districtwide reading scores that remained in the bottom third nationally, despite a three-point rise to the 29th percentile.

“It is going in the right direction,” said board member Julie Korenstein. “We obviously have a great deal further to go.”

The highest reading scores were in the second and eighth grades, offering possible evidence of positive effects of the district’s new policy of not promoting failing students. Only the second and eighth grades were included in the policy’s first year.

Although he found justification for optimism, Ted Bartell, director of research and evaluation for the district, cautioned that it may be a year before he can say confidently how much the standards-based promotion policy contributed to the improvement.

Bartell said he expects to have a preliminary report out by late September comparing the scores of students who took the Stanford 9 in each of the last two years. Those matched scores will give a more accurate picture than the district averages that include the scores of thousands of newly enrolled students as well as many who took the test last year but not this year.

Meanwhile, none of the results was sufficient to support any broad conclusions about the district’s performance, Bartell said.

Board member David Tokofsky said he is holding his enthusiasm in check until the scores of other school districts are known. If schools statewide improve by bigger margins, that enthusiasm could turn to disappointment, he said.

“So what are we supposed to do, applaud and undo the applause if necessary?” Tokofsky asked.

Following a well-established pattern, the district scored highest in math, at the 37th percentile. This year, though, the two-point gain in math was the lowest among the three basic subjects. Language scores almost caught up to math, rising on a four-point gain to the 36th percentile.

Despite the marked improvement in the elementary grades, high school scores changed little. Ninth- and 10th-graders hovered in the low 20s in reading and the mid to high 30s in math. Eleventh-graders scored in higher percentiles but showed little change from last year. Seniors are not tested.

The smallest gains were recorded in science and social science, two subjects that are tested only in grades 9 through 11.

Hayes said the high school scores put the board on notice that it must do more to address the academic needs of older students, while the scores of the lower grades indicate what can be done.

“It shows we can turn this district around,” Hayes said. The Stanford 9 is given to all public school students in grades 2 through 11.

In the past, the state has released the scores for students who are not fluent in English at the same time it released school results. This year, due to problems in collecting that and other demographic data, the information will not be available until August.

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Test Scores for L.A.

Stanford 9 scores released by the Los Angeles Unified School District this week showed average gains of three percentile points, slightly better than the two-point gains in the preceding two years. Elementary school students improved the most, but the gains leveled off in high school.

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Source: Los Angeles Unified School District

Data analysis: DOUG SMITH / Los Angeles Times