This article originally appeared in The Sacramento Bee on July 1, 1998 © 1998, The Sacramento Bee

State's students fail to make grade: Most score below U.S. average on tests By Janine DeFao, Deb Kollars and Carlos Alcala The Sacramento Bee SAYING IT MUST OBEY THE “PEOPLE’S WILL,” the majority of California's English-speaking public school students fell below the national average in most subjects in the first-ever statewide exam to provide a national comparison. However, the results released by the state Tuesday show that at least 47 percent of those tested reached or exceeded the 50th percentile -- considered average -- in 26 of the 43 categories of grade and subject combinations. As a result of a court order, the state figures do not include scores of limited-English-proficient students. But data released Tuesday by some local districts and county offices of education -- which were not affected by the court order -- do include scores of limited-English speakers, and local educators said that lowered their results. Locally, Sacramento County's students posted below-average scores in nearly all grades and subject areas. Districts with high numbers of poor and limited-English-speaking students, such as Del Paso Heights and Sacramento City Unified, turned in some of the lower numbers in the county. By the same token, adjacent counties with more suburban and more affluent populations did better. In Placer County, a majority of students ranked above the national average. And while Yolo County performed better than Sacramento County, less than half its students, for example, rated above the national 50th percentile for math. The El Dorado County Office of Education and that county's largest districts did not release any results. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin characterized the statewide scores as "good but not great, good but it needs to be a lot better." "The children of California are performing at about the national average," Eastin said. "When you consider our children have been underfunded for the last decade, what you see is a remarkable achievement." But Gov. Pete Wilson pointed out that students scored below the national average in two-thirds of the categories reported. He called the scores "deplorable" and said it is "very sad. . . that the superintendent attempts to defend these scores as acceptable." "To pretend the explanation for these serious deficiencies is a lack of funding . . . is simply making an excuse for a failed performance," he added. Eastin and Wilson disagree on how far California's school spending is below the national average. Eastin puts the figure at about $900 per student, while the Wilson administration has cited a $300 estimate. Where the governor and the superintendent agreed, along with the California Teachers Association and local educators, is that Tuesday's scores are a benchmark that will help schools target areas for improvement and gauge future achievement. The results released by the state Tuesday were far more limited than originally expected. They provided only a look at statewide scores of English-fluent students -- about 80 percent of the 4.1 million second-through 11th-graders tested -- and no average score per grade level in each subject. The California Department of Education had planned to release scores by subject and grade level for each county, district and school. But a temporary restraining order issued by a San Francisco judge late last week prevented the state from releasing scores of any limited-English-proficient students, causing the department to scale back its immediate release of data. Attorneys for the state education department and the California State Board of Education Monday asked the 1st District Court of Appeal to limit the restraining order to Berkeley and Oakland, the two districts that sought it. San Francisco schools had won an earlier court battle allowing it to exclude from the test 6,000 limited-English students who had been in the country less than 30 months. Tuesday, the appeals court voted 2-1 to leave the restraining order intact until a July 16 court hearing. The appellate court said Judge Ronald Quidachay did not abuse his discretion in issuing the order last week. Justice Anthony Kline, writing the majority decision, said the granting of the temporary restraining order "indicates a preliminary determination that there is potential merit to . . . claims that use of the tests at issue is discriminatory, violates state and federal law and will irreparably injure certain classes of students and school districts." Wilson called the ruling disappointing and said it "deprives the public of its right to know how well the schools their children attend are performing." Education department spokesman Doug Stone said the department will continue to look at its legal options but also will work to pull the scores of limited-English students out of totals for schools, districts and counties. "We would hope to release the full package of the disaggregated data within the next two weeks," he said. Since the statewide test -- known as the Standardized Testing and Reporting program or STAR -- was signed into law by Wilson in October 1997, the requirement of testing limited-English students in English has been the most controversial issue. Wilson said Tuesday that reporting statewide totals without scores of limited-English students is "a real disservice to those children." "I also think those suits (by Oakland and Berkeley) to avoid reporting of their scores and the San Francisco suit to avoid giving the test is nothing less than a desperate cover-up of the failure to educate (limited-English-proficient) students." But Eastin, who earlier fought the testing in English of students not fluent in the language, said Tuesday that excluding their scores makes for a more valid comparison since the national norming sample included only 1.8 percent of students limited in English. Such students make up nearly a quarter of California's 5.6 million public school enrollment. "These are the real results if you want comparability between our state and other states," Eastin said. The state posted its best score in 11th grade social science, with 61 percent of students at or above the 50th percentile, and worst score in 10th grade reading, with only 36 percent meeting or exceeding the midpoint. In spelling, of the seven lower grades tested, only a majority of seventh graders hit the 50th percentile. In science, no high school grade had a majority reaching that point. The need for assessing the impact of class-size reduction in primary grades and of a back-to-basics approach in teaching reading were two of Wilson's key reasons for advocating the first statewide test in four years. But Tuesday's results were inconclusive on both issues. While some third-graders have been in the smaller classes for two years, the majority of third-graders failed to reach the 50th percentile in all four subjects tested -- reading, mathematics, language and spelling. Wilson and Eastin agreed it is too soon to expect results from class-size reduction, but said the picture may be clearer once school- and district-level results are released. Implementation of the smaller classes has varied among districts. The scores also showed major drops between the eighth and ninth grades in reading and between the ninth and tenth grades in language. "These children are children who started school 10 years ago when California was in the thrall of something called whole language," said Eastin, adding that such students did not receive the structured foundation many educators now agree is necessary. Kevin Brown, assistant superintendent of the Rocklin Unified district, agreed with that explanation for why 79 percent of his district's eighth-graders scored above the national midpoint in reading but only 58 percent of its ninth-graders did so. Other local school administrators discounted the whole language explanation for the drop in high school scores. Some suggested there may have been discrepancies between what the test emphasized and what districts were teaching in those upper grades. "I think the high school reading scores beg some questions," said state Chief Deputy Superintendent Leslie Fausset, who pointed out that high school science and social science scores were higher than the reading scores -- and that students had to read that content. Eastin said students scored better in cases where the off-the-shelf, multiple-choice test was most similar to what students had studied, such as in 11th grade social science. Next year, changes will be made to align the test to the statewide language arts and mathematics standards that have already been adopted. In the Sacramento City Unified School District, scores ran well below the national average. In the early elementary grades, for example, only about a third of students were performing at or above the 50th percentile in reading or math. "It tells us what we already know," said Superintendent Jim Sweeney. "We have big challenges ahead." Like many administrators, Sweeney said his district plans to study the results and use them to shape future policies. Class size reductions in the early elementary grades, plus the Sacramento district's new Open Court reading program for the earliest grades, are already yielding results, Sweeney said. For example, the district opted to give first-graders the test and found that they performed on average at the 54th percentile in reading. Those same first-graders scored 15 percentile points lower on average in math, he said, indicating a need for similar intensive work in that subject. "This will be our benchmark and we are in this for the long haul," Sweeney said. "I want everyone in this community to know where their school stands." Sweeney expressed frustration that his district couldn't break out a subset of scores for its limited-English students, representing 30 percent of total enrollment, because of a reporting error caused by the testing company. However, the Elk Grove Unified School District was able to make such a breakout and found that the scores of limited English speaking students pulled the overall scores down by between 4 and 6 percentage points, said Superintendent Dave Gordon. For example, all Elk Grove second graders, including limited English speakers, posted a mean percentile score of 50 percent in reading. When the district broke out just the English proficient second graders, the national percentile ranking rose to 55, Gordon said. Eighteen percent of Elk Grove's students are limited English speakers. San Juan Unified, the state's ninth biggest district, was among the best performers in Sacramento County. On average, San Juan students did better than the rest of the county, the state and, in almost every case, the national norms for reading, math, science and social science. What's more, having given another version of the Stanford 9 last year, the district was able to say that this year's results represented an improvement, even though limited English and special education students were added to those tested this year. "What's really encouraging is that we've gone up," said Linda Muskopf, district board president. Joe Spaulding, superintendent of the Folsom Cordova School District, was also pleased to find most of his students performing above the county and national averages in most subjects. Spaulding said teachers in the Folsom Cordova system have worked hard to beef up reading and math instruction. In the Davis Joint Unified School District, typically a top-scoring district, more than two-thirds of the 5,700 students tested were above the national midpoints for reading, math, science and social sciences. In the Rio Linda School District, where many students come from poor families, educators took heart with a steady upward progression of test scores through the grades. For example, 38 percent of Rio Linda's second-graders scored at or above the 50th percentile in reading, a number that rose to 42 percent by sixth grade. "This shows we're not just holding even, we are making significant progress at each grade level," said James Potter, Rio Linda's assistant superintendent for educational services. Rio Linda found only a 1 percentage point difference between the overall district scores and those broken out for English-only speakers. Twelve percent of Rio Linda students are not fluent in English. Two of Placer County's largest districts -- Roseville and Rocklin -- ranked well compared to others. "Our kids did extremely well," said Christine Carter, assistant superintendent in the Roseville City Elementary School District. "It verified we're going in the right direction." That included students for whom English is a second language, she said. For example, in the second grade, limited English students as an average ranked in the 47th percentile, nearly the national norm, though below the district's overall 61 percentile ranking for all second graders. Bee legal affairs writer Claire Cooper contributed to this report. How students fared Percentage of students scoring at or above the 50th percentile in comparison to a national sample. County figures include students not proficient in English; state figures do not. California Reading 4th Grade: 49% 8th Grade: 53% 10th Grade: 36% Math 4th Grade: 46% 8th Grade: 48% 10th Grade: 44% Sacramento County Reading 4th Grade: 43% 8th Grade: 49% 10th Grade: 31% Math 4th Grade: 40% 8th Grade: 44% 10th Grade: 40% Placer County Reading 4th Grade: 65% 8th Grade: 71% 10th Grade: 50% Math 4th Grade: 56% 8th Grade: 61% 10th Grade: 57% Yolo County Reading 4th Grade: 51% 8th Grade: 53% 10th Grade: 38% Math 4th Grade: 44% 8th Grade: 46% 10th Grade: 47% El Dorado County (not available) Source: State Department of Education, Sacramento County Office of Education, Placer County Office of Education, Yolo County Office of Education. Statewide Student Achievement Percentage of California public school children performing above 25th, 50th and 75h percentiles nationwide. Excludes students not proficient in English. Reading Above 75% 2nd grade: 23% 3rd grade: 22% 4th grade: 27% 5th grade: 25% 6th grade: 26% 7th grade: 25% 8th grade: 22% 9th grade: 14% 10th grade: 15% 11th grade: 19% Above 50% 2nd grade: 48% 3rd grade: 47% 4th grade: 49% 5th grade: 50% 6th grade: 50% 7th grade: 52% 8th grade: 53% 9th grade: 39% 10th grade: 36% 11th grade: 40% Above 25% 2nd grade: 70% 3rd grade: 69% 4th grade: 72% 5th grade: 73% 6th grade: 75% 7th grade: 75% 8th grade: 78% 9th grade: 65% 10th grade: 61% 11th grade: 67% Mathematics Above 75% 2nd grade: 25% 3rd grade: 23% 4th grade: 25% 5th grade: 25% 6th grade: 30% 7th grade: 25% 8th grade: 23% 9th grade: 25% 10th grade: 19% 11th grade: 24% Above 50% 2nd grade: 49% 3rd grade: 46% 4th grade: 46% 5th grade: 48% 6th grade: 53% 7th grade: 48% 8th grade: 48% 9th grade: 51% 10th grade: 44% 11th grade: 46% Above 25% 2nd grade: 70% 3rd grade: 70% 4th grade: 69% 5th grade: 68% 6th grade: 73% 7th grade: 71% 8th grade: 70% 9th grade: 75% 10th grade: 71% 11th grade: 69% Language Above 75% 2nd grade: 28% 3rd grade: 20% 4th grade: 25% 5th grade: 28% 6th grade: 30% 7th grade: 33% 8th grade: 27% 9th grade: 23% 10th grade: 18% 11th grade: 20% Above 50% 2nd grade: 51% 3rd grade: 46% 4th grade: 54% 5th grade: 54% 6th grade: 55% 7th grade: 57% 8th grade: 54% 9th grade: 53% 10th grade: 41% 11th grade: 49% Above 25% 2nd grade: 68% 3rd grade: 69% 4th grade: 74% 5th grade: 74% 6th grade: 76% 7th grade: 75% 8th grade: 75% 9th grade: 75% 10th grade: 63% 11th grade: 71% Spelling Above 75% 2nd grade: 18% 3rd grade: 17% 4th grade: 22% 5th grade: 25% 6th grade: 22% 7th grade: 26% 8th grade: 16% Students not tested in grades 9-11 Above 50% 2nd grade: 44% 3rd grade: 40% 4th grade: 42% 5th grade: 47% 6th grade: 44% 7th grade: 50% 8th grade: 38% Students not tested in grades 9-11 Above 25% 2nd grade: 69% 3rd grade: 72% 4th grade: 66% 5th grade: 70% 6th grade: 71% 7th grade: 75% 8th grade: 64% Students not tested in grades 9-11 Science Above 75% Students not tested grades 2-8 9th grade: 16% 10th grade: 20% 11th grade: 23% Above 50% Students not tested grades 2-8 9th grade: 43% 10th grade: 48% 11th grade: 45% Above 25% Students not tested grades 2-8 9th grade: 77% 10th grade: 72% 11th grade: 72% Social Science Above 75% Students not tested grades 2-8 9th grade: 17% 10th grade: 20% 11th grade: 35% Above 50% Students not tested grades 2-8 9th grade: 48% 10th grade: 42% 11th grade: 61% Above 25% Students not tested grades 2-8 9th grade: 76% 10th grade: 64% 11th grade: 77% Note: Scores are based on national percentile rank, a comparison of California students to a nationwide sample. All data is preliminary pending review by state education officials.