The Lawrence school district’s scores on the national Stanford 9 exam are expected to rebound from last year’s across-the-board tumble.

Marlene Merrill, the district’s director of assessments, said Tuesday that she anticipated 2002-2003 results coming out in January would be an improvement compared with the previous year, in which Lawrence’s scores fell in all five subject areas at all three grade levels tested with one exception, 12th-grade reading.

“It looks like this year’s Stanford is better than last year’s,” she said.

She said the 2001-2002 stumble on the Stanford had been tied by some researchers to student anxiety after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

“Could that have been a factor that increased the downward trend?” Merrill said. “I think it did have an effect.”

The multiple-choice test is taken annually in October by students in sixth, ninth and 12th grades.

The Lawrence district publishes Stanford assessment scores in reading, math, language, science and social studies.

Scoring is done in a way that allows a district to compare performance of its students against all U.S. students of the same grade level.

A score of 50 is considered the middle score on the Stanford. Scores of 58 or higher show areas of strength.

While all but the one score dropped last year, Lawrence students at the three grade levels tested were above the 58 threshold in reading, math, science and social studies.

In language, the district’s scores remained far below the 58 cutoff. The exam attempts to measure students’ ability to write. One theory about the district’s low scores in language was that the test didn’t reflect the way Lawrence schools teach writing, Merrill said.

“The test doesn’t in actuality model what we are doing in terms of instruction,” she said.

She said the district would likely stick with the Stanford assessment because it effectively mirrored the district’s reading and math curriculum. There also needs to be continuity in testing to comply with federal law that requires districts to demonstrate annual academic progress by students, she said.

On the 2001-2002 Stanford exam, the district performed best in social studies. All those marks were 61.4 or above. That was followed in order of performance by math, science, reading and language.