Asians Score Higher Than Whites in English

Attain highest scores in CA Standards Tests

Asian students scored highest in most categories of the California Standards Tests over the past six years, according to new data on the 2008 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program released by the state’s Department of Education.

Out of all ethnicities, Asian and Filipino students showed the greatest improvement — an increase of 14 percentage points — in achieving the proficient level and above since 2003.

Since 2003, Asian students have topped all other races and ethnicities in attaining proficient and advanced status in English-language arts and math; 69 percent of Asian students received that designation in those subjects this year.

In comparison, 64 percent of whites, 62 percent of Filipinos, 33 percent of African Americans and 32 percent of Latinos tested proficient and advanced in English–language arts in 2008. In math, 55 percent of Filipinos, 54 percent of whites, 33 percent of Latinos, 28 percent of blacks scored in that highest level this year.

San Francisco Unified School District elementary schools that have two-thirds or more of their students performing at proficient or above in English-language arts include Clarendon, Alamo, West Portal, Argonne and Alice Fong Yu. In math, over eighty-percent of pupils were at target level or above at John Yehall Chin, Alamo, West Portal and Yick Wo, among other schools.

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