Palo Alto students excel on the SATs, Advanced Placement, and California High School Exit Exam tests, but the district is looking for more student participation on the APs and hopes to reach 100 percent completion on the CAHSEE.

The percentage of juniors and seniors participating on the SAT in the Palo Alto Unified School District dropped two percent from, from 86 percent to 84 percent, in the past year, according to district records. Although this difference in percentage may seem trivial, two percent of the student population over the entire district is near 75 students in total.

These relatively high participation rates are considered normal for a district like PAUSD explained Bill Garrison, the district’s director of assessment.

“Many students opt to take the test in districts like this – top districts for college attendance,” Garrison said.

The district’s performance on the SATs is much above the national average as well. A student who scores in the 50th percentile in Palo Alto (a student who scores better than one half of the Palo Alto students who take the test and worse than the other half) is in the 92nd or 93rd percentile nationwide. In other words, the average score from a Palo Alto student would rank in the lower 90th percentile in the nation.

Former Paly principal Scott Laurence considers this a mixed blessing.

“This is both a blessing and a curse,” Laurence said. “An average student in our schools is going to find out they are very competitive once they go to college. It is not until they have actually left our site that they may have the self esteem and the courage to be academically confident.”

Although the school-wide average is high, the district wants to increase minority participation on these tests.

“We would like to increase the participation of Latino and African Americans in APs and SATs,” Laurence said. “We will waive fees from any test for students who need it.”

The AP tests also show a high standard of excellence from PAUSD students; 59 percent of juniors and seniors in the district take at least one AP test a year, Laurence said.

On average, Gunn students take more tests than Paly students. The Gunn test average is 1.68 tests, while the Paly average is 1.03, according to the district.

There are several reasons more Gunn students take AP tests than Paly students, Laurence said. First, Gunn offers AP Economics, which Paly does not, and 100 to 150 Gunn students take that test every year. Second, a gap in math levels used to exist between Paly and Gunn, however, this gap is shrinking. Gunn also enrolls more students than Paly, and this larger student body allows from more APs to be offered, to appeal to the wider interests of the students.

Of the PAUSD students who take an AP test, 50 percent get a five (the highest grade the test offers), 29 percent a four, 15 percent a three (the lowest grade eligible for college credit), five percent a two and two percent a one.

Although the high pass rate is encouraging, the district wants to convince more students to enroll in AP classes, even if that means increasing the number of ones and twos.

“We want to see numbers of ones and twos increase,” Laurence said. “We want a more challenging curriculum, and want students to be taking a more rigorous curriculum. However, then you have the downside of students taking too many tests. This is something we need to be aware of. We need to be careful and balance how many students each test.”

In order to receive a high school diploma, every student must pass the CAHSEE. Students take the test beginning their sophomore year, and can re-take the test until they receive a passing grade. In the PAUSD Class of 2008, 96 percent of the students have passed both the math and language arts portions of the test and 36 students need to retake some portion of the test. Ninety-three percent of the class of 2009 have passed the CAHSEE, with 57 students yet to pass the test, according to the district.

Gunn has a lower pass rate than Paly, with 94 percent of Gunn students having passed, while 95 percent of Paly students have.

One of the main goals of the district, according to Laurence, is to achieve a 100 percent pass rate on the CAHSEE, or “CAHSEE perfection.”

“We believe it is our responsibility to give children the talent and the skill to pass the CAHSEE, Laurence said. “If they have the ability to graduate from our schools and have all the credits they need, we think it is our responsibility that they will pass the CAHSEE.”

Of the 36 seniors who have yet to pass the test. 20 have learning disorders, and 12 of the remaining 16 students are “on the track to passing,” according to Laurence.

“We have kids in AB Calculus and AP English who have yet to pass the CAHSEE. My assumption is that they will,” Laurence said. “We have a very small number of students that are in real, serious danger of not passing the CAHSEE.”