STAR scores slip as budget cuts hit home
Testing program’s future in doubt as Common Core rolls out
Published: September 1, 2013
The big news wasn’t that scores on California’s annual Standardized Testing and Reporting assessments slipped by a fraction of a percentage point between the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years, although after a decade of steady gains the decline is certainly cause for concern.
What’s more surprising, say public school advocates, is that students, teachers and governance teams—buffeted by years of horrific budget cuts and seismic shifts in policy and regulation—were able to hold the line on most of the precious gains in academic achievement they worked so hard to achieve.
The latest STAR numbers, released last month, show that the percentage of students who scored proficient or better in math fell by less than a half percentage point between the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years, dropping from 51.5 percent to 51.2 percent; in English-language arts, results declined from 57.2 percent proficient or better to 56.4 percent.
However, as state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson pointed out during an Aug. 8 press conference, those numbers represent significant improvements since the STAR tests were first fully aligned to state standards in 2003, when just 35 percent of students tested proficient or better in those subjects.
“While we all want to see California’s progress continue, these results show that in the midst of change and uncertainty, teachers and schools kept their focus on students and learning,” Torlakson said. “That’s a testament to the depth of their commitment to their students and the future of our state.”
It’s no secret that public schools have had to contend with years of drastic budget cuts that forced many to lay off teachers, cut the school year, eliminate programs and increase class size—among other damaging reductions. In fact, Torlakson said, California education leaders were bracing for an additional $6 billion in cuts this past academic year.
Luckily those reductions were averted when voters approved Proposition 30 last November. But in the meantime, schools were forced to prepare emergency budgets that incorporated those cuts, Torlakson said, making for yet another difficult and uncertain year.
CSBA Senior Director for Policy and Programs Teri Burns attributed the “slight dip” in STAR scores to the fact that so many schools are already implementing the fundamental changes in teaching and learning required by the new Common Core State Standards.
“The Common Core means a different style of thinking and STAR tests don’t test the material in the same way, so we should expect scores may go down,” Burns said. “When the Common Core is fully implemented and we have tests that are aligned to the new material, the new scores won’t be comparable at all to STAR.”
The past school year was probably the last for the STAR program, which is scheduled to sunset July 1 next year, and many districts have already begun field-testing new Smarter Balanced Assessments aligned to the Common Core.
Torlakson is pushing legislation to allow schools to skip some STAR tests this year and will ask the State Board of Education to apply for a federal waiver that would exempt schools that pilot the new Common Core tests from all STAR requirements, and any from the No Child Left Behind Act that the federal government is willing to waive.