After securing scores of green or higher in the academic performance sections of the California School Dashboard, the William S. Hart Union High School District is confident they are one of the best high school districts in the state — and maybe the nation.
With more than 22,660 kids attending school sites across the Santa Clarita Valley, the Hart District is by far the largest school district in the local area, according to the newly updated California School Dashboard. There are more than 1,500 students classified as English learners within Hart District boundaries and nearly a third of all students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, meaning they are eligible for free or reduced priced meals or have guardians who did not receive a high school diploma.
Like a few of their peer groups, the nearly 3,000 students who classified as socioeconomically disadvantaged maintained their English scores from last year, which was good enough to place 6.1 points above standard and score in the tier of yellow, according to the dashboard. The cohort would score similarly in math as they finished 48.5 points below standard but still managed to place in the yellow tier.
While different groups had their own unique successes and challenges that the district will attempt to address in the near future, Dave LeBarron, the Hart District’s director of curriculum and assessment, said the public should focus their attention on the growth of students, rather than how well they performed on tests.
“In the Hart school district, the goal is not to merely prepare students for the annual state assessments,” LeBarron said. “The goal is to take the time and invest the resources to ensure our students get an outstanding education,” which hopefully results in them performing well on the state assessments.
It appears that the Hart District is on course to accomplishing its goals, especially once one considers that every student population group was classified as more prepared for college and career work than their peers across the state, according to the dashboard. Students also excelled in regards to their already stellar graduation rates, which the Hart District managed to increase on their way to scoring in the blue tier, which is the highest a district can place on the dashboard.
To see a complete overview of how each local Santa Clarita Valley school district scored on the California School Dashboard, visit caschooldashboard.org or check the daily edition of The Signal throughout this week for a breakdown of the results from each of the five local public school districts. Articles about the Saugus Union, Sulphur Springs, Castaic and Newhall district scores appeared earlier in the week.
