April 22, 2009

Dear Parents or Guardians:

Your child, along with public school students throughout California, will participate in the State’s Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program this spring.  The STAR tests will be administered beginning on April 28 and ending on May 15. 

McKinley students will be completing the California Standards Tests (CST) in grades 2-5.  The CST includes questions directly tied to the content standards that students are expected to learn each year.  These tests are used to determine the school’s Academic Performance Index (API).

All California students in Grades 2 through 8 will be tested reading, written expression (language), spelling, and mathematics.  Students in Grades 5 will also be evaluated in science.  Students in Grades 9, 10, and 11 will also be tested in reading, writing (language), mathematics, science, and history-social science.

For information about the STAR Program, visit the CDE's Standardized Testing and Reporting resources Web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp

A report of your child’s results on the STAR tests will be sent to your home within 20 days after they arrive in the District.  Generally, test results are sent home in August or September of the following year.

School, district, county, and state results will not be included with the student reports sent to your home.  These scores are expected to be available on the Internet at www.cde.ca.gov by the end of August 2009.  Only school, district, county and state results will be available on the internet.  Individual student results are confidential and will be shared only with each student’s parents/guardians and teachers.

Please contact our school office at (310) 828-5011 if you have any questions about the STAR testing for this spring or the process for reporting student and school results.  Please see the back of this letter for helpful hints on how you can help your child in the testing process.

Sincerely,

Irene Gonzalez

Principal          

Amy Teplin

Assistant Principal