Friday, August 31, 2012

BREAKING: They're up! STAR 2012

Statewide 2012 California STAR Test Results

See the STAR post below for information on how to generate various reports.

Here's the CDE's press release on the 2012 STAR results. The section devoted to science says,

"In 2012, the percentage of students scoring at the proficient level and above across all grade-level tests increased by 3 percentage points. Grade five showed an increase of 1 percentage point, grade eight showed an increase of 2 percentage points, and grade ten showed the highest one-year increase of 3 percentage points. Notable gains were also seen in all grade levels since the assessments were first administered.

From 2011 to 2012, all grade-level and nearly every end-of-course results showed an increase in the percentage of students scoring at the proficient level and above on the science CSTs with the exception of Physics and Integrated Science 1. The largest one-year increase was 6 percentage points in Integrated Science 2, increasing from 19 percent to 25 percent of students, followed by 5 percentage points in Chemistry, increasing from 38 percent to 43 percent of students. Earth Science and Biology each showed a one-year increase of 3 percent of students. Physics and Integrated Science 1 remained unchanged from the previous year.

The percentage of students achieving at the proficient level and above has increased on all end-of-course tests since 2003, with the greatest increase on the CST for Physics, at 23 percentage points during that time period. Gains for all of the end-of-course tests made between 2011 and 2012 were 3 percentage points, while those same tests showed gains of approximately 17 percentage points between 2003 and 2012.

In 2012, approximately 1.2 million students in grades nine through eleven took science end-of-course CSTs. Between 2011 and 2012, the number of students taking the CST for Biology increased by 3,763, and the number of students taking the CST for Chemistry increased by 9,974. Since 2003, the number of students taking the CST for Biology has increased by 222,672, the greatest increase among the science end-of-course CSTs. Though the number of test-takers is decreasing over the past three years, for Earth Science, there is an increase of 117,248 students taking that test since 2003. Within the same period, notably, the number of students taking the CST for Chemistry increased by 121,882."

For the most meaningful information (schoolwide student performance on specific standards), you'll have to wait for your district.

Statewide Physics Results (click to embiggen):

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