Los Alamitos Unified School District led all Orange County districts in proficiency in English and Language Arts, district officials found out last week.
Students took the California Standards, or STAR, Test during the 2009-10 school year and performed very well, according to Dr. Sherry Kropp, assistant superintendent for educational services.
“We are so excited about this,” Kropp said.
“We did a lot of work last year to make more of our students proficient,” Kropp said.
Communication with students that were struggling and enrichment classes for advanced students helped bring the numbers up.
Out of 41 areas measured by the test, increases were seen in 34 over 2009 numbers, Kropp said.
LAUSD elementary schools took part in Response to Instruction classes with one school using it all year long with tremendous results, Kropp said.
In ELA testing, increases were seen in nine of the 10 grades tested over 2009 percentages.
All grades tested had at least a 73 percent proficient or advanced passing rate.
In math testing, where the district was second in the county overall behind Irvine USD, proficiency or advanced increases were noted in 18 of 22 areas tested.
Most notable was a 14 percent increase in high school summative math scores.
Science scores increased in seven of nine areas, with the two that didn’t dropping by just one percentage point.
Double digit increases were seen in ninth-graders taking earth science, 10th-graders in biology and chemistry and 11th-graders in physics.
“We’re having more students proficient with us than ever before,” Kropp said. “Every student that tests as proficient has more opportunities in college as well.”
LAUSD Director of Assessment and Laurel High Principal Mark Johnson said having quality staff development and rigorous staff instruction aided in the process.
Having more students taking higher level math and science courses at the high school level and seeing the increasing test scores helps form a correlation on how students will do in college.
“Seeing the test scores in both (high school) math and science is an indication of the kind of success students have in college,” Johnson said.
In keeping with the district’s slogan “Excellence Never Rests,” Kropp said the test results will be analyzed with ways always being sought to continue improvement.
“We revised benchmarks in several grades,” Kropp said. “We want to duplicate what’s in the best interest for our students district-wide.”
Having the improvement continue, Kropp said, will be a three-fold process: Data will be analyzed and a determination of what individual school instructional strategies and programs work best and developing them on a district wide level.
Paying attention to students and providing intervention or enrichment classes is also key, Kropp noted.
Kropp also wished to thank parents and community members as well as teachers and staff for all their work and support in this accomplishment.
