At the after-school faculty meeting today, the principal showed us California Standards Test (CST) results from last year.
For these exams, students’ scores are grouped into five categories: Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic or Far Below Basic. The goal is to get all students in either the Advanced or Proficient categories.
In 2008-09, of the students that took the Algebra 1 CST, none were Advanced, 2% were Proficient. Of the students that took the Geometry CST, 1% were Advanced, 6% Proficient.
Clearly, we have lots of room for improvement!
Adventures in Teaching 
How long to achieve said goal?
I believe the goal for our district is to get around 40% of the students at the Advanced or Proficient level by this year, and then the target increases every year.
What are the goals of this test? What does it assess? How? And so what do the results mean in terms of what students know and can do? How do these things align with the goals you have for your students as learners and generators of mathematics?
The CA Standards Test includes multiple choice and free response items that measure students ability to perform tasks related to the CA math standards, which as you know are very extensive. I don’t know how well they align with my own goals, but if my students are learning how to learn mathematics I hope they will be able to perform well on this test.