Scores

Last week, the California Department of Education (CDE) released the results of the 2022-23 Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English and mathematics. While there is a modicum of improvement, the overall student body achievement is still a concern. The Idyllwild School results were very similar to the statewide results and better than the county’s or the district’s in general.

In English, overall, 49.4% of Idyllwild School students (grades 3 through 8) met or exceeded the standards. Statewide, 46.7% of students met or exceeded the English standard.

In the Hemet Unified School District (HUSD), the percentage of students (which included grade 11) who met or exceeded the English standard was only 29.7% and countywide, 41.4% of students obtained these levels.

In Idyllwild, these percentages slightly fell below the 2021-22 levels of 50% in meeting or exceeding the English standard compared to 47.1% statewide.

At Idyllwild School, nearly 65% of the eighth grade students met or exceeded the English standard but only 39.3% of the sixth graders reached these levels. And 42.7% of the sixth grade did not meet the standard, the largest percentage of the six classes tested. This cohort had the hardest time in 2021-22, too.

Overall achievement on the mathematics assessment was generally below the English results, yet there was improvement from last year. For example, statewide, 34.6% of students met or exceeded the mathematics standard, which was 1.2% more than in 2021-22.

For Idyllwild School, in 2022-23, 37.5% of students achieved the standard or better compared to 33.5% in the previous year. For HUSD, only 16.4 % of students met or exceeded the standard. Countywide, 27.1% of students attained these levels.

Slightly more than half of last year’s third grade class met or exceeded the mathematics standard, the highest percentage of the six grades tested.

“Idyllwild School has exceeded expectations, showing remarkable growth in math scores that outpace both the district and state,” wrote Dr. Christi Barrett in an email to the Town Crier. “These results mirror trends observed in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and reported by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES).”

All of the results for both English and mathematics were still below the performances recorded in 2018-19 before the state suspended testing because of the COVID-19 epidemic. For example, four years ago, more than half of all test takers met or exceeded the English standard, which is 5% greater than last year. And the same is true for Idyllwild School, of which performance is inching up from last year. It is still well below the levels of 2018-19.

Absenteeism

“These results suggest that California’s public schools are beginning to turn the corner on pandemic recovery, with gains on most assessments and a substantial reduction in chronic absenteeism, especially for our most vulnerable groups of students,” said CDE President Linda Darling-Hammond in the CDE news release.

The CDE also reported that the chronic absenteeism rate, which measures the number of students who missed 10% of the days they were expected to attend for any reason, decreased 5.1% points from 30% in 2021–22 to 24.9% in 2022–23. The average number of days absent decreased to 14.6 from a high of 16.7 in the 2021–22 school year.

Reactions and responses

In response to mediocre improvement in student scores, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond offered two steps. First, “We intend to introduce legislation in this next legislative cycle that would make a massive investment in professional development for those who teach reading and those who teach math — an investment that could total $500 million.”

Thurmond’s funding proposal may provide more educational dollars, but its effect is not obvious. In the 2023-24 budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom already proposed these first-year investments, $690 million to implement the second year of transitional kindergarten expansion and another $165 million to support more certificated or classified staff person in transitional kindergarten classrooms. And, he indicated that more than $10 billion has been allocated for literacy programs since 2019.

“Our Governor and Legislature have substantially increased funding for schools to enable educators to invest in effective strategies like high-dose tutoring, after school and summer learning, mental health supports, and universal preschool to accelerate learning and engage students,” Darling-Hammond added.

And on her Facebook page, she suggested where the new funding could be invested. “At a time when the nation is focused on learning recovery for students impacted by the pandemic, resolving teaching shortages should be a national education priority.”

Other steps and comments

Another action Thurmond hopes will improve student achievement was released in July, prior to the 2022-23 results being released. Thurmond announced the California State Board of Education approved the “2023 Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools,” an instructional guidance for educators. After four years, the new framework for instructional guidance will align with the “California Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.” The Common Core learning standards detail what every student should know and be able to do at every grade level.

Dr. Christopher J. Nellum, executive director of The Education Trust–West, offered another perspective on this year’s results. “This year’s CAASPP results show the state is not supporting students of color and multilingual learners to meet those aspirations. The results across the board show no substantive movement in English Language Arts and very minimal improvement in math …

“Seeing only slight improvements in already alarmingly low levels of student achievement is cause for concern, not celebration. Perhaps even more troubling, scores on English Language Arts assessments remained essentially flat or dropped for Black, Latinx, and Native American students,” he continued.