GLENDALE UNIFIED STUDENTS' TEST SCORES IMPROVE; READING IS STILL BELOW AVERAGE.Byline: Kathryn Kathryn may refer to: People with the given name Kathryn:
The Stanford 9 test scores of Glendale students improved in mathematics and reading at almost every grade level compared to last year's, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. results released Monday, but the district still lags behind the national average in reading. According to the preliminary numbers on the standardized test A standardized test is a test administered and scored in a standard manner. The tests are designed in such a way that the "questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent" [1] , overall student performance in the Glendale Unified School District The Glendale Unified School District is a school district based in Glendale, California, United States. The school district serves the city of Glendale, portions of the city of La Cañada and the unincorporated communities of Montrose and La Crescenta. has improved almost universally across grade levels, with only a slight decrease in math proficiency pro·fi·cien·cy n. pl. pro·fi·cien·cies The state or quality of being proficient; competence. Noun 1. proficiency - the quality of having great facility and competence for 10th-graders and in reading proficiency for grade seven. But while overall math scores for grades two through 11 increased past the national average, reading scores remain below the average, with the exception of sixth-grade readers, who ranked at the 52nd percentile percentile, n the number in a frequency distribution below which a certain percentage of fees will fall. E.g., the ninetieth percentile is the number that divides the distribution of fees into the lower 90% and the upper 10%, or that fee level , and the eighth-grade, which ranked 50th. District spokesman Vic Pallos said the high number of non-native English speakers enrolled in Glendale schools may be contributing to the district's national standing. ``In the Glendale schools, 69 percent of our students speak a primary language other than English and more than 50 percent at one time were Limited English Proficient pro·fi·cient adj. Having or marked by an advanced degree of competence, as in an art, vocation, profession, or branch of learning. n. An expert; an adept. ,'' Pallos said. The students whose English language English language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Spoken by about 470 million people throughout the world, English is the official language of about 45 nations. proficiency is limited include Armenians, Latinos, Koreans and Filipinos, district officials have said. Pallos said the national average for reading proficiency on the SAT-9 is based on a demographic where only 4 percent of the population has limited English proficiency. ``To score this well, when you consider the national norm is based on 4 percent, we think students did pretty well on the exam,'' he said. This year, almost 4.2 million California California (kăl'ĭfôr`nyə), most populous state in the United States, located in the Far West; bordered by Oregon (N), Nevada and, across the Colorado River, Arizona (E), Mexico (S), and the Pacific Ocean (W). students in public school, grades two through 11, took the springtime exam, which tests their knowledge of math, science, social studies and language, with the questions geared to their grade level. The Glendale Unified School District is among those that received scores early, but all California districts are expected to release scores on Wednesday. Glendale School Board member Chuck Sambar sambar: see wapiti. said the results show the district's efforts to improve student performance have paid off. ``The overall scores for all grade levels are indicative of a strong positive program, particularly in math, where in every single grade level we were substantially above the national average,'' Sambar said. The numbers, he said ``demonstrate that our students and teachers are on the right track and that they are building a very strong foundation.'' But Sambar warned that without further improvement, this year's scores won't mean anything. ``We cannot take these results and be satisfied,'' Sambar said. ``We have a very major challenge to continue to improve our reading scores and I, for one, am very hopeful.'' Sambar said he expects to see even more improvement next year as the result of programs implemented this year, such as class-size reduction and further teacher training. In addition, to bring poorly performing students up to par with their counterparts, the district will implement a program called ``School Year Plus'' a summer school class designed to help students make the transition from eighth to ninth grade. GLENDALE TEST SCORES Preliminary Stanford 9 results for the Glendale Unified School District show improvement at almost every grade level in reading and math compared to last year. But the district is behind the national average in reading in most grades. Results are in percentile rank The percentile rank of a score is the percentage of scores in its frequency distribution which are lower. For example, a test score which is greater than 85% of the scores of people taking the test is said to be at the 85th percentile. . The average national percentile is 50. Grade 1999 1998 Grade 2 reading 45 39 math 60 52 Grade 3 reading 44 37 math 57 47 Grade 4 reading 47 44 math 52 49 Grade 5 reading 48 42 math 57 50 Grade 6 reading 52 45 math 68 57 Grade 7 reading 45 48 math 60 55 Grade 8 reading 50 47 math 58 57 Grade 9 reading 38 35 math 62 57 Grade 10 reading 33 32 math 53 54 Grade 11 reading 36 35 math 54 56 SOURCE: Glendale Unified School District CAPTION(S): chart Chart: Glendale test scores (see text) |
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