Capo Students Make Steady Gains in STAR Scores

The made steady gains on this year’s statewide subjects-based testing, according to the California Department of Education, which released the results publicly today.

Results from the Standardized Testing and Reporting program shows small increases in how Capo’s second-11th graders score in English  and math, with the biggest gains in the sciences.

Students take the tests in spring, and they’re placed into one of five categories based on performance:

• Advanced
• Proficient
• Basic
• Below Basic
• Far Below Basic

The state and districts add together the percentage of students who fall into the top two categories to determine how well students are doing.

The percentage of CUSD students scoring at proficient or advanced levels on English assessments grew from 75 percent to 76.5 percent and from 68 percent to 69 percent in mathematics, according to the district.

Capo fares well when compared to Orange County and the state as a whole.

Countywide, 65.6 percent of students scored proficient or above in English tests; that  number was 57.2 percent of students statewide. In math, 61.7 percent of county students scored proficient or better;, 51.5 percent did so statewide.

“These scores indicate that our emphasis on improving our instructional practices is the right path for this district to take,” school board President Gary Pritchard said in a press release. “This community should be proud that this district and its employees have, despite continued budget challenges, continued their emphasis on providing an extraordinary educational environment for each of our students that prepares them for college, a career, and life.”

Last year, in the percentage totals. Ten areas were highlighted. This year, only three groups of students excelled by at least a 5-point margin, all in the sciences. They were:

• High school juniors in chemistry
• High school freshmen in earth science
• High school juniors in earth science