Karen S. Kim
BURBANK -- Steady and continued progress is what Burbank Unified
School District wants, and that's what it got according to the 2000-2001
Stanford 9 test scores released Wednesday.
"Sharp peaks and valleys is not indicative of steady student growth
over time," said Caroline Brumm, coordinator of student and program
evaluation for BUSD.
Overall, students who took the Stanford 9 state standardized exam,
given to students in grades two through 11 for the past four years in
Burbank, have shown improvement this year.
Scores are based on a 100-point scale, with 50 being the national
average, and scoring at or above the 50th percentile indicates that
students are performing at grade level, according to national standards.
At the elementary school level, students' math scores rose
significantly this year, with Emerson Elementary fifth-graders topping
the list of improved scores with a 25-point increase.
Steady gains in math were also visible in middle schools and high
schools, and social science scores have also risen at the high school
level.
But reading is where Burbank's high schools are falling short.
For grades nine through 11, the scores of Burbank students declined
from last year, with the exception of eleventh graders at John Burroughs
High School whose scores remained at 45.
Tenth-graders at Burbank High School scored 11 points lower, and
10th-graders at John Burroughs High School scored 14 points lower in
reading than last year's score of 45.
"Most high school students haven't been exposed to a continuum of
standard-based instruction," said Greg Bowman, deputy superintendent for
BUSD. "But we're refocusing and reshaping the curriculum to meet those
standards."
Burbank has already implemented a number of measures to improve
student performance.
For the past four years, BUSD has aligned its curriculum to state
standards, selected new instructional materials and made a long-term
commitment to staff development and training, Brumm said.
