| California’s schools took a profound change in direction after the publication in 1983 of the report, “A Nation at Risk,” by the National Commission on Excellence in education. The report described a “rising tide of mediocrity” in our schools. Major educational reform began taking place almost immediately, with mixed results. One shortcoming that revealed itself was that there was a lack of focus on rigorous academic standards – a comprehensive vision of what students needed to know and be able to do.
California set about redefining the state’s role in public education. Panels of experts in various educational disciplines were gathered, and thus began a years-long process of determining what every student in every grade should know in key subject areas. Fifteen years later, English-Language Arts standards were adopted. Mathematics, Social Science and Science standards followed.
The standards are presented as a grade-by-grade outline of what every public school student is expected to know by that school year’s end. The standards describe what to teach, not how to teach it. They are intended to guide instruction.
Language arts was targeted first because the skills contained therein, reading, writing, listening and speaking, are regarded as gateways to other learning.
As the key element in comprehensive reform, the California Content Standards were integrated into the benchmark of student performance in California – the California Standards And Reporting Test, administered to all students in grades 2-11.
STAR was authorized in 1997, with a nationally norm-referenced multiple-choice achievement test at its core. In 1999, additional items in language arts and mathematics were added. These items were developed to conform to California Content Standards. In 2001, three more subject areas were added to the California Content Standards – grade 4 and 7 writing tests, grade 9-11 science tests and grade 9-11 social science tests.
All of California’s current Content Standards are available on the Web at http://www.cde.ca.gov/b e/st/ss/. The standards are continually updated to reflect changes in knowledge and expectations.
Star Program Web Sites
HOW WELL CAN YOU DO? (Click here or see below for sample questions)
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HOW WELL CAN YOU DO?
The standards-based portion of California’s STAR test is divided into several subject areas that differ depending on the student’s grade.
Students in grades two through 11 are tested in reading, language, and mathematics. Students in grades two through eight are also tested in spelling, and students in grades nine through eleven are tested in science and social science.
To familiarize teachers, students and parents with the test, California Department of Education makes sample test questions available on its Website.
Because high school students at one grade can be expected to be enrolled in a variety of math classes, high school mathematics tests are classified by subject matter rather than grade.
GEOMETRY SAMPLE QUESTION
| Which of the following best describes deductive reasoning? |
| A. |
Using logic to draw conclusions based on accepted statements. |
| B. |
Accepting the maning of a term without definition. |
| C. |
Defining mathematical terms to correspond with physical objects. |
| D. |
Inferring a general truth by examining a number of specific examples. |
BIOLOGY SAMPLE QUESTION
| Which molecule in plant cells first captures the radiant energy from sunlight? |
| A. |
Glucose |
| B. |
Carbon dioxide |
| C. |
Chlorophyll |
| D. |
Adenosine triphosphate |
EIGHTH-GRADE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTS SAMPLE QUESTIONS
Read the following two selections. Think about how they are alike and how they are different.
Reminiscing
By Ralph Cortez
Watermelons were so much sweeter then,
When boys were the stuff of super men,
And summers seemed so much longer too,
With nothing pending and nothing due.
We were swordsmen – swashbuckling heroes,
Eternal victors – never zeroes;
Second basemen and clean-up hitters;
Forever winners, never quitters.
Play was a ritual in those days,
To go on magical mind forays,
To play the game with aplomb and ease,
To venture forth when and where we’d please.
We would feign death, and then rise up again.
Watermelons were so much sweeter then.
Piano
By D.H. Lawrence
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me:
Talking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of tinkling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, winter outside
And hymns in the cozy parlor, the tinkling piano our guide.
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamor
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.
| The word “appassionato” in line 19 of “Piano” contains a Latin root that tells you that the music is played |
| A. |
softly and quietly. |
| B. |
loudly and humorously. |
| C. |
with a gentle touch. |
| D. |
with strong feeling. |
| What is the main purpose of “Reminiscing”? |
| A. |
To tell a story about a childhood experience. |
| B. |
To capture a feeling from the past. |
| C. |
To debate whether childhood or adulthood is better. |
| D. |
To describe a person who was important in the life of a child. |
Answers
A -- C -- D -- B
If this exercise piques your interest, or you wish to review questions at your child’s grade level, sample questions are available on the Web at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp.
Go to http://star.cde.ca.gov/star2003/AboutSTAR.asp
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