There was a slight increase last year in the number of San
Benito County students who are proficient or advanced in reading,
history, math and science, according to results released by the
state Department of Education this week.
There was a slight increase last year in the number of San Benito County students who are proficient or advanced in reading, history, math and science, according to results released by the state Department of Education this week.
According to the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program (STAR test) data from 2011, more than half of all local students scored proficient or advanced in reading and more than 40 percent did so in math. Those numbers are an improvement from the previous year, when approximately 49 percent of students in grades 2-11 scored proficient or advanced on the English-language arts exam while just under 39 percent of students scored proficient or advanced in math.
The STAR test measures proficiency in English and math at every grade level.
Fifth-, eighth-, and 10th-graders are also tested in science, while eighth-graders and 11th-graders are tested in social studies and history.
Student proficiency is ranked as advanced, proficient, basic, below basic and far-below basic, with a state goal of all students reaching a score of at least proficient in all subject areas.
San Benito County student scores in history jumped nearly 4 percent from 2010 to 2011 while science scores for grades 5, 8 and 10 increased by more than 8 percent countywide.
The STAR test results also make up the majority of the data used to calculate schools’ Academic Performance Index, or API, which ranks schools from 200 to 1,000 points, with a state goal of reaching 800.
On the district level locally, more than three out of four of the 182 Southside School students tested were categorized as proficient or advanced on the English portion of the test.
The North County School District’s 63 percent proficient/advanced rate – out of 543 students with scores – was the second-highest locally. In the Hollister School District, which had nearly 4,000 students with scores, half scored proficient or advanced in both English and math.
Southside also had the highest percentage of proficient/advanced student test scores in math, at just less than 75 percent. Two-thirds of North County students earned that designation.
At San Benito High School, 48.8 percent of the more than 2,100 students tested were proficient or advanced in the English portion of the STAR test, while 14.5 percent were proficient or advanced in math. Nearly half of the students tested in history and 58 percent of those tested in science were proficient or advanced.
Anzar High School in San Juan Bautista had half of the 307 students scoring proficient or advanced on the English-language arts portion of the test and just less than 19 percent scoring that well in math.
The local improvement in STAR test scores echoes a statewide trend, which saw a larger proportion than ever of students scoring proficient or higher on exams in English-language arts, math, science and history.
Of the approximately 4.7 million students participating in the STAR program in California, 54 percent scored proficient or above in English and 50 percent scored at that level in math, the highest percentage since the program’s inception in 2003.
“The significant and sustained improvements we’ve seen for nine consecutive years prove how hard teachers, school employees, administrators and parents are working to help students achieve despite budget cuts that have affected our schools,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a release. “Their heroic teamwork is paying off for California.”
In the nine years since the STAR tests have been aligned to California content standards, the percentage of students scoring at the proficient or advanced level increased by 19 points in English-language arts and 15 points in math.
