FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 29, 1999

FAIRFAX COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS RELEASES 1998-99
DIVISIONWIDE STANFORD ACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORES

Superintendent Daniel A. Domenech has released the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) divisionwide Stanford Achievement Test Ninth Edition (Stanford 9 TA) test scores. The nationally normed achievement test was administered to FCPS students in grades four, six, and nine in October 1998. As a group, FCPS students performed well above the 50th percentile, or national average, in all areas and grades tested. Percentile scores for FCPS students ranged from a low of 58 to a high of 83. The majority of scores for FCPS students were at or above the 70th percentile.

The Stanford 9 TA is required by the Virginia Department of Education as part of the Virginia State Assessment program. In 1997, the first year the Stanford 9 TA was administered, students in grades three, five, eight, and eleven were tested in the spring.

According to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), percentile ranks should not be used to make inferences and decisions relative to growth (or loss) and level of achievement in comparing spring 1997 and fall 1998 Stanford 9 TA results.

The Stanford 9 TA was normed using the results of students tested in the spring and fall of 1995. The norming occurred at different times of the year and with different grade levels: three, five, and eight for the spring norms and four, six, and nine for the fall norms. Therefore, a given raw score will not yield the same percentile rank in both the spring 1997 and fall 1998 Stanford 9 TA administrations. However, this does not affect the usefulness of percentile ranks in drawing comparisons between the fall 1998 achievement and the national average.

The VDOE further states that a much more reliable indicator of growth and achievement is the scaled score. Scaled scores are reliable as measures of comparison, since the Stanford 9 TA fall and spring raw-score-to-scale-score conversions for a given content area are identical within each level of the test, regardless of the grade tested. Therefore, a raw score of "X" will convert to the same scale score whether a third grader took the test in the spring or a fourth grader took the test in the fall.

The following is a summary of FCPS Stanford 9 TA results (see Table 1):

• Grade four average scores for the total group ranged from the 58th percentile for reading vocabulary to the 77th percentile in science.
• Grade six average scores for the total group ranged from the 65th percentile for language to the 83rd percentile for math problem solving.
• Grade nine average scores for the total group ranged from the 63rd percentile for language to the 80th percentile for science.

Results by ethnic group (see Table 1):

• In 1998-99, two-thirds of the scores for the Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White populations as groups were at or above the national average.
• Asian and White populations scored at or above the 50th percentile on all tests at all grade levels.
• Black students scored at or above the 50th percentile on 3 of the 30 tests reported.
• Hispanic students scored at or above the 50th percentile on 17 of the 30 tests reported.

Comparison of spring 1997 and fall 1998 scores (see Table 2):

• Overall, FCPS students' scores stayed the same or demonstrated growth in all areas except in reading comprehension and math procedures from grade eight to grade nine.
• Students' scores moving from grades three to four, five to six, and eight to nine made the greatest gains in science.
• The largest gains were 13 points for language and 13 points for science from grade three to grade four.

Flier:

Report of Average Scores by School (Grades 4, 6, and 9)

Tables:

Table 1: Average Scores by Ethnicity

Table 2: Scaled Score Comparison, Spring 1996-97 to Fall 1998-99

Last update: January 29, 1999
Curator: Jill KurtzJill.Kurtz@fcps.edu