Last week, the California Department of Education released the results of the second California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, and once again, Idyllwild School’s performance was better than statewide or districtwide averages.

“We did well, scoring higher than Riverside County [students] in every grade level,” said Idyllwild School Principal Matt Kraemer. “And we were above Hemet district average.”

At Idyllwild, grades three through eight were tested. Schoolwide, 64 percent of the students met or exceeded the English language and literacy standards. For the entire state, 49 percent of students achieved these levels, and in the Hemet Unified School District, 38 percent of students were able to met or exceed these standards.

For the math portion of the evaluation, 52 percent of Idyllwild students met or exceeded the standards compared to 37 percent of students throughout the state and 25 percent within HUSD.

At Idyllwild School, this year the percentage of students who met or exceeded the English language and literacy ranged from 81 percent of the fourth graders to 46 percent of the sixth graders.

With the previous testing protocol, Idyllwild regularly had high and excellent results. “This format is a different way of looking at it,” Kraemer explained. “Rather just 80 percent effectively over the bar. Now we’re looking at a growth model. Are students improving their scores year to year.”

“The district and Idyllwild School made progress on the … CAASPP. Specifically, Idyllwild School grew 9.6 percent in [English language] and 10.1 percent in mathematics,” Christi Barrett, HUSD superintendent, commented. “This year’s Local Control Accountability Plan has put in place a variety of support systems and programs to enhance student outcomes. HUSD is committed to excellence and will continue to focus on preparing our students not only for the CAASPP, but to graduate from our schools college and career ready.”

In 2015, 49 percent of third-grade students reached these levels. After another year at IS, they improved nearly 30 percent. All five grades improved or met the English standards.

Nearly 80 percent of Idyllwild students were near or above the standards for both the reading and writing sections of the English exams.

Similar results were achieved in the mathematics portion of the test, too. In 2015, 42 percent of the students met or exceeded the math standards and in 2016 this grew to 52 percent. Improvement grew at almost every grade level. The best results were achieved at the younger grades. For instance, in 2015, 77 percent and, in 2016, 82 percent of the third-grade students met or exceeded standards. More than 60 percent of all the students in grades three, four and five performed at these levels.

“I’ve got a great staff and the parent support is outstanding,” Kraemer replied, when asked how to explain the outstanding results of the local students. “The community support is unprecedented, with smARTs, Idyllwild PTA, Idyll Booster Club, Idyllwild Rotary, Art Alliance, Doug Austin, Grant Makers, 5/10 K Committee and Idyllwild Arts.”