Students at the Hollister School District made considerable
improvements in math and English this year, according to results
from the California State Standardized Testing and Reporting
program
– a trend that has officials optimistic about the district’s
future.
Hollister – Students at the Hollister School District made considerable improvements in math and English this year, according to results from the California State Standardized Testing and Reporting program – a trend that has officials optimistic about the district’s future.
Fourth graders made the most drastic improvements, with 47 percent of students scoring as proficient or better on the math portion of the STAR test. That’s more than double the number of students who scored that high in 2004.
Interim Superintendent Ron Crates, who started Monday, was pleased by the results, which he attributed to dedicated school teachers and staff members. STAR results, required by the federal government’s No Child Left Behind Act, show significantly more students are scoring as proficient or advanced on the test, which Crates said is cause for “a big celebration.”
“The school community should feel proud,” Crates said. “The name of the game is improvement, and the district has made significant progress.”
The percentage of fourth graders who tested as proficient or better in math jumped 26 percentage points – from 21 percent last year, to 47 percent this year. That means more than twice as many fourth graders met federal No Child Left Behind Act standards this year than in 2004.
And overall, test scores for nearly all subjects jumped about five or six percentage points, said Anita Franchi, the district’s director of educational services.
Crates will meet with school principals and other district officials in the coming weeks to scrutinize the results in order to determine in which areas of study the district needs to improve.
Improved test scores likely resulted from coordinated efforts by district staff and teachers, Hollister Elementary Student Teachers Association President Jan Grist said.
“The district staff and teachers of Hollister are really working hard to continue to improve test scores,” Grist said.
Specifically, many teachers have taken educational courses to improve their test preparation methods, Franchi said. Calling the progress “incredible,” Franchi said she believes the results – the fourth grade math results in particular – prove the district is moving in the right direction.
Gains in other areas were less pronounced, and scores even dropped slightly in some areas.
For example, the percentage of third graders who scored as proficient of better on the English-language arts portion of the test, dropped one percentage point from 24 percent to 23 percent. Although the percentage of students scoring proficient or better improved in most categories, those percentages were often lower than statewide results. Even the greatly-improved percentage of fourth grade students who scored proficient or better on the math portion of the test was 3 percentage points less than the statewide 50 percent.
Hollister School District Board of Trustees President Margie Barrios was also pleased by the STAR results, especially in light of the millions of dollars in cuts the board has been forced to make during the last three years.
“We have been struggling for three years and in spite of that we have been able to make significant progress,” Barrios said. “My hope is that scores will continue to improve.”
Barrios said she hopes to expand the dramatic increases shown by fourth grade students to other grades. Barrios believes improved test scores at the elementary level will eventually carry over to the high school.
“If we’re doing something right, it will be reflected in high school scores,” Barrios said.
The STAR test result likely will be discussed at the district’s board meeting on August 23.
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or br******@fr***********.com.
