District scores soar to new heights

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA - In the third year of taking the Stanford 9 achievement

tests, student scores throughout the school district have continued to

improve -- some by leaps and bounds, others taking baby steps.

With the exception of grades eight and 11, every other grade level

districtwide showed improvement in all four areas of the test -- reading,

math, language and spelling -- according to reports released Monday.

“I think they’re very good,” said Newport-Mesa Unified School District

board member Serene Stokes. “They show a lot of improvement. It

represents a lot of hard work on teachers’ and students’ part. It really

shows we’re headed in the right direction.”

While many schools showed a consistent improvement, with scores jumping

one or a few points, other schools saw amazing gains, like Rea Elementary

School. In the fourth grade, math scores jumped from the 28th percentile

to the 42nd percentile. Reading went from the 20th to the 27th percentile

and language from the 26th to the 40th percentile and spelling 21st

percentile to the 32nd percentile.

The improvements are what many would like to dwell on.

“What I like to do is pick out the stars,” said trustee Wendy Leece.

“California’s second grade went from the 50th percentile to the 79th. You

can see those teachers were really working hard. We’re working in the

right direction.”

While California Elementary School’s 29-point jump in mathematics is a

complete success, district officials’ main concern is that they see

growth in all areas -- something that didn’t quite happen this year.

Eighth-grade scores were inconsistent, rising in some areas, dropping or

remaining the same in others, while the 11th grade showed a drop in

scores across the board. That left district officials concerned.

“They have to take a look at that,” Stokes said. “Sometimes it’s an

attitude thing with students -- they just don’t take it seriously. But

that is definitely something we have to take a look at.”

While the reason for that drop is unknown, Peggy Anatol, the director of

curriculum for the district, has one theory.

Last year, the 11th grade had the highest gains across the board, she

said, raising the bar well above the 11th grade of the previous year. If

last year’s 11th grade scores were exceptionally high, it may account for

the drop in scores this year, she suggested.

Her theory, however, does little to assuage the concern as trustees and

district officials take a closer look at the 11th-grade program.

While scores improved across the district, the disparity of student

scores in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa remained vast.

Scores in Newport Beach schools were consistently well above the national

average, which is the 50th percentile, while many schools in Costa Mesa

fell at or below the 50th percentile.

Within the two cities that make up one school district, there is Harbor

View Elementary School in Corona del Mar, which scored as high as the

94th percentile, and Wilson Elementary School in Costa Mesa, where scores

dipped as low as the 15th percentile.

“We have to put the resources in those schools to help those youngsters

succeed,” Stokes said. “We can’t just accept those scores. We have to

help those kids improve. We need to do something about it. We need to see

all our scores in that 50th percentile.”

When looking at the scores each year, one of the first things the

district looks for is growth at each grade level -- something there was

an abundance of this year.

Next, it looks at student growth. How are last year’s second-graders

scoring now that they are in the third grade? Take for example the

seventh grade at Ensign Intermediate, which scored in the 53rd percentile

for reading last year. This year, as eighth-grade students at Ensign,

they ranked in the 65th percentile. While some of those students may have

changed, it is basically the same class of students.

Overall, district officials, principals and school board members were

very pleased with the results, which they will study further during the

summer months.

The breakdowns, which include gender specifics and the number of

English-learning students, are expected in August, Anatol said. Student

scores will be distributed to parents starting on Wednesday.

Parents should receive their children’s specific scores by the end of the

month.

PASSING GRADES?

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