Students heading into fresh round of STAR testing

Previous lackluster results lead administrators to look
for creative ways of encouraging student effort
by NATHAN WRIGHT, Staff Writer
The State Depart-ment of Education released new information on
API test scores last week, setting the bar for next month’s STAR
testing in California public schools.
The Academic Perfor-mance Index (API) scores for last school
year were first released in October. Last week the state released
the scores again, along with goals for each school in the upcoming
round of STAR tests.
“These scores set the target for next year,” said Windsor
Unified School District Superintendent Robert Carter. “If you don’t
hit your target you’re going to be (labeled) an under-performing
school.”
API scores are extracted from a battery of tests known by the
acronym STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting). Students in
grades 2 – 11 throughout California’s public school system take the
STAR tests every spring. The federal government uses the results to
measure progress with its “No Child Left Behind” program, and the
state government uses them for its API assessment.
The state goal is that every school should achieve a score of no
less than 800 (on a scale of 200 to 1,000). None of Windsor
school’s current scores attain that level, while all three
elementary schools in the Mark West Union School District achieved
scores higher than 800 with last year’s tests (see chart, p.
10).
The neighboring school districts have differing student
populations, and WUSD administrators say these differences affect
test results. The number of English Language Learners in Windsor
schools ranges from 9 to 64 percent. Mark West has only 1 to 2
percent ELL students in its schools.
The STAR tests create special challenges for administrators at
the middle school and high school. The tests are used to assess a
school’s performance, but have no direct impact on individual
students (unlike the ACT and SAT, for example). When older students
realize the STAR tests hold less meaning for them as individuals,
some take them less seriously.
“Elementary school students tend to do what they’re told,” said
Windsor Middle School Principal Loren Barker. “In middle school
they begin asking questions: ‘why am I doing this?'”
Barker said that while WMS sixth and seventh graders score well
on the STAR tests, the eighth graders don’t do as well. The same is
true of students Windsor High School, who managed the dubious
distinction, last school year, of posting the lowest API scores in
Sonoma County.
“We’ve done research and found that many high schools that have
seen radical improvements in their scores have instituted an
incentive program,” said WHS Principal Jeff Harding. WHS is
offering the students free breakfast on each day of testing as well
as prizes for improved test scores.
“It’s extremely costly to improve STAR test scores,” Harding
said, but he believes it will be worth the cost. The high school
welcomes donations from community businesses to help with the
program.
Barker is looking into starting an incentive program at the
middle school as well.
Carter hopes that the incentives will encourage students to take
the tests seriously. “I’m going to be real surprised if our scores
aren’t appreciably higher,” he said.
The Windsor and Mark West districts will administer most of the
STAR tests for this school year on various dates from April 22 to
May 14.
The Times will run a series on the STAR testing process during
the month of April.