Students shine on STARs

Newport-Mesa Unified School District schools showed improvements from a year ago districtwide on 2008 California Standardized Testing and Reporting, better known as STAR, and also showed higher rates of students testing at or above state standards for math and science compared with county and state totals, testing results released today show.

Elementary and middle schools from second to seventh grades, on a whole, saw improvement with the amount of students meeting or exceeding state standards in English-language arts at every level except second grade. The percentage of students improved in math for all grades except second and sixth.

“We are very proud of all of our students for making such excellent progress and appreciate the hard work of the principals and teachers,” said Jeffrey Hubbard, the Newport-Mesa superintendent.

STAR testing assessments are given every year to students in second through 11th grades. They determine how students perform on the California Standards Tests in English-language arts, mathematics, history and social science, and science.

Schools and districts are often judged by these scores, and state funding is partly dependent on them.

Newport-Mesa high schools improved, or matched, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards in English-language arts at every level but ninth grade.

The district did equally well in science scores, with improvements in biology for all applicable grades — ninth through 11th — and improved in chemistry in ninth and 10th grades.

“I am very encouraged by the ongoing progress seen in secondary schools,” said Charles Hinman, the assistant superintendent in charge of secondary education.

“The data shows strength of program and allows us to adjust instruction to meet all student needs.”

But math scores were a mixed bag for the district.

Districtwide, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards improved in Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 for the majority of grade levels.

Students struggled, though, in geometry. No grade level tested on the subject improved in the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards.

In 2007, 97% of eighth-grade students achieved standards, while this year, the number dropped slightly to 93%.

But ninth- and 10th-grade levels dropped considerably from 62% in 2007 for ninth-graders to 49% in 2008. Tenth-graders also dropped from 23% to 12%.