Walnut Creek Students Improve Their Standardized Test Scores

East Bay students scored higher than the state average in English and math, according to just-released standardized test results.

Some 4.7 million students took the 2011 Standardized Testing and Reporting assessment known as STAR. Fifty-four percent of them scored proficient or better in English-language arts and 50 percent were proficient or better in math, according to the California Department of Education.

In Contra Costa County, where 128,000 students were tested, 61 percent scored at least proficient in English and 55 percent proficient or better in math. Alameda County scores were nearly the same: 60 percent were proficient or better in language and 55 percent in math among the 162,410 tested.

Students in second through 11th grades are tested in several subjects and ranked by the following levels: far below basic, below basic, basic, proficient or advanced.

Mount Diablo Unified School District

In the Mount Diablo district (which includes students from Concord, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill and Clayton), 56 percent of the ninth-graders were proficient and advanced in English-language arts; 49 percent for 10th-graders; and 49 percent for 11th-graders.

In the Mount Diablo district, in California Standard Tests for Mathematics, 75 percent of fifth-graders were proficient and advanced; 50 percent of sixth-graders; and 48 percent of seventh-graders.

This is just skating across the surface of results for the Mount Diablo district; see the link for more. 

Las Lomas High

At Las Lomas High in the Acalanes Union High District, 84 percent of ninth-graders were proficient and advanced in English-language arts; 77 percent of 10th-graders; and 70 percent of 11th-graders.

 At Las Lomas High, the end of course reading for biology was 76 percent proficient and advanced; the equivalent statistic for chemistry was 61 percent.

This is just a fraction of the results for Las Lomas; see the link for more. 

Walnut Creek Elementary District

In the Walnut Creek Elementary District in English and language arts, 81 percent of sixth-graders were proficient and advanced; 86 percent of seventh-graders; and 81 percent of eighth-graders. 

In the Walnut Creek Elementary District in mathematics, 83 percent of fifth-graders were proficient and advanced in mathematics; 74 percent of sixth-graders; and 76 percent of seventh-graders.

This is just skimming the surface of results for the Walnut Creek Elementary District; see the link for more.

Highest scores since 2003

Both state and East Bay scores are the highest since the program launched in 2003. That first year, just 35 percent of California students ranked proficient in math and English.

“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 statement. “Their heroic teamwork is paying off for California.”

Racial, economic achievement gap

Though overall test scores increased, an achievement gap remains.

Black and Latino students continue to lag behind their white and Asian peers. Students from poor families or those for whom English is a second language also struggle to keep up, numbers show.

STAR scores are used to come up with schools' Academic Performance Index and Adequate Yearly Progress report. Dropout and exit exam rates also factor into the API and AYP assessments.

Dropout rates were released Friday; those for the California High School Exit Exam are due out next week and the AYP and API scores will be released on Aug. 31.