More than four million California students in grades 2 through 11 take tests in the spring as part of the state’s Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program. These scores lead to school-by-school ranking and comparisons, awards for schools that improve, interventions in low performing schools, and financial rewards to teachers in the low performing schools with the greatest improvement.

California's STAR program has two major components:

1. The Stanford Achievement Test, 9th Ed. (SAT9) is a standardized, multiple-choice test, which is nationally normed. Test topics in grades 2 through 8 are reading, mathematics, language, and spelling.
2. The California Standards tests in English/language arts and mathematics are keyed to the state's K-12 academic content standards adopted by the State Board of Education. In 2001, a writing test in grades 4 and 7 was added to the program.

The purpose of the California Standards Tests is to determine how well students are learning the skills and knowledge required by the California Academic Content Standards for each grade or course. The purpose of the Stanford 9 is to determine the achievement of each student compared to a national sample of students tested in the same grade at the same time of the school year.

Test results are reported to school districts in mid-August each year. Within 20 days of the receipt of results, the district will send test results to parents.

Taken from EdSource, a independent, impartial information source on California schools, and the STAR web site.

A more complete explanation of the STAR tests can be found in this EdSource Fact Sheet. You will need Acrobat Reader to view this document. If you need Reader, click the icon below.