Test Scores Continue to Rise at Santa Monica Schools

By Teresa Rochester

Mirroring a statewide trend, Santa Monica public school students enjoyed steady improvements on this year's Stanford 9 test, according to reports released Monday by the state's Education Department.

The results of the third annual state-mandated exam show second and third graders in Santa Monica schools had the greatest improvements, particularly in math. Reading scores also showed signs of improvement but the gains were not as dramatic.

"Results for the 2000 school year show gains in almost every academic area and grade level tested," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, stated in a written statement released Monday.

Eastin also stated that the most improvements were seen in elementary grades. She credited reform efforts, such as class size reduction, increased teacher training and clearer academic standards for the rising test scores.

Not surprisingly, the highest scoring elementary schools are located in Santa Monica's affluent neighborhoods, where resources are more plentiful. The highest-ranking school, Franklin Elementary, located in the city's wealthy Montana neighborhood, saw a majority of its students scoring well above the national average.

Roosevelt Elementary School, also in the Montana neighborhood, was the city's second highest ranked school. A majority of Roosevelt students scored above the 75th National Percentile Ranking.

While scores rose at all district schools, several schools still have low test scores. Among the lower scoring schools were John Muir Elementary and Edison Elementary.

At the district's two middle schools, John Adams and Lincoln, a majority of students scored above the 25 percentile in reading and math. At Santa Monica High School a majority of students also placed above the 25 percentile in reading and math.

Heavy emphasis has been placed on the importance of test scores by parents, politicians and teachers because of the consequences they can have. Scores, which are used as part of the state's highly touted and highly flawed Academic Performance Index, will likely influence student scholarships and teacher pay, as well as have an impact housing prices.

At the district level, however, both educators and officials have cautioned against placing too much emphasis on test scores. They contend that the scores are only one of several components used to assess student achievement in the district's 16 schools. At a Board of Education meeting earlier this month, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Sue Gee, told board members that the scores offer only a "snapshot" of student achievement.

School principals Patricia Flynn and Patricia Samarge agree.

"It doesn't accurately match up in the ways of good teaching," said Flynn, the principal of John Muir Elementary, one of the district's lower achieving schools. "Nor does it deal with the population of students here. It's a piece of what we do. It's a piece of what our students do.

"The test does not provide opportunity for the diversity of cultures," Flynn added. "The test is culturally biased in that the vocabulary and scenarios are relevant to a Caucasian upper class population and that's not our population at John Muir."

Samarge, who just completed her first year at Franklin, the city's highest achieving school, agreed that the test is just one small part of accurately assessing students.

"It's a one day deal," said Samarge. "I really put more credence into the assessments by teachers. It's a standardized test and I treat it as a standardized test."

The district has crafted its own series of assessments that are employed to give a fuller picture of how students are doing. The comprehensive system used to measure student performance includes district administered tests in both math and reading and teacher year-end grades.

San Antonio-based Harcourt Educational Measurement publishes the Stanford 9 exam, a multiple choice test, which is given in the spring. The nationally normed test is administered to students in grades two through 11.

Students in grades two through eight are tested in reading, language (written expression), spelling and math. Students in grades nine through 11 are tested in reading, language (writing), math, history-social studies and science. Results compare scores of California students with scores of a 1995 national sample of students who took the same tests in the same grades.

Statewide the number of students scoring at or above the 50th percentile on the 2000 Stanford 9 increased by an average of three to eight points over 1998 in reading, language, spelling and math. Results for math showed the greatest gains over three years, with elementary grades increasing as much as 16 points.

At John Muir Elementary on Sixth Street, Flynn said she was pleased to see the improvements made by the school's second and third graders. Flynn added that she was not pleased with the scores earned by the fourth and fifth graders, who began their academic careers before standardized testing was implemented.

Flynn, who will begin her third year at Muir in the fall, said her teachers are undergoing staff training this summer in a program offered at UCLA.

"The real focus is on the fourth grade," said Flynn. "We'll be working very hard with them. I'm very optimistic but we still have work to do."

Test scores, broken down by school, can be viewed at http://www.cde.ca.gov.