Local students still behind state averages but are making progress

Merced County schools are mostly getting by with a C average.

But that's better than report cards of years past.

State standardized test results show that fewer Merced County public school students are meeting academic standards than their counterparts statewide, according to the data released by the California Department of Education Tuesday.

In math, 36.6 percent of Merced County students scored at a proficient level on the 2009 California Standards Tests taken last spring. Statewide, 45.8 percent of public school students scored at that level.

Just 42.5 percent of Merced County students scored proficient or above on the English language arts portion of the test, compared to 50 percent of students in California.

The Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program measures how well students are achieving California's academic standards, as measured by scores on the California Standards Tests. All students in grades two to 11 take the tests in subjects that include English language arts, mathematics, history, social science and science.

Scores on the exams are released in five categories: advanced, proficient, basic, below basic and far below basic.

Even so, the percentage of county students scoring at the state standard -- proficient and above -- has steadily increased since 2006.

"We're very pleased with that," said Lee Andersen, Merced County Superintendent of Schools. "I must say that some of our districts have a long-term trend of more rapid growth than most districts. However, every district in Merced County has made significant gains since the STAR program began."

The Ballico-Cressey Elementary, McSwain Union, and Snelling-Merced Falls school districts each had a higher percentage of students scoring proficient or above than both the county and state averages on each of the tests given in those districts.

In McSwain, the percentage of students scoring proficient or above on the science exam was 75.4 percent, compared to 49.6 statewide.

Hilmar Unified's passage rate ranked better than the county on all five exams, and better than the state on two.

Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified and Le Grand Union High School districts each had fewer proficient students than the state and county averages on all five exams its students took.

The data also showed that an achievement gap in Merced County is continuing to persist: of white sixth-graders, 50 percent scored proficient or above in math, and 62 percent scored proficient or above in English, while other student groups in that grade were scoring much lower.

The proficiency rate for Laotian students was 33 percent on both tests. Economically disadvantaged students were proficient at a rate of 34 percent in math and 40 percent in English. One in three Hispanic sixth-graders was proficient in math, while 41 percent scored proficient or above on the English exam.

Finally, the proficiency rates for second-through-seventh students with disabilities in the county continued to lag significantly behind the state proficiency rates; 13.1 percent of students in that group scored proficient or above in Merced County, compared to 31.3 percent in the state.

"I think the most critical thing for Merced County is to start to see the close of that achievement gap. That's a huge challenge," Andersen said. "We are all working on that. I believe that is where we need to go with our resources, and we need to see outcomes."

Andersen pointed out that Merced County has closed the gap between local proficiency rates and the state average. Since 2006, the county has increased the number of proficient students by 30 percent. The statewide increase was 19 percent.

"We started significantly behind the state average and we are closing that gap. We haven't closed that gap completely, but we are getting closer to closing that gap," Andersen said.

The results posted Tuesday are preliminary until school districts review the data. Final results will be posted in December.

For more information on state test scores, go to star.cde.ca.gov.

Reporter Danielle Gaines can be reached at (209) 385-2407 or dgaines@mercedsun-star.com.