November 30, 2005
Schools Chief Jack O'Connell Comments on Release
of NAEP Scores for large Urban Districts
SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell commented today about the 2005 Trial Urban District Assessment, which reports on reading and mathematics achievement in ten urban school districts including Los Angeles and San Diego. The report measures district-level progress on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which released state and national results in October.
"The NAEP district-level scores released today, like those already released for California and the rest of the nation, reflect both the challenges we face in California's urban public schools and the unfairness and inaccuracy of making comparisons between states and districts on the basis of NAEP scores," O'Connell said. "It is clear that California schools must do more to improve student achievement in both reading and math, but I am pleased that significant gains have been made in mathematics. Reading scores, while disappointing nationwide, are trending in the right direction.
"However, it would be much more helpful and accurate to gauge performance on a test that measured apples against apples. In California, we believe that holding all students to the same high standards and shining light on the achievement of all student groups is the best way to help students succeed. Other states and districts exclude from the assessment many students who may perform poorly because of challenges such as poverty or limited English proficiency.
"California has the highest proportion of English learners in the nation and also assesses a higher proportion of our students who are learning English than any other state. The differences are particularly stark in the urban district assessment. In Houston, for example, 36 percent of the student population is classified as English learners and more than half (53 percent) of those students were excluded from the Trial Urban District Assessment. In contrast, Los Angeles excluded only 9% of its English learner population, which comprises 56 percent of the total student population. In the San Diego Unified School District, 36 percent of all students are English learners, and just 11 percent of those students were excluded from the assessment. In Austin, where 27 percent of all students are identified as English learners, 52 percent of that group was excluded. I strongly encourage the National Assessment Governing Board to address these exclusion inequities so the test will serve as a more useful analytical tool.
"Unlike our statewide assessments, NAEP is not aligned to the content taught in California's classrooms, and therefore is not as sensitive to changes in student achievement as our California Standards Tests. Also unlike California's STAR assessments, average scale scores and other results from NAEP contain sampling error, so it takes a greater increase in achievement to register as significant on NAEP. Results on our statewide tests, which are aligned to our rigorous standards, indicate that a focus on high expectations is leading to steady gains in student achievement. If we continue to focus on California's rigorous standards in the classroom we can expect the achievement gains seen on our state tests to be reflected on future NAEP assessments."
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Attachment
NAEP 2005 Mathematics and Reading Trial Urban District (TUDA) Results [http://nces.ed.gov/commissioner/remarks2005/12_1_2005.asp] (Outside Source)
