The reports below, for the district as a whole and for individual schools, show how students performed in 2007 and 2008 on the individual strands of each California Standards Test; they indicate areas of relative strength and weakness, as well as the change in performance from 2008 to 2009.

Strands represent groups of questions on the test addressing clusters of related state content and skill standards. For a good understanding of how students performed on these strands or content clusters, it is not sufficient to look at just the percentage correct to determine where students, for example, did best or worst. Questions on the standards tests vary in difficulty and some strands may be more difficult because of the specific questions asked or because of greater or lesser dependence on accumulated knowledge and skills. Therefore, it is important to take into account how students performed on a strand compared to the level deemed proficient.

However, strands do not have proficiency levels. The closest approximation to the minimum level required for proficiency on a strand is the average percentage correct on a strand scored by students statewide who scored at the minimal proficient level for the test as a whole. Students' performance on a strand can then be gauged by the "gap" between their performance on a strand and the minimally proficient students' performance on the same strand.

Therefore, for each strand--and for each test as a whole--the summary displays for each of the two years:

1. The strand name
2. The number of questions in the strand
3. The average number of strand questions answered correctly by students at the school
4. The percentage of strand questions answered correctly by school students
5. The percentage of strand questions answered correctly by students districtwide
6. The percentage of strand questions answered correctly statewide by students who scored minimally proficient on that test (i.e., who attained the minimum score necessary to score proficient)
7. The gap (difference in percentage points) between the school percentage correct on the strand (item 4, above) and the statewide average of minimally proficient students (item 6, above). A negative number indicates the school performed lower than the minimally proficient level; a positive number indicates the school exceeded that level.

Because strand questions and their difficulty change from one year to the next, it is necessary to compare the gaps from one year to the next to compare performance on a strand across time. In the most right-hand column, the report displays the gap change--the degree of improvement (a positive number) or decrement (a negative number) from 2007 to 2008 in the school percentage correct on the strand or total score compared with the statewide average of minimally proficient students.

The results are displayed for all strands and schools for which there are results for at least ten students each year. Results for subjects tested in 2009 or schools opened in 2009 can be viewed in the one-year strand performance summaries.

District Summary