It's The Video Games

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that California officials are flummoxed.

Student scores drop for first time in decade. [My one comment in brackets.]

For the first time in a decade, California standardized test scores in English and math slipped this year, flummoxing educators who blame budget cuts and new national learning standards that have required curriculum changes.

Despite the statewide slip in scores, released Thursday, Los Angeles Unified School District largely held its own: Students posted the highest gain in math among 10 large urban school districts and a smaller drop in English than statewide peers.

Scores rose particularly in two grades — sixth and ninth — that have adopted new academic learning standards, even as some educators pointed to them for the statewide decline. [LOL]

Overall, the percentage of students at grade level in English slipped to 56.4%, from 57.2%, and in math to 51.2%, from 51.5%. Achievement in both subjects had steadily improved since 2004, when only about a third of students performed at grade level.

The uncertainty surrounding the annual scores underscored the dicey nature of predicting student test performance or placing too much stock in year-to-year changes, experts said. Some said it could have been a statistical anomaly.

"It's very counterintuitive," L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy said of the state decline. "I don't know how to make sense of it."

Note, again: scores rose for those groups that adhered to the new teaching standards. Who wudda thought?

Yes, it is a mystery. Girl.

It's a Mystery Girl, Roy Orbison