Test Scores

GLENDALE — More students in Glendale and Burbank are meeting or surpassing their grade level requirements, according to data released Monday by the California Department of Education. The growth is on par with the rest of the state, which saw its scores increase for an eighth consecutive year. State scores grew by about two percentage points to 52.3% in English language arts and 48% in math. In Glendale, 66.7% students tested at or above proficiency on the English portion of the California Standards Test, an accountability exam that's intended to measure student skills at grade level.

That Burbank and Glendale teachers were able to wring improvements in math and English-language test scores from their students under the weight of budget cuts is a testament to their drive and spirit. Despite millions in state education funding cuts and the ongoing, protracted battles between their union leadership and district officials, teachers were still able to extract overall improvements in the two categories of between 2% and 3% in the annual Standardized Testing and Reporting program.

GLENDALE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT OVERALL HIGH SCHOOL 2000 STANFORD 9 RESULTS Scores from 1999 and 2000 reflect cumulative average by grade based on a 100-point scale, with 50 as a statewide average. CLARK MAGNET Reading '99 '00 Grade 9 56 59 Grade 10 51 56 Grade 11 / 54 Math '99 '00 Grade 9 81 81 Grade 10 81 77 Grade 11 / 78 Language '99 '00 Grade 9 72 80 Grade 10 65 71 Grade 11 / 69 Science'99 '00 Grade 9 60 62 Grade 10 62 63 Grade 11 / 59 Social Sci. '99 '00 Grade 9 62 63 Grade 10 57 55 Grade 11 / 71 CRESCENTA VALLEY Reading '99 '00 Grade 9 54 54 Grade 10 51 54 Grade 11 54 54 Math '99 '00 Grade 9 77 73 Grade 10 69 71 Grade 11 73 74 Language '99 '00 Grade 9 72 71 Grade 10 61 68 Grade 11 66 65 Science'99 '00 Grade 9 59 58 Grade 10 61 62 Grade 11 65 63 Social Sci. '99 '00 Grade 9 57 58 Grade 10 57 55 Grade 11 71 71 GLENDALE Reading '99 '00 Grade 9 28 29 Grade 10 26 26 Grade 11 32 33 Math '99 '00 Grade 9 50 51 Grade 10 50 45 Grade 11 52 54 Language '99 '00 Grade 9 51 58 Grade 10 40 41 Grade 11 49 55 Science'99 '00 Grade 9 35 38 Grade 10 37 34 Grade 11 37 39 Social Sci. '99 '00 Grade 9...

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — More La Cañada high school students are taking advanced placement tougher classes at La Cañada High School, but their standardized state test scores are down slightly in math and science, according to state test results. School district officials are concerned with the drop. They want to find out if the tougher classes are behind it. La Cañada students are still increasing scores on English/language-arts tests and the district is one of the top three in standardized test scores in California, said Lindi Dreibelbis Arthur, the district’s director of assessment, research and consolidated programs.

Darleene Barrientos Parents eager to see how their children scored on recently released Standard Testing and Reporting program exams will have to wait a few weeks more. Reports that have traditionally been mailed off by mid-August will probably not be sent until September because it will take longer than normal to print them, said Terry Dutton, Glendale Unified School District's director of testing and assessment. "They decided they had to be in color this year, and that has really delayed things," Dutton said.

Darleene Barrientos Glendale's public school students raced past state and federal standards in standardized test scores released Tuesday. Over the next nine years, educators aim to get the students to average at least 800 on a 200-1,000 scale. With its lowest school score at 681, high above the minimum score of 560, Glendale public schools are on target for growth according to federal and state standards. Based on an annual measurement called Adequate Yearly Progress, Glendale's public schools met all of its 38 targets.

DOWNTOWN — Students in Glendale and Burbank made historic gains in standardized test scores for 2009, according to data released Tuesday by the California Department of Education. More students met the state’s proficiency marks than ever before for almost every testing category, according to the reports. Some grade levels made striking double-digit gains in some areas, particularly in the fourth grade. About 75% of Burbank Unified School District fourth-graders scored at or above the state’s proficiency rating for English and language arts, up from 66% in 2008 and 60% the year before.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District showed gains in most of its standardized test scores this year, with English and mathematics scores rising even as high school science scores took a distinct drop. District administrators hailed the scores as a sign of progress, noting that schools showed growth in English and math at every grade level and that some schools more than doubled their percentages of proficient and advanced scores from a year ago. "The magic of it all, the secret, is hard work -- making sure standards are taught at every grade level," said Supt.

GLENDALE — Glendale Unified School District managed to eke out some gains over its already high scores on statewide standards tests, according to results released Wednesday. School district officials were pleased with the raw results for the 2007 Standardized Testing and Reporting program — a statewide student assessment program comprising five exams that test elementary, middle and high school students on core subjects. But they were reserving judgment on schools’ effectiveness in raising student achievement because the real high-stakes evaluations come at the end of the month.

GLENDALE — Kelly Schroeder is one of many teachers throughout the Glendale Unified School District who have helped raise elementary school test scores, and she has done it with 36 students in her classroom. But if she taught in the Burbank Unified School District, that total would be closer to 30 students. The difference in class sizes might seem small, but it has had a big effect on classroom environments and on budgets, teachers and officials said. While Burbank Unified’s student-to-teacher ratio in the fourth and fifth grades is 30-to-1, Glendale Unified’s average for the same grades is 34-to-1, according to school accountability reports.

In its front page story (“Teachers battle union leader,” Oct. 6,), the Glendale News-Press suggests that a large-scale battle among the approximately 1,200 Glendale Unified teachers is brewing over the Glendale Teachers Union's president Tami Carlson's refusal to sign off on the District's Race to the Top grant application. The News-Press cites a “growing number” of the “rank and file” and “several teachers” who have “indicated their support of accepting test scores as part of the job evaluation process” as its evidence of some kind of larger disapproval over Carlson's position.

As part of Glendale Unified's quest for millions in federal Race to the Top funds, district officials are in union negotiations over a big string attached to the money: using standardized student test scores to evaluate teachers. Much is as at stake - in order to qualify in the competition for what could be $40 million over four years, Glendale Unified and its teachers union must agree on a system for using student test scores during teacher evaluations. The negotiations currently taking place center on just how much weight to give those test scores during the evaluation process.

Getting lost during the national attention on the recent Chicago Teachers strike was that administrators in the Los Angeles Unified School District agreed to have student achievement be part of their job evaluation, an unprecedented arrangement. What remains to be seen is which specific results will encompass “student achievement.” Will class grades be used? How about AP test results? What about standardized test scores? These questions are to be answered before the one-year test run of this evaluation system commences.

That Burbank and Glendale teachers were able to wring improvements in math and English-language test scores from their students under the weight of budget cuts is a testament to their drive and spirit. Despite millions in state education funding cuts and the ongoing, protracted battles between their union leadership and district officials, teachers were still able to extract overall improvements in the two categories of between 2% and 3% in the annual Standardized Testing and Reporting program.

With school districts facing ever-higher student achievement standards, it should come as no surprise that the battle between teachers and administrators would increase in intensity. In the latest tussle, teachers unions are decrying resolutions under consideration in Burbank, Glendale and elsewhere that would support increasing the length of time in which a new teacher is under evaluation.  Unions don't like the so-called probationary period - which currently lasts for two years - because new teachers can be more easily dismissed during that time than after the probationary period ends.

GLENDALE — More students in Glendale and Burbank are meeting or surpassing their grade level requirements, according to data released Monday by the California Department of Education. The growth is on par with the rest of the state, which saw its scores increase for an eighth consecutive year. State scores grew by about two percentage points to 52.3% in English language arts and 48% in math. In Glendale, 66.7% students tested at or above proficiency on the English portion of the California Standards Test, an accountability exam that's intended to measure student skills at grade level.

A marching band, cheerleaders and public officials stirred Mann Elementary School students into a frenzy of cheers Monday in anticipation of a week of standardized tests. Visiting speakers pushed the students to aim for a target of 825 points out of 1,000 on the exams, which begin Tuesday. “Let’s hear it,” Al Ferrara, a former Dodger outfielder and invited inspirational speaker, told the crowd of cheering students on the Mann blacktop. “We’re going to do 825!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put the pressure on teachers Thursday when he declared a special legislative session, calling on lawmakers to adjust the state’s laws to make it competitive for a new federal stimulus program. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also spoke at the news conference in Sacramento to outline the requirements for the “Race to the Top” fund, a competition between states for stimulus aid that is contingent on improving performance and meeting a set of reform requirements.

DOWNTOWN — Students in Glendale and Burbank made historic gains in standardized test scores for 2009, according to data released Tuesday by the California Department of Education. More students met the state’s proficiency marks than ever before for almost every testing category, according to the reports. Some grade levels made striking double-digit gains in some areas, particularly in the fourth grade. About 75% of Burbank Unified School District fourth-graders scored at or above the state’s proficiency rating for English and language arts, up from 66% in 2008 and 60% the year before.

GLENDALE ? Schools could lose out on a chance to compete for $4.35 billion in federal grants unless teachers back a change in state laws that would allow educators to be evaluated based on student test scores, among other criteria, officials said. Fear of being ineligible for the federal Race to the Top program ? a national competition for a pool of stimulus funds ? has prompted Republican state Sen. Bob Huff, vice chairman of the Senate?s subcommittee on education, to launch a campaign pressing teachers to go along with one of President Obama?