LIHU’E — Kaua’i’s most recent Stanford Achievement Test results are good news to district superintendent Daniel Hamada. “I feel good. They show that we are making improvements,” he said. Especially encouraging, Hamada says, are the student scores from a new
LIHU’E — Kaua’i’s most recent Stanford Achievement Test results are good news
to district superintendent Daniel Hamada.
“I feel good. They show that we
are making improvements,” he said.
Especially encouraging, Hamada says, are
the student scores from a new test category introduced this year, the
open-ended reading category.
“It’s a bit more challenging because it’s not
based on multiple choice and it requires more critical thinking.” Hamada said
there had been some worries that with the new test, since it was hard to gauge
how the children would do, but on the whole, the island’s keiki tested above
the national average.
In third grade, 83 percent of Kaua’i scores fell in
the average or above average category for open-ended reading. In fifth grade,
86 percent; in seventh, 70 percent and in ninth, 74 percent.
These
comments were echoed by state Superintendent of Schools Paul LeMahieu: “It’s
usual to observe a drop in performance when students are first given new
versions and different kinds of tests. Fortunately, Hawai’i’s schools and
students appear to have been ready for the new forms and formats and have taken
the changes in stride.”
Hamada said he was very pleased with the earlier
grade results, saying that the early intervention strategies employed in recent
years and the goal to have children proficient in reading by grade 2 were
beginning to pay off.
As for the upper grades, he said that they were a
few points below in places, but remained optimistic. “It’s not out of the
ballpark, but getting close.
“We are making progress, but children’s
education is not something to be complacent about,” Hamada said.
When asked
if the tests showed any trouble spots, Hamada said, “We have a ways to go
yet.”
Another promising result, Hamada added, were the scores at certain
schools: Both third and fifth graders at ‘Ele’ele, Kilauea, and King Kaumuali’i
schools scored at or above the national average in all three testing
areas.
Fifth graders at Kalaheo Elementary met or exceeded the national
norm.
No schools met these criteria for the seventh or ninth
grades.
Hamada also said that since the ninth edition of the SAT had been
changed so much, it was difficult to do a fair comparison to previous years
which used the eighth edition of the SAT.
One major change is in the grades
tested. This year’s SAT tested grades 3,5,7 and 9 instead of grades 3,6,8,
and10 as in previous years.
Here in brief are the overall Kaua’i scores ( *
means the score meets or is above the state score; * means the score meets or
is above the national average, which is 77 percent for all categories)
Third Grade
For reading, 70 percent of students placed at or above
average. For math, 78 % (*/*). For open-ended reading, 83 % (*/*)
Fifth
Grade
For reading, 74 % (*) of students tested placed at or above average.
For math, 77 %.(*/*) For open-ended reading, 86 % (*)
Seventh Grade
For
reading, 68 % of students tested placed at or above average. For math, 76 %.
(*) For open-ended reading, 70 %.
Ninth Grade
For reading, 67 % (* ) of
students tested placed at or above the average distribution. For math, 83 %
(*/*) For open-ended reading, 74 % (*).
The SAT is a norm-referenced test
that relates scores of each student to those of students in a control, or norm,
group that represents the American population. It is designed so that 54 % of
all test takers in the norm group score “average”, 23 % score “low”, and 23 %
score “high.”
To score at or above the national norm, at least 77 % of the
test takers need to score in the average or high distributions.
