But we don't yet have the data that would let us compare apples to apples and oranges to naranjas. Analysts are still crunching the demographic data that will help us really understand which students and schools are succeeding, and which are not. Here are some tips for understanding the numbers we've got now. This spring, after four years without a statewide exam, students in grades 2 through 11 took the same multiple-choice test, comparing their achievement to a national sample of students. Gov. Wilson insisted on testing all students, including those who aren't fluent in English.
School districts can release all scores, and some have done so.
Only two percent of students in the national comparison group were limited in English compared to 22 percent of test-takers here. So it doesn't make sense to evaluate the effectiveness of a school or a district by lumping together the scores of students who understood the test with the low scores of students who didn't. However, over time, STAR will show whether LEP students are making progress. We assume that if a student tests below the 35th percentile and comes from a home in which someone speaks a language other than English, that the student is not proficient in English. Some districts won't reclassify LEP students as proficient until they reach the district average, which may be considerably higher.