2 School Districts See Test Scores Rise

After laboring for a year under a mandate to raise their school’s already good standardized test scores, teachers at Truman Benedict Elementary School in Capistrano Unified headed off for summer vacation Thursday not knowing they had accomplished their mission.

They had finished their last day of school and filed out the door just three hours before newly released Stanford 9 results showed that Benedict’s scores had soared.

“If I could talk to my teachers now, I would congratulate them and tell them that all of our anxiety we can put to rest--it was all worth it,” said Benedict Principal John Hopkins.

Capistrano Unified School District officials were just as pleased with the district’s overall results, which showed solid if not spectacular gains in most subjects tested.

“We’re very happy with our improvement,” said Capistrano’s director of testing, Jeff Bristow.

For the past two years, Capistrano Unified has bolstered its teaching of reading and math, particularly at the elementary level, and implemented a slew of teacher training and mentoring efforts.

Schools began to identify children in kindergarten, noticing who was struggling with reading skills and assessing the skills that needed work, Bristow said.

Capistrano also relied heavily on its own in-house test, the Capistrano Objectives for Reaching Excellence, or CORE test, to gauge where students needed the most help.

“Part of the [success] story does lie in the CORE test,” Bristow said. “We can see where the students start each year and how they grow, so we actually have a heads-up and can target our instruction.”

One area of instruction that still has district officials puzzled is reading. Although reading scores improved somewhat in grades two through seven, for the second year in a row they dipped slightly in grades eight though 11.

“It’s an intriguing question,” Bristow said. “If you look at our results and every other high school’s results in reading, you’ll notice across the state they’re lower--we’ve been somewhat mystified as to what would cause that.”

Capistrano now is mulling whether to teach reading skills at the high school level much as it does in the lower grades.

At Benedict, the 90 minutes of uninterrupted blocks of reading time helped lead to strong, double-digit gains by second- and fourth- graders, Hopkins said.

The anxiety, however, has not entirely passed. Now Hopkins is holding his breath to see how Benedict’s scores fare against those of similar schools.

Last year, in spite of test scores that were between the 60th and 70th percentiles--well above the national average of 50%--the school was ranked second on a scale of 10 when compared with schools with similar student demographics. District officials and parents demanded more from Benedict, and Thursday’s results show overall scores in the 70th and 80th percentiles.

“I think what we saw was Benedict has high scores last year, but given the demographics they had the potential for being much higher,’ Bristow said. “Certainly, they’ve responded beautifully.”

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CAPISTRANO UNIFIED

Scores in the Capistrano Unified School District rose in this year on the statewide Stanford Achievement Test.

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Reading Math Language Spelling School Grade 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 Districtwide 2 63 69 71 76 71 74 60 67 3 62 64 67 73 65 67 60 64 4 62 68 60 69 61 67 59 66 5 62 64 64 71 63 68 57 62 6 64 66 74 75 61 66 61 64 7 61 63 69 69 66 70 62 64 8 64 63 67 70 65 67 50 51 Ambuehl 2 71 68 79 77 75 68 69 66 3 71 73 76 79 76 76 69 71 4 64 71 62 75 65 72 61 71 5 70 69 66 77 72 77 65 64 Arroyo Vista 2 73 76 79 83 85 86 71 72 3 70 71 72 76 76 73 67 67 4 69 72 68 73 67 72 65 74 5 67 69 73 73 71 71 67 67 Barcelona Hills 2 67 75 78 86 70 73 63 71 3 66 64 65 73 67 70 59 65 4 73 78 67 82 74 73 68 74 5 63 68 68 78 63 71 62 64 6 76 73 82 83 76 73 69 71 Bathgate 2 75 73 86 83 80 86 71 75 3 74 73 76 83 75 78 75 75 4 68 76 73 80 68 77 69 83 5 65 68 67 84 60 76 66 73 Benedict 2 61 74 67 85 67 80 64 75 3 65 71 68 83 64 72 58 72 4 66 81 62 80 61 72 62 76 5 71 69 75 77 71 70 62 64 Bergeson 2 74 76 80 86 85 85 65 74 3 67 77 70 81 66 77 63 74 4 68 76 63 78 65 69 69 72 5 70 70 71 74 68 69 60 64 Castille 2 68 77 79 90 78 83 71 77 3 67 67 70 76 73 73 68 69 4 66 71 58 74 65 75 65 68 5 70 63 68 74 76 74 62 66 Concordia 2 64 72 75 83 75 78 63 66 3 65 68 77 82 71 77 61 74 4 64 65 70 70 66 67 69 66 5 58 63 59 68 62 70 55 59 Crown Valley 2 63 61 71 72 76 72 57 60 3 70 68 73 76 69 72 64 64 4 68 69 65 72 65 72 64 71 5 68 71 65 78 69 76 57 66 R.H. Dana 2 36 39 51 40 36 33 30 34 3 38 32 53 39 43 40 41 30 4 47 47 42 58 48 56 34 44 5 46 51 52 53 51 50 35 41 6 54 55 56 65 54 57 47 50 Del Obispo 2 49 59 56 62 54 56 46 60 3 59 56 64 62 58 51 50 53 4 61 65 53 64 50 59 48 59 5 58 56 57 58 52 52 49 50 Foxborough 2 65 67 67 71 67 78 60 63 3 67 67 75 73 74 70 67 72 4 66 67 67 57 60 63 67 61 5 71 71 77 71 70 70 61 68 Hankey 2 77 68 80 66 85 69 74 68 3 66 71 69 79 73 75 71 67 4 67 73 60 70 62 71 67 74 5 61 67 66 71 63 68 62 66 Ole Hanson 2 57 68 58 67 65 68 60 67 3 62 64 65 71 66 70 60 65 4 59 50 55 54 64 56 57 54 5 58 63 66 68 66 65 54 61 Hidden Hills 2 63 67 75 75 78 79 62 69 3 57 59 63 67 56 57 49 55 4 63 68 59 61 64 63 56 58 5 62 65 68 69 64 73 63 65 Las Flores 2 72 76 69 80 75 78 67 73 3 63 70 56 82 58 75 61 67 4 63 75 62 73 68 65 63 74 5 65 76 65 84 67 76 60 75 Las Palmas 2 35 39 48 50 32 40 25 33 3 33 24 33 29 31 30 27 26 4 28 34 22 37 29 42 24 30 5 29 27 34 27 32 28 27 29 6 19 32 22 37 26 41 13 26 Lobo 2 60 68 61 71 72 75 57 71 3 70 73 68 66 67 66 57 61 4 62 68 59 70 58 65 61 62 5 67 56 74 68 62 65 60 59 Malcom 2 75 80 85 84 85 85 67 76 3 70 73 71 76 72 77 65 66 4 70 75 69 74 66 76 68 72 5 72 70 71 73 67 71 60 65 Moulton 2 69 79 76 82 81 83 68 79 3 71 73 81 83 72 71 72 72 4 69 77 64 77 64 73 68 78 5 70 73 67 74 72 75 65 66 Oak Grove 2 77 72 80 81 87 82 72 70 3 62 68 73 82 67 72 61 71 4 64 63 65 66 64 63 61 61 5 63 62 71 67 68 71 68 66 Palisades 2 52 66 58 69 60 68 50 66 3 51 55 56 65 52 56 49 55 4 52 57 50 52 52 53 50 56 5 60 63 61 66 61 67 59 57 Reilly 2 67 77 79 83 72 83 68 76 3 65 72 64 76 68 71 66 71 4 69 78 64 74 67 75 71 75 5 65 69 69 74 68 71 61 72 San Juan 2 26 33 30 30 26 30 27 35 3 18 27 28 48 22 32 22 39 4 18 28 25 32 27 34 16 25 5 15 26 17 36 23 38 16 30 Viejo 2 60 67 69 82 65 75 59 61 3 58 52 56 61 57 56 57 57 4 52 55 46 56 56 57 51 54 5 56 47 45 56 50 52 57 46 Wagon Wheel 2 67 72 77 78 76 75 66 72 3 71 74 73 83 70 76 68 62 4 72 80 76 81 67 77 68 80 5 64 72 69 84 63 74 64 66 White 2 75 80 87 88 83 89 67 71 3 73 73 84 84 81 80 70 73 4 70 72 71 78 67 76 62 72 5 69 72 73 78 70 71 58 65 Wood Canyon 2 58 64 61 69 61 71 58 66 3 60 63 57 64 59 61 66 68 4 55 61 47 59 52 59 52 57 5 56 60 58 66 52 64 52 56

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Middle Schools

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Reading Math Language Spelling School Grade 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2009 1999 2000 Aliso Viejo 6 68 65 77 72 64 65 69 68 7 63 66 65 68 67 71 68 70 8 69 63 64 66 67 65 55 53 Bernice Ayer 6 71 74 78 81 64 71 65 66 7 55 58 62 64 61 69 51 60 8 58 63 59 61 60 66 45 43 Las Flores 6 65 69 78 82 60 68 63 68 7 68 69 75 76 72 72 68 68 8 64 70 71 80 65 74 55 59 Marco Forster 6 51 52 59 63 50 50 48 47 7 47 51 50 53 55 57 48 50 8 52 52 52 54 52 54 35 38 Newhart 6 70 72 76 77 65 71 67 75 7 66 67 71 72 69 75 67 70 8 69 66 76 75 71 71 54 56 Niguel Hills 6 68 70 80 80 66 70 64 63 7 65 64 77 80 68 74 65 63 8 66 64 74 78 68 69 57 54 Shorecliffs 6 65 66 72 71 62 70 57 65 7 64 63 75 67 68 72 59 65 8 65 67 68 72 66 70 47 53

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Source: Capistrano Unified School District

Capistrano Unified High Schools

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Reading Math Language Science School Grade 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 1999 2000 Districtwide 9 56 55 72 73 67 68 64 63 10 54 55 65 68 59 61 66 66 11 57 56 67 70 63 66 66 67 Aliso Niguel 9 59 59 78 75 74 74 70 65 10 56 59 66 72 63 69 70 70 11 54 60 68 76 65 72 67 69 Capistrano Valley 9 50 53 71 75 63 65 60 63 10 48 54 63 66 55 57 62 62 11 54 55 68 68 62 66 64 64 Dana Hills 9 60 58 69 74 70 68 64 65 10 58 59 68 68 62 61 67 66 11 62 59 70 68 66 64 71 68 San Clemente 9 53 48 68 66 62 63 61 60 10 55 48 62 65 55 53 67 64 11 57 50 63 66 60 58 63 65

Social science School 1999 2000 Districtwide 60 60 59 58 73 74 Aliso Niguel 67 64 59 63 74 78 Capistrano Valley 57 59 59 56 75 75 Dana Hills 56 58 58 57 76 72 San Clemente 57 58 58 56 69 71

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Source: Capistrano Unified School District