STAR Assessment Program
Testing and Assessment
For more information on the California state curriculum standards on which the STAR program is based, please Click Here. State/District Curriculum Standards
The State API and Federal AYP Components to the STAR Program
Earlier, in August 2003, the state issued data that was tailored to show whether a school or district met the goals for being judged as proficient in English-language arts and in mathematics under the new federal No Child Left Behind Act, an accountability system known as Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) and separate to the existing state API accountability system. This data was reconfigured by the state to show school and district educational achievement growth under API.
There may well be confusion among parents and the community regarding the dual systems of measuring educational performance. The state system calls for schools to show steady progress in improving student achievement over a 20-year period, using the Academic Performance Index (API). The federal law, which took effect in 2002, requires all students to master reading and mathematics within 12 years under what is called Annual Yearly Progress (AYP).
Under the state API system, a district or school is considered on track if it shows consistent annual academic progress on state academic standards tests. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, a district or school does not meet the Annual Yearly Progress goal (AYP) unless it satisfies up to 44 testing benchmark standards annually.
The data issued for districts and schools in August was formatted to show the AYP performance of districts and schools, based on the spring 2003 testing.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, public schools must consistently increase the percentage of students proficient in English-language arts and math. For the 2003 AYP, the state set the proficiency standard for English-language arts at 13.6% of elementary and middle school students. The math proficiency standard was set at 16% of elementary and middle school students. The percentages will increase annually; in 12 years, 100% of students will be required to be proficient in all categories.
To satisfy the annual AYP goals, a district and school must:
The subgroups include major ethnic/racial groups, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities and English learners. Numerically significant subgroups in these categories are those whose numbers of students comprise 15% of a school’s enrollment, with a minimum number of 50 students, or which comprise 100 students no matter the subgroup’s percentage of a school’s enrollment. If even one of these subgroups does not meet any one AYP requirement, including 95% test participation, then the school or district fails to satisfy the AYP goal.
The 44 benchmarks under AYP encompass all of these major categories of participation and achievement standards.