Tracy Press

 
Tracy students generally improved their standardized test scores, but a gap remains between achievement in white verus minority students, primarily Latinos.

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Lower-grade students in the rural Banta district, meanwhile, scored dramatically lower in English and much higher in math, contrary to the tendency of small rural districts to score higher than their unified counterparts.

The STAR test gauges proficiency of second- through 11^th-grade students, but bears no weight on individual students’ grades.

Students in especially elementary and middle school grades far surpassed federal goals by as much as 20 percent in math and language arts, according to the results released this week by the California Department of Education.

Tracy schools generally improved from last year’s scores in all subjects.

The slight gains made by Tracy students this year match the district’s expectations, said Carol Anderson-Woo, who’s in charge of curriculum and tests for the Tracy Unified School District.

“Typically, we were higher than the rest of the county and comparable or higher than the rest of the state,” she said.

Every year, the federal benchmark is raised at least 10 percent, she said, so despite districts like Tracy improving by only a few percentage points annually, national standards imply that what’s needed is a more drastic jump in test results.

“But those aren’t realistic expectations anyway,” Anderson-Woo said.

San Joaquin Valley test scores generally reflect statewide trends because of the region’s ethnic and economic makeup. Like the statewide average, there exists in the Central Valley a wide gap between white and minority student achievement.

Tracy-area schools tend to score better than most other county districts as they did this year in Tracy Unified, Jefferson, Lammersville, Banta and New Jerusalem school districts.

Rural districts scored on average higher than their unified school district counterpart — except for Banta, which fell short of federal standards in second grade by as much as 19 percent in English.

Fourth- through eighth-graders in the 240-student district, though, scored nearly twice the federal standard that 35 percent of students should score “proficient” or higher in English and 37 percent or higher in math.

In all Tracy-area districts, there remains an across-the-board disparity between white and ethnic minority students’ scores, though the gap has narrowed slightly every year, Anderson-Woo said.

Statewide, though, that gap has widened by 3 percentage points.

Latino students — who comprise most of the minority student population in the Tracy’s largest district — show a few-percent-point improvement in math and language arts, except in lower grades, where they scored a percentage point lower than in 2007.

Administrators and teachers will use the results to decide how to shape curriculum and alter teaching methods this school year, Anderson-Woo said.

“It helps us see what areas need improvement,” she said, “and whether there needs to be a change in teaching style or more emphasis on a particular subject.”

• To reach Tracy Press reporter Jennifer Wadsworth, call 830-4225 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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written by wiju , August 15, 2008

“But those aren’t realistic expectations anyway,”

Funny that the person in charge of tests/curriculum expects so little of the kids.

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written by Thinker , August 16, 2008

Is it all about the test anyway? What about critical thinking skills, life skills, occupational development? This whole process needs to be reevaluated to ensure the US is able to be globally competitive. Not everyone is college bound-- where's the incentive to reach them and help them excel?