The California Standards Tests in English language arts, mathematics, science, and history-social science are comprised of items that were developed specifically to assess students' performance on California's content standards. The State Board of Education adopted the content standards specifying what all California children are expected to know and be able to do. The content standards are grade and course specific. The 2001 standards tests were required for students who were enrolled in the following grades/courses at the time of testing or who had completed a course during the 2000-2001 school year.

The California English Language Arts Standards scores are based on 75 questions for grades 2 and 3 and 90 questions for grades 4-11. For all grades the California English Language Arts Standards Tests have 35 questions. The additional 40 questions for grades 2 and 3 and 55 questions for grades 4-11 are taken from the Stanford 9 reading and language tests. Stanford 9 spelling test questions are also used in grades 2-8. Language arts experts matched the Stanford 9 questions to California's content standards and selected the specific questions to be used as part of the standards-based scores for each grade.

In 2001, Grade 4 and 7 California Writing Standards Tests were administered for the first time. Students were given 60 minutes to write an essay in response to an assigned task. Grade 4 students wrote a summary of information they were given to read. Grade 7 students wrote a response to literature. The types of writing used for the test from year-to-year will be based on California's Writing Application Content Standards. Grade 4 students may be required to write a narrative, a summary of information or a response to literature. Grade 7 students may be required to write a fictional or autobiographical narrative, a response to literature, a persuasive essay, or a summary of information. The student's papers were scored independently by two readers using a 4-point scoring guide and their scores were added together for a total between 2 and 8.

The reports below, for the district as a whole and for individual schools, display the results for the English Language Arts and Writing Standards Tests. For English Language Arts, the only area for which performance levels have thus far been established, the reports show by grade level the number of students tested and the numbers and percentages of those students who scored at each performance level: Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic, and Far Below Basic. Students scoring at Proficient or Advanced are considered to have met the state standards. For writing, the reports show for grades 4 and 7 the number of students tested and the numbers and percentages of those students scoring in certain ranges between 2 and 8.

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