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Published on 06/29/1998 All articles from this issue

Local students earn top scores on statewide test

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By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer

Los Altos students fared better than school officials expected on the new statewide achievement test administered this spring, scoring higher than the national average in most of the areas tested.

The State Board of Education administered the Stanford 9 test as part of the state's Standardized Testing and Reporting Program. This is the first statewide achievement test in three years to be administered.

The test was given to all students in the state in grades two through 11, including students who speak English as a second language and some students enrolled in special education programs. The test covered reading, writing, spelling and mathematics.

Scoring in the top 10 to 17 percent of all students who took the test, students in the Los Altos School District outranked neighboring districts. Approximately 3,656 students from the district's six elementary schools and two intermediate schools took the test. Less than 10 percent of those tested were students who speak limited English.

The average student score was above the 90th percentile nationally in math, the 88th percentile in written expression, the 87th percentile in reading and the 83rd percentile in spelling.

Marge Gratiot, superintendent of Los Altos School District, said school administrators expected scores to drop 12 to 10 points from what students usually score on the district's Cat 5 test.

"We're extremely pleased with these positive test scores," Gratiot said. She said grade seven actually went up 2 percentile points compared to results from last year's district achievement test. Gratiot said the results indicate that the district will score among the top districts statewide.

Students at Homestead High School in the Fremont Union High School District earned their highest scores in math, with the average student score in grades 9, 10 and 11 in the 72nd percentile. The average student score was lowest in reading comprehension with the average student score in grade 10 in the 49th percentile. The number of students speaking limited English who took the test was between 14 and 16 percent in each Homestead grade level.

Results from the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District included scores from Mountain View, Los Altos, Alta Vista and Moffett high schools.

Overall district results show that students scored highest in math, with the average student ranking in the 75th percentile. The lowest district scores were in the area of vocabulary, where the average student placed in the 54th percentile.

Test scores were determined by comparing individual scores to scores from a national sample, with the 50th percentile being average.