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Midpeninsula students' standardized test scores were all over the map, shedding light on how schools and students are performing, according to California Department of Education data released last week.
Results varied across the Redwood City and greater San Mateo County school districts though students generally tested above the state average, which showed a significant drop since before the pandemic.
The tests, administered in spring 2022, were the first California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) tests since 2019 when tests were put on hold through the pandemic. Students in grades three to 11 take the tests, which measure English and math skills. Data from the exams was released on Oct. 24.
No tests were administered in 2020 because students were learning remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Testing was optional in 2021, with only some districts opting to administer exams. The hiatus has also challenged the state's ability to compare student performance year-over-year.
Statewide, 47% of all students met or exceeded standards in English Language Arts (ELA), down four percentage points from the 2018-2019 results, according to the latest results. Only 33% of California’s students met or exceeded standards in math, a 6 percentage point drop since 2018-2019.
San Mateo County students
According to a new report from the state, students across San Mateo County are performing 12% higher than the state average, despite a slight decrease in standardized test scores since before the pandemic. Since 2019, the county has seen a roughly 3 percentage point drop in the share of students meeting or exceeding standards in English language arts. In math, the portion of students meeting or exceeding standards dropped 4 percentage points.
Officials at the San Mateo County Office of Education attributed the academic shortcomings to the worldwide pandemic, calling it “an incredible upheaval in their short lives.”
“The impact on their mental health and social-emotional development has been significant,” officials said in a press release. “However, our students have also shown tremendous resiliency throughout the pandemic.”
The county noted that it was “critical to look at the results for individual student groups within a district or school to understand where additional support or inquiry might be needed.”
The assessment looks at student performance across districts, each grade and student groups. Specific student groups are examined closely to determine where additional support may be required.
Comparing across racial and ethnic groups, Asian students showed the least change from 2019 to 2022, with roughly 1% more students meeting English standards and 1% fewer meeting math standards. However, Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino students saw the most significant overall declines in performance, with the number meeting ELA standards decreasing about 3-5 percentage points and the number meeting math standards dropping roughly 6.5 percentage points in both groups.
The numbers, which show a more significant decline than the statewide average, reflect a continued trend of equity gaps in San Mateo County that surpass those in California overall, according to the county office of education. Countywide, three times as many white students met or exceeded math standards as Hispanic/Latino students, compared to the statewide ratio of roughly 2 to 1. The county disparities were even more pronounced in comparing Asian students, who were almost four times as likely to meet or exceed math standards as Hispanic/Latino students.
For additional information or to review the CAASPP results, go here.
Redwood City School District
Citywide, the Redwood City School District saw the most pronounced losses in achievement from 2019 to 2022.
Roughly 45% of students met or exceeded English standards this year, a 9% percentage point decrease from before the pandemic. In math, only 36% met or exceeded standards, a loss of 10 percentage points since 2019. Countywide, the numbers have hovered around 60% and 50%, respectively, over the last few years.
The district’s 12 schools, which serve some 7,700 students from pre-kindergarten through middle school, have historically underperformed those in neighboring districts and throughout the county. However, this marks the first time in recent years that RCSD has seen a decline in achievement.
“We have been analyzing the data and while we are disappointed, we are also, unfortunately, not surprised,” Superintendent John Baker said in a statement.
There were striking differences in performance among the district’s schools. Nearly 95% of students at North Star Academy performed at or above the state standards in both math and English. Meanwhile, more than 75% of the students at Taft Elementary in North Fair Oaks did not meet English standards, and nearly 85% did not meet math standards.
Emphasizing a need for “data-driven decisions,” Baker said that, since returning to in-person learning, the district has been focusing its “resources and efforts on strong classroom instruction and targeted interventions to improve the school experience for our students.”
The district is working on developing “targeted support” to cater to the academic and social needs of each student, according to Liz Wolfe, the school district’s assistant superintendent of educational services.
To that end, the district said it has developed an action plan for supporting teachers, administrators and students with multi-tiered systems of supports, mental health clinicians at every site and improved lesson planning, among other strategies.
Sequoia Union High School District
The Sequoia Union High School District did not see significantly different results before and after the pandemic. Of the district’s roughly 10,000 students, 71% met or exceeded ELA standards, a slight increase from 2019’s results. Just under 50% met or exceeded math standards, a slight decrease from 2019.
Despite outpacing the state and county overall, the district had stark achievement gaps across different demographic groups. Looking at math results for 2022, success among Asian and white students exceeded that of county averages, with 87% and 67% meeting or exceeding standards, respectively.
However, Hispanic/Latino students are on par with the county, while only 11% of Black students in SUHSD met or exceeded math standards, compared to 17% countywide.
The district has created an updated Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) to “measure our progress in closing the racial gap and improve the performance of students across each of these subgroups,” according to an official statement. The goals of this plan include improving attendance and engagement for all students, addressing equity issues in instructional and employment practices, and implementing new multi-tiered systems of supports across the district.
Belmont-Redwood Shores School District sees gains since 2020
The Belmont-Redwood Shores School District, one of the few to opt into testing during the 2020-2021 school year, saw slight gains in achievement in this year’s exam results.
Among the district’s roughly 4,000 students across seven elementary and middle schools, some 80% met or exceeded ELA standards, and approximately 77% met or exceeded math standards. Those numbers are down roughly 1.5-2.5 percentage points from 2019 but mark a slight increase from last year.
“Students in Belmont-Redwood Shores did quite well on the state testing,” said Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Ching-Pei Hu, who added that there were still performance gaps between student groups.
Among students considered economically disadvantaged, only 50% met or exceeded ELA standards, with just under 40% meeting standards in math. Among students not considered economically disadvantaged, 83% met English standards, while nearly 80% did so in math. These disparities are consistent with those reported in 2019.
Economically disadvantaged students are defined as those whose parents do not have a high school diploma, are eligible for free/reduced price meal programs because of low household income, or are migrant, homeless or foster youth.
Addressing the wide gaps in achievement, Hu said that the “pandemic was difficult for all families” throughout the state but noted that vulnerable students suffered more than most.
“We have work to do, and will continue to support our families and students,” she said, adding that the district’s principals and School Site Councils will review the new data to determine new budget allocations and make changes to instructional programming.
However, she called it “a positive that our gap between student groups did not grow, and that our overall achievement levels did not slide.”
Ravenswood City School District
The Ravenswood City School District, which has more socioeconomically disadvantaged students (86%) than neighboring districts, saw test scores lag behind other districts. Nearly 59% are emergent bilingual learners while 14% have IEPs (individual education program plans for special education students).
Students performed better in 2019, with 18% meeting state standards for English language arts and just under 12% meeting standards for math. In 2018, scores were higher, with 24% of students meeting English language arts standards and 15% meeting math standards.
Trustee Ana Maria Pulido said during a Sept. 8 board meeting in which the data was presented that she knows the information is sobering, but it’s needed to assess, address and improve.
We can not quantify the trauma and we cannot quantify what kids felt for parents not having work or parents going to work everyday because they were essential workers. We can not quantify how many of these kids were taking care of siblings or watching TV all day because no one was there to take care of them.
-Jenny Varghese Bloom, Ravenswood Trustee
Trustee Jenny Varghese Bloom noted that East Palo Alto was the worst hit in the county during the pandemic. East Palo Alto has accounted for 11,753 of the total 171,912 cases the county has seen over the course of the pandemic, according to county data.
"We can not quantify the trauma and we cannot quantify what kids felt for parents not having work or parents going to work everyday because they were essential workers," she said. "We can not quantify how many of these kids were taking care of siblings or watching TV all day because no one was there to take care of them."
Board Vice President Tamara Sobomehin said she is not a fan of standardizing testing because it doesn't match what is being taught in classrooms.
"This is a data point and I do understand that and appreciate it, but I don't want to become alarmed because of these numbers," she said. "I appreciate that our district is looking at assessment in a more holistic way."
The district has said that it considers state testing scores to tell an important but incomplete story.
"Although it illuminates big performance trends, it does not tell the whole story
of the health of a student," district staff wrote in a Sept. 8 board presentation.
The district is responded in the following ways, according to a staff report, such as:
• Restructured teacher evaluation
• Maintained and expanded school-level programming
• Extended the school day and the school year
• Addressed compensation disparities districtwide
Specifically for data assessment and curriculum changes, the district is:
• Creating a strong data and assessment system like iReady in grades TK-8 (an online assessment and instruction system that helps teachers provide students a path to proficiency and growth in reading and math)
• Leveraging the use of "street data" (parent surveys, shadowing students, student work and more)
• Systematic progress monitoring across the district
• Reviewing and adopting curriculum that meets the needs of students
The district noted that both research and anecdotal evidence from Cesar Chavez Ravenswood Middle School suggest that, in middle school and beyond, bilingual/multilingual students perform more strongly than students who only speak one language. In Ravenswood, this means that although students at the elementary schools may have lower state assessment scores in elementary school, they have increased learning growth as middle schoolers.
Districts that saw losses
Test scores were overall down in the Menlo Park City School District last spring. Some 81% of students met or exceeded English language arts standards in 2022, compared to 84% in 2019. Some 77% of students met or exceeded math standards, down from 83% in 2019.
The district noted that there was a COVID-19 surge when tests were administered in May, an unusual circumstance that led to more student absences and few students taking the tests this time around.
This test was unlike any previous state tests since, because of the pandemic, parts of the assessment were dramatically shortened by 50% to decrease testing time to increase instruction time with the teacher.
"The district's performance overall, may look slightly different when measured against pre-COVID data," district staff said in an Oct. 13 report.
The district noted it also uses local assessments and mini-assessments throughout the year.
"Many of our local measures are much more reflective of MPCSD's teaching and learning than the state tests," staff said.
Looking at individual district schools, Laurel School actually saw gains in their test scores since 2019, while Oak Knoll School saw 6% losses in English language arts scores and a 5% dip in math scores. Hillview Middle School saw a 9% dip in math scores and a 5% drop in English language arts scores.
The district noted that socioeconomically disadvantaged students’ test scores continue to improve. They saw a 22% increase from 2017 testing to 2022 in ELA and a 12% increase during the same timeframe in math.
The two-school Woodside Elementary School District’s test scores dropped significantly from 2019 to 2022.
Nearly 74% of students met or exceeded math standards in 2022, compared to nearly 85% in 2019.
Some 82% met or exceeded English language arts standards in 2022, compared to almost 88% in 2019.
Outlier: Las Lomitas Elementary School District sees gains
The Las Lomitas Elementary School District actually saw gains from 2019 to 2022.
Some 86% Las Lomitas students met or exceeded English language arts standards, the same number as in 2019. Math scores increased from 82% in 2019 to 84% in 2022.
"It was really nice to see that 2% growth over 2018 in math because we think about the 2019 to 2022 and the lack of instruction, or lack of access for students, and we still improved, which is something really to be really, really proud of," said Superintendent Beth Polito during a Sept. 7 district governing board meeting. "The effort of the teachers, the parents, the community, the students, I think it really paid off."
Mixed results
The Portola Valley School District administered the tests in 2021 because it wanted to use them as a point of reference for monitoring student progress over time, and to use the results to inform instruction and provide support for students in the 2021-22 school year, according to Superintendent Roberta Zarea.
Some 83% of PVSD students met or exceeded English language arts standards — an increase of 2% from 2021, and 84% of students met or exceeded math standards, a 5% increase from 2021. These numbers are still not where they were in 2019 when nearly 87% met or exceeded ELA standards. Math scores did improve from 83% in 2019.
Achievement gaps within districts
Students identified as economically disadvantaged and English learners performed worse than other students, showing a significant achievement gap in student performance this year.
In the Los Lomitas district, for example, 45% of economically disadvantaged students met English language arts standards, compared to the nearly 89% of students who are not economically disadvantaged. This was a dip from nearly 61% among economically disadvantaged students meeting these standards in 2019.
"While our virtual programs were robust and expertly implemented by our teachers it was still very different and likely had a large impact on a critical year of literacy instruction," Polito said in an email. "Over the last two years we have focused our attention on each and every student who did not meet standard and was adversely affected by our COVID years. Our learning recovery program is developmentally appropriate, robust and taking full advantage of extended day programs."
About 58% of English learners met math standards, an improvement from 2019, when 52% of English learners met math standards in the Las Lomitas district.
Economically disadvantaged students saw gains in both subject areas from 2019 in the Menlo Park district.
English learners' math scores dropped 9% since 2019, but improved by 4% in English language arts. Students with disabilities saw a 7% drop in scores in both subjects.
"When looking at our students with disabilities, we recognize the past two years of the pandemic continues to have an impact on their learning," said Katherine Strach, coordinator of data, assessment and English learner services for the Menlo Park district, during a presentation to MPCSD governing board’s earlier this month. She noted that at Encinal School, for example, students with disabilities and English learners make up fewer than 30 students, so caution should be used when interpreting the results of these groups.
You can review statewide results here.
