Yosemite Joint Union High School District officials are pleased with the results of the 1999 Stanford Nine Test results, but, according to Yosemite High School Principal Steve Raupp, "There is always room for more improvement.
    The mean scaled scores, which are the average scores across all levels of the test, rose in all test categories for YHS students and district-wide all rose except one, which had a drop of one point.
    The mean scaled scores were compared for the 1998 ninth graders and the 1999 10th graders and for the 1998 10th graders and the 1999 11th graders, showing how those groups of students improved from one year to the next.
    The biggest gain at YHS was in social science for this year's 11th graders. They improved 12 points over their scores last year. The second biggest gain was in mathematics for this year's 11th graders, posting a 10-point gain over last year.
    District-wide, there was a 13-point gain in social science from last year's 10th graders to this year's 11th graders. The one-point district-wide drop was in language between last year's ninth graders and this year's 10th graders.
    District-wide, the national percentile rankings for the local students ranged from a high of the 61st percentile for 11th graders in social science to a low of the 45th percentile for 10th graders in both language and social science.
    The percentile rankings indicate that in the social science category for 11th graders, 38% of the students taking the test scored as high or higher than the local students and 61% scored the same or lower.
    A substantial percent of the YJUHSD students scored above the national average in all subjects. The highest ranking was in 11th grade social science where 30% of the students scored above the national average. The lowest figure was 11% of the ninth graders scoring above the national average in reading vocabulary.
    One the other end of the scale, 30% of the 10th graders scored below the national average in language. Ten percent of the ninth graders scored below the national average in mathematics and
    10% of the 10th graders scored below the national average in social science.
    The district-wide ranking of the percentage of students who scored in the national average range went from a high of 69% for the ninth graders in reading vocabulary and language to a low of 47% for the 10th graders in language.
    A comparison of the percent of students who scored at or above the 50th percentile (the national average) shows that the 1998 ninth graders scored slightly higher than the 1999 ninth graders in all subjects except science, which was the same both years.
    The most significant gains district-wide were shown between the 1998 10th graders and the 1999 11th graders where the percent of students ranking over the 50th percentile went up in every category except science. In that subject, 57% of the 1998 10th graders ranked above the 50th percentile while 54% of the 1999 11th graders scored above the 50th percentile.
    Gains in other areas were significant between the 1998 10th graders and the 1999 11th graders: Total reading went from 45 to 46%; mathematics, 43 to 52%; language, 44 to 56% and social science, 46 to 66%.
    At Yosemite High School, the percent of students who scored above the national average dropped slightly in all categories between the 1998 ninth graders and the 1999 10th graders but then raised in every subject between the 1998 10th graders and the 1999 11th graders. At each grade level in YHS, the average scores were above the 50th percentile in four of five testing areas.
    "I think a lot of what we are seeing is the normal maturity process taking place for our older students. As they become older and more mature, these tests take on more significance for them, says Mr. Raupp.