Orange County Math Initiative 2008/09 CST Math Results Comparison

Students in grades using ST Math in Orange County Math Initiative schools were tested on the California Standards Test in Math at the end of the school year 2008/09. Each student was placed into one of 5 proficiency levels: Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic, or Far Below Basic. At each school and for each grade, the percent of students falling into each of the levels was reported on the California Department of Education website.

This data for school years 2008/09 and also 2007/08 was analyzed for growth in the percent of students in the Proficient and Advanced levels.

Within-grade growth compares the percentage Proficient or better in 2008/09 to the percentage Proficient or better in 2007/08. For example, at a school in which grade 2 had 50% of students Proficient in 2007/08 and grade 2 had 60% of students Proficient in 2008/09, the growth is 10 points.

The 2008/09 within-grade average growth for all grades (2-5) at all Orange County Math Initiative schools was 12.82 points. For comparison, the 2008/09 within-grade average growth for the state of California for grades 2-5 was 4.5 points.

A second comparison was made with schools within Orange County which did not use ST Math at all in 2008/09. This set of comparable Orange County schools was chosen from the lowest 3 deciles in statewide performance (as were the Orange County schools in the Math Initiative using ST Math). The 2008/09 within-grade average growth for these comparable, Orange County Decile 1-3 schools was 5.27 points. The difference between these two datasets is statistically significant with p<.001.

Grades using ST Math realized within-grade average growth of 12.82 points in 2008/09.

The 2008/09 within-grade average growth by specific grade level, from grades 2 through 5, was evaluated. For the grades using ST Math, the average growth ranged from 10 points (Grade 3) to 15.3 points (Grade 5). For comparison, the similar schools in Orange County not using ST Math (OC Decile 1-3) showed average growth ranging from 0.8 points (Grade 2) to 7.7 points (Grade 5).

Grades using ST Math realized greater within-grade average growth at each grade level.

Within the 2008/09 grade level growth for grades using ST Math, the relative contributions to the total growth resulting from increase in % Proficient and from increase in % Advanced were evaluated. For example, within the 15.3 point growth in Proficient+Advanced % for 5^th grades using ST Math, % Proficient increased 6.7 points and % Advanced increased by 8.6 points, making a total of 15.3 points.

Most of the growth in Pro+Adv% came from growth in % Advanced.

Student Cohort Growth

A second type of growth follows a student cohort at a school from one grade in 2007/08 to the subsequent grade in 2008/09, again comparing the percentage Proficient or better in 2008/09 to the percentage Proficient or better in 2007/08. For example, at a school in which grade 2 had 50% of students Proficient in 2007/08 and grade 3 had 58% of students Proficient in 2008/09, the student cohort growth is 8 points. Note that since the % of students Proficient typically drops as the grade level increases, the student cohort growth number is typically lower than the within-grade growth number.

The 2008/09 student cohort average growth for grades 3, 4, and 5 at all Orange County Math Initiative schools was 10.63 points. For comparison, the 2008/09 student cohort average growth for the state of California in grades 2-5 was 2.0 points.

Again a comparison with the same set of Orange County schools which did not use ST Math was made, as above. The 2008/09 student cohort average growth for these comparable, Orange County Decile 1-3 schools was 2.23 points.

Grades using ST Math realized student cohort average growth of 10.63 points in 2008/09.

MIND Research Institute, Sep 15 2009