Santa Clara County Releases
2009 STAR Program Results

SAN JOSE, CA – Santa Clara County students continue to improve and outperform their peers statewide on the 2009 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program. California Standards Test results rank Santa Clara County students as some of the top performers in the state except students who are of African American or Hispanic descent. (Figures 2, 13, 14)

The achievement gap displayed in these test results between African American and Hispanic students, and white and Asian students, has remained constant for the past seven years on English-language arts exams and has narrowed only slightly on mathematics tests.

“Correcting this pernicious gap in achievement and opportunity is the number one educational issue of this generation,” said Dr. Charles Weis, county superintendent of schools.

Underperforming students will find it difficult to graduate from high school and may even drop out early. And when compared to high school graduates, these dropouts have higher rates of unemployment, lower earnings, higher rates of crime and incarceration, and higher rates of dependence on public assistance.

According to Weis, “The impact of the achievement gap on our State’s economy has recently been defined by researchers at the McKinsey Group, but it is also a moral issue. Our education system is not succeeding with a large segment of our student population and we cannot let this continue.”

In response to this issue, Weis is working with community leaders to find educational as well as community solutions to eliminate the achievement gap. An ambitious initiative to eliminate the achievement gap within this decade will be launched next month.

Other STAR exam findings include the following:

• Santa Clara County students outperformed their peers statewide in English-language arts, math, science, and history-social science. (Figures 1, 4, and 5)
  
• The scores of students in all grade levels improved in English-language arts and math from 2003 to 2009. (Figure 6, 8)
• The achievement gap in math is narrowing only slightly, while the achievement gap in English-language arts is slightly increasing. (Figures 7, 11, 12)

The STAR exam is designed to measure how well students meet English, math, science, and history-social science standards.  Students in grades two through 11 are scored as advanced, proficient, basic, below basic, and far below basic.

Parents who would like more information about the statewide exam can go to www.starsamplequestions.org, a Web site launched by the California Department of Education.

Staff Analysis

Date last updated: August 19, 2009