PRESS RELEASE

April 4, 2002

Contact: Stephen Kroes, Executive Director
(801) 288-1838, ext. 122
steve@utahfoundation.org

UTAH STUDENTS SCORE WELL IN MATH AND SCIENCE TESTS BUT ARE AVERAGE IN MOST SUBJECTS

Utah schools' overall performance on the Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth Edition (SAT 9) as measured by complete battery scores, was on par with national averages for third and fifth graders and slightly above average for eighth and eleventh graders. The bright spots were:

• Eleventh grade students scored better than 68% of eleventh graders across the country in math,
• Eleventh graders scored better than 62% of national peers in science,
• Eighth graders did well in math and science, ranking better than 58% of students nationally in both subjects,
• Fifth graders excelled in science, ranking at the 60th percentile, and
• Third graders did very well in reading, ranking at the 59th percentile.

However, in all other subject areas, Utah's students performed only slightly better than average or worse than average. These findings are from Utah Foundation's research report "Utah Statewide School Testing Results: 2001," which is attached to this release. It may also be obtained at http://www.utahfoundation.org/reports.html. This report is published annually by Utah Foundation, providing three years of SAT 9 scores for each public school in Utah. The report also includes analysis of statewide trends and significant issues in educational performance.

The most troublesome subject for Utah students is language, which measures writing skills. Third-grade students have scored alarmingly low for two years in a row-ranking in the 38th percentile, or better than only 38% of students nationally (which may also be expressed as worse than 62% of all students nationally). This is the weakest subject in all grade levels, ranking in the 47th percentile for grades five and eleven, and in the 50th percentile for eighth grade.

Sara Sanchez, author of the Utah Foundation report, said, "Considering that Utah has the lowest per-pupil funding and the highest class sizes of any state, our students performed well to be above average in most test categories. Nevertheless, these tests do show areas that need improvement, especially in language or writing skills."

One of the factors placing downward pressure on Utah's test scores is increasing socio-economic diversity in the student population. Low-income and minority students typically do not score as well as white and middle- to upper-income students. This occurs for various reasons, including lower resources available to lower-income school districts, higher presence of limited English proficiency in some minority groups, lower levels of parental education, and cultural or socio-economic bias in test questions.

Utah Foundation is a nonprofit, non-advocacy research organization. Our mission is to encourage informed public policy making and to serve as Utah's trusted source for independent, objective research on crucial public policy issues.