By many indicators, student achievement in California lags behind achievement in most other states while achievement in the U.S. lags behind achievement in most countries in recent international comparisons. This year, for the first time, California has a testing plan that measures high-achievement levels linked to high level standard as well as allowing comparison of California students to students nationwide. Scores in this first year of high level testing serve as a baseline of where our students are as we begin to teach to the level of the new California Standards. As we have not taught significant numbers of students at this level before, scores are expected to be low in this baseline assessment. In coming years, these tests will serve as a yardstick to measure statewide progress as our schools raise the level of instruction available to students.

In order to raise the academic performance of California's children, the legislature and governor authorized the development of "world class" academic content standards and tests of student performance linked to those standards. In response to this legislation, content standards in mathematics, language arts, science and history have been adopted by the state board of education.

In the Spring of 1998, and again in the Spring of 1999, students in grades 2-11 took the nationally normed Stanford-9 (SAT-9) test. Although this test is not linked to the California standards it can be used as a general measure of how California children are doing relative to students in other parts of the country. At any grade level, in order to measure student skill across a wide range of levels, this test contains a range of questions extending from those approaching the level of the standards to those which are substantially below the level of the standards. This allows a student to answer correctly a significant number of questions without having to answer any questions at the level of the new California Standards.

In addition to the SAT-9, starting in 1999, students also take the STAR Augmentation test in math and language arts. These exams, unlike the SAT-9, are linked directly to the specific standards for each grade. For example, the fifth grade augmentation exam contains only questions on the material of the fifth grade standards, it does not contain material from the grade 3 or grade 4 standards. Unlike the SAT-9, this test allows us to see how well students have mastered the concepts and skills of the material at each grade level, but does not allow us to distinguish between students who are one year below the level of the standards and students who are two or more years behind.

Although neither the SAT-9 nor the STAR Augmentation exam alone give the full picture of how our students are progressing, the combination of the two samples a broad range of achievement levels and allows us to note both how well students are doing at mastering the material in the standards, and how well they are doing relative to the rest of the country.

Since the desire of the legislature was to raise student performance and not merely to codify a current level of mediocrity, the standards were directed to be at a "world class" level. As a consequence, the standards exceed, by design, the general level of current student performance. Indeed, few if any schools have until now attempted to teach their students at the level of the standards. Thus, we should expect that students will do poorly on the 1999 STAR Augmentation exam. This fact has been recognized by both those who wrote the exam and by the State Board of Education, and this knowledge is reflected in the fact that no "grade" rankings will be given to students on the 1999 STAR Augmentation test. Instead, only number correct and the number of total questions will be reported. These numbers, when reported by school or by district should be viewed only as a snap shot of where we are prior to starting to teach our students to the level of the standards. This is the baseline against which to measure future improvements.

What can we expect in the future? As students, teachers and districts become aware of the content of the standards, and the level of the exams, we should see systematic attempts to raise the level at which students are taught and learn. Those who should catch up first are the youngest students, since they have had the least time to fall behind. During the transition period, we hope to see more and more students doing well on the STAR Augmentation exam, indicating mastery of greater portions of the grade-specific content, but even before we see major improvements on the augmentation exam we should see, in those schools and districts that are attempting to raise students up to the level of the standards, an improvement in SAT-9 scores. This reflects increased mastery of the prerequisite concepts and skills required as steps toward mastering the material included in the standards for each grade.

In summary, the combination of the SAT-9 and the STAR Augmentation tests gives a broad sampling of how are children are doing today relative to the nation and to the world class level of the state standards. Through time, as students are taught at higher levels in response to the standards, we will see performance levels rise on the SAT-9, and then we will see more and more students approaching high performance levels on the STAR Augmentation exam. We should not expect instant success, but we can strive for steady progress.