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The 2001 Stanford 9 testing data are on the State Education Dept web site.
The State people have been bragging about the improvement from 98 to 2001. The press release from the State Board says:
Virginia students achieved well above the national average in reading, language, and mathematics on the 2001 Stanford Achievement Tests (Stanford 9), continuing what is now a four-year trend of increased achievement on the tests.
Let's look at some of the underlying data. First, here are the Statewide subject area scores for 2001
Statewide 2001 Stanford 9 Scores Grade Reading Math Language (Basic) BATTERY 4 54 61 61 59 6 59 66 55 62 9 60 55 52 57 and the changes from 1998
Changes in Statewide Stanford 9 scores, 1998-2001 Grade Reading Math Language (Basic) BATTERY 4 4 8 7 6 6 1 8 4 4 9 2 1 4 2 We see that statewide these scores improved at each grade level and for every subject to levels that in every case are above the national norm (50). There's no telling whether the SOLs were responsible for any of this but there is a post hoc inference.
The Richmond data are another matter entirely. We are far behind the national norms in every subject at every grade level:
Stanford 9 Scores, Richmond, 2001 Grade Reading Math Language (Basic) BATTERY 4 30 39 42 38 6 34 39 36 39 9 37 34 33 37 In fact, those scores are improved from 98:
Stanford 9 Score Changes, 1998-2001, Richmond, Grade Reading Math Language (Basic) BATTERY 4 1 4 1 2 6 1 6 2 3 9 1 2 0 Compared to the nice improvements in the statewide scores, however, these numbers reveal that Richmond is falling still farther behind. In '98 we were 20 points behind
Richmond v. Statewide Stanford 9 Scores, 1998 Grade Reading Math Language (Basic) BATTERY Average 4 -21 -18 -13 -17 6 -25 -25 -17 -22 9 -22 -22 -15 -19 Average -23 -22 -15 -19 -20 In 2001 we had fallen to 22 points behind
Richmond v. Statewide Stanford 9 Scores, 2001 Grade Reading Math Language (Basic) BATTERY Average 4 -24 -22 -19 -21 6 -25 -27 -19 -23 9 -23 -21 -19 -20 Average -24 -23 -19 -21 -22 with declines vs. the State average in every subject but 6th grade reading (where we held even) and 9th grade math (where we caught up by one point).
Changes in Richmond v. Statewide Stanford 9 Scores, 1998 to 2001 Grade Reading Math Language (Basic) BATTERY 4 -3 -4 -6 -4 6 0 -2 -2 -1 9 -1 1 -4 -1 Just think: We are paying taxes to support this system that is harming our schoolchildren and that is falling behind the state average (just as the SOLs are). Indeed, we are paying more taxes than almost any jurisdiction for much worse performance. Part of the problem is the School Board is spending our tax money on failed programs.
The really surprising thing here is that we are not hearing the enraged howls of the citizenry. Neither do we hear of a crash program to improve the Richmond schools. For sure the first step to fixing the schools is to realize that they are broken. Until we do that, clearly and explicitly, we must expect that the system will continue to fail its customers.
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Last updated
02/24/02
Please send questions or comments to John
Butcher