Ask an Expert: Jim Cox and Pat Puleo
Measuring Up: A Parent's Guide to Testing, Grades, and Assessments

I thought that the Stanford-9 and the STAR tests were different. But many teachers in my child's school district use the terms SAT-9 and STAR interchangeably. What are the differences? Which test is the California school system officially using now? What information is reported in the API scores?

This is indeed confusing. STAR stands for State Testing and Reporting. It refers to two parts of California's overall testing program: the national Stanford-9 (SAT-9) test and the California standards-specific Content Standards Test, or CST.

The Academic Performance Index, or API, reflects an entire school's performance on these two tests. Like most indexes, the API is calculated by combining many things. In this case, it combines the STAR-9 results and the CST results, but weighing them differently. This year, approximately 40 percent of the API score comes from the English/Language Arts portion of the CST, and about 60 percent from the SAT-9. Next school year, however, the weighting will favor the California Content Standards.

The API also weights curricular areas differently. The API for the elementary grades portions of the tests weights reading at 30 percent, math at 40 percent, language at 15 percent, and spelling at 15 percent. The high school API assigns equal weights to reading, math, language, science, and social studies.

If you want to read more background about the API, you can peruse our Virtual Library.

If you're brave enough to explore a fuller explanation of the API, you can find official information here.

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