In the face of budget cuts that resulted in larger class sizes, the Redondo Beach Unified School District students made slight improvements in STAR testing score results from 2010 to 2011.
The Standardized Testing and Reporting results for RBUSD showed gains in all areas tested, including a 3.3 percent increase in students advanced or proficient in English Language Arts, a 2 percent increase in History, a 2.8 percent increase in Mathematics and a 2.3 percent gain in Science. Scores are at highest level in RBUSD since testing began.
Under the STAR program,Californiastudents attain one of five levels of performance for each subject tested: advanced, proficient, basic, below basic, and far below basic.
“The STAR exam was created to help teachers monitor individual student’s progress and build on their knowledge year-by-year,” said Annette Alpern Assistant Superintendent, Instructional Services for RBUSD. “We have been focusing more on the individual, allowing teachers and students to better hone in on where they need improvement and to better focus more attention on students not meeting the minimum testing score requirements.”
According to the California Department of Education, approximately 4.7 million students participated in the 2011 STAR program, with 54 percent scoring proficient or above in English-language arts and 50 percent scoring at proficient or above in mathematics, the highest percentage since the program’s inception in 2003.
Alpern said the district is anticipating the upcoming release of Academic Performance Index in hopes of more schools reaching the vaunted 900 score level. API scores range from 200 to 1000. The state has set a goal for every school to reach 800. Last year, every RBUSD exceeded 800 and four schools exceeded 900.
“While the STAR scores have been recently released, we fully expect that a majority of the schools in RBUSD will surpass the 900 API mark when those scores are calculated and become available in the next week or so,” Alpern said.
Alpern said that standardized testing results, while useful, don’t really tell the whole story.
“We can’t quantify the improvements with numbers,” said Alpern. “The improvement is the work of students, teachers and parents. Numbers like that can’t happen without all of their involvement.”
