NORTH COUNTY -- A higher percent of San Diego County and California students are performing at or above grade level in math and English than in previous years, though fewer than half are considered proficient, a state report released Tuesday said.

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Many North County school districts showed increases in the percent of students considered proficient in math and English, although the level of success varied from district to district, according to the California Department of Education.

"I am extremely pleased that these results show that California's public school students continue to make steady gains in nearly every subject and grade level," state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said during a telephone news conference Tuesday.

"Since our state adopted rigorous standards for what every student should learn in every grade and began systematically integrating those standards into classroom materials and instruction, student achievement has continued to improve," O'Connell said.

Comparing the scores each year reveals little about the improvement of individual students because the student makeup of each grade changes annually. But the scores provide an overall snapshot of performance at schools.

And this year, that snapshot has improved for many districts, locally and statewide.

At the state level, 42 percent of students scored proficient or above in English, an increase of 2 percent over last year, and 40 percent were at grade level in math, also an increase of 2 percent over last year, according to the Education Department.

County scores improve

The Standardized Testing and Reporting program, or STAR, is a report based on standardized tests that students in grades two through 11 must take each spring. All students are tested on their proficiency in English and math, and students in certain grades also are tested in such other areas as science and history.

The report shows the percent of students considered to be performing at or above grade level in each subject area, a number that directly affects other state and federal school accountability reports to be released later this month.

J.T. Lawrence, director of assessment for the San Diego County Office of Education, said he was impressed with the county's results from the California Standards Test, the main test used to determine STAR scores. Grades two, three and six had large gains in English, and grades four, five and seven significantly increased their math scores.

Countywide, 47 percent of students achieved proficiency in English; Lawrence said that is an increase over the last two years based on grade-by-grade data. A countywide math score wasn't available Tuesday, Lawrence said, because math scores are more difficult to calculate, with high school students taking a variety of math tests determined by the level they have reached in school.

In the long term, most county elementary schools have shown impressive math improvement, he said.

"If you look over the last five years, the growth is double-digit across all of the primary math grades," Lawrence said.

In North County, the highest-achieving districts had proficiency percents that were well above the state and county average scores. Among fourth-graders, Poway Unified students had scores of 82 percent for English and 77 percent for math, the smaller Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe elementary districts had scores in the 90s, and the Solana Beach elementary district had scores in the 80s.

The North County Times looked specifically at three grade levels from elementary, middle and high schools in order to take a snapshot of how area districts compare with others. The English and math results from fourth, seventh and 10th grades were examined, in part because the fourth- and seventh-grade tests included a writing section for the first time this year.

The lower-scoring North County districts, such as Oceanside Unified and Escondido's elementary and high school districts, scored above the state average in some subjects and grade levels. However, they struggled with proficiency percentages of 40 or below in some areas such as sixth-, seventh-, 10th- and 11th-grade English.

The overall improvements at the county and state levels are attributable to many factors that have encouraged schools to bring up test scores, Lawrence said. The stringent requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the state's new high school graduation exam and tougher state educational standards all have caused schools to focus on every individual student, he said.

"As the system has matured, it's continued to evolve," Lawrence said. "Teachers have gotten more comfortable with the standards, teaching to the standards."

Achievement gap persists

But while O'Connell lauded the gains made by California students in general, he said the low proficiency percentages among some student groups was worrisome.

"I remain deeply concerned that the achievement gap continues to be unacceptably wide," O'Connell said. "The academic achievement of our Latino, African-American, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students lags far behind the rest of their peers. We are working to address this problem by providing struggling schools extra resources and additional interventions, and with better training for teachers."

Statewide, 27 percent of Latino students, 29 percent of black students and 27 percent of economically disadvantaged students scored proficient or above in English, according to the Department of Education. In math, 30 percent of Latinos, 24 percent of blacks and 30 percent of economically disadvantaged students scored proficient or above in math.

In San Diego County schools, black students' English proficiency scores were mostly in the 30s, but bottomed out at 24 percent in 11th grade, the report says. Black students' math scores are in the 40s in lower elementary grades, but for the most part are in decline by sixth grade.

The county's Latino students mostly had math and English proficiency scores in the 20s and 30s, the report says.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Education Trust West, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of poor and minority students, each released statements Tuesday lauding the improved overall student scores, but also expressing concern for the widening achievement gap.

Parents to receive scores

While state, county, district and school scores all give educators a sense of which students and subject areas that schools should concentrate on, parents also will get an opportunity to see how their own children did on the standardized exams.

Before the end of the month, San Diego County parents will receive a letter reporting their children's standardized test scores, officials said. But they said the report is only one piece of the educational puzzle.

"It's one indicator, it's one piece of information," Lawrence said. "I certainly wouldn't take that one test and that one indication, and throw up a warning flag" if a student has a low score.

Just as school officials look at changes in proficiency scores over time, parents should look at their students' scores over the last several years, said Karen Rizzi, assistant superintendent of educational services for the Escondido Union High School District.

"It's one measure of how their student did on a particular day on a test," Rizzi said. "It's good information, and especially if they know how their student did in previous years. Is there growth? If I was a parent, that's what I would look at."

The full standardized testing report is available on the Department of Education's Web site.

- Contact staff writer Paul Eakins at (760) 740-5420 or peakins@nctimes.com.

On the Net:

http://www.nctimes.com/standing/schools

For the California Department of Education's STAR report:

http://star.cde.ca.gov/