PSS reports rise in SAT10 scores

The Public School System reported a rise in student performance in this year’s Stanford Achievement Test-10.

PSS said the percentage of students scoring at the 50th national percentile or higher increased on average this year to 22 percent, compared with last year’s 18 percent.

SAT-10 was administered to 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and 11th grade level students, totaling 4,460. Of the total number, 956 achieved at or above the 50th percentile on the total SAT-10 battery, PSS said.

Data showed that 5th grade students registered the highest increase of 25 percent of students achieving the 50th national percentile ranking, followed by 3rd grade students with 24 percent; and 11th graders, with 22 percent.

Grades 6, 8, and 9 each recorded 19 percent of students reaching the ranking.

Federal program officer Tim Thornberg said that next year, PSS hopes to raise the average to 30 percent.

The improved performance of students, he said, can be attributed to their improved reading and overall academic progress in core subjects.

In a statement, Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos commended PSS students “for their excellent academic achievement” on SAT-10.

She said 5th grade students scored a 5 percent gain in math and in science compared with their performance in 2003.

The 8th grade students, she said, scored the largest learning gain of 12 percent in math “and impressive complete SAT battery learning gain of 5 percent,” while the 11th graders showed a large gain of 9 percent in both math and science and a 6-percent gain on the total test.

The commissioner said that SAT-10 results also revealed a “big learning gain in the reading assessment, with, on average, almost 50 percent of the students reading at or above grade level.”

She added that the goal is to have 80 percent of students reading at or above grade level by 2008.

“Parents should be proud of their children’s performance,” she said.

Inos also commended PSS teachers and principals for a job well done.

Inos said that if this year’s average gain of 4 percent is sustained in the next six years, then PSS would reach the goal of 50 percent or more of the students scoring at the 50th percentile or higher ranking by 2010.

On reading, she said PSS aims to have 80 percent of its students reading at or above grade level by 2008.

Inos said that additional analysis would be made on SAT-10 scores to show achievement by student, by teacher, by grade, by school, and by island.

“The upward trend in student academic achievement coupled with the accreditation of all 20 of our public schools is evidence that excellence in education is being achieved every day at our public schools,” Inos said.