Newhall School District officials said Tuesday that as the COVID-19 pandemic moves further away, results are starting to show that students are getting back to pre-pandemic standards.
Discussing the preliminary results from the latest round of state testing held in the spring, Kate Peattie, assistant superintendent of instruction services, said at Tuesday’s governing board meeting that scores in English, math and science remained roughly the same as last year, with some wiggle room for ups and downs.
Students in grades 3-6 for elementary districts are tested in both English and math, and students in fifth grade are also tested in science. The California Department of Education is set to release the official results in December, according to Peattie.
The data presented on Tuesday shows that 2.5% fewer students met or exceeded standards in English in 2023-24 on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress than in 2018-19, the last year testing was conducted prior to the pandemic. In math, 4.5% fewer students at least met state standards.
“We know that despite our teachers’ best efforts and families’ best efforts that there were gaps in learning,” Peattie said. “You simply can’t do online what you can do in the classroom day after day. But we also know we’re moving in the right direction.”
Compared to the 2022-23 testing period, the district saw the same percentage of students at least meet expectations in English at 67%, while 64% did so in math, a 2% increase.
Peattie said she was excited to see that there was not a dip in the number of students meeting expectations for the California Science Test, as 55% did so compared to 54% the year before, despite a new science program, Amplify Science, being adopted across the district.
“It is very typical when you have a new program to have a dip, but we did not have a dip,” Peattie said. “We went up by one percentage point. So, we were excited about that. We saw some areas of real growth.”
Peattie added that when looking at how specific grade levels performed in English and math compared to how those same students did the year before, there were significant improvements.
In English, 4% more fourth-graders met standards than they did as third-graders, followed by 7% more fifth-graders and 3% more sixth-graders.
In math, students in lower grade levels did not experience that same improvement, though sixth-graders did. There was a rise of 10% more sixth-graders meeting standards than how many did so as fifth-graders.
Peattie said it wasn’t surprising to see students struggle more in math as more abstract concepts are being introduced just as students begin to take these state tests. But once they get to sixth grade, Peattie said those concepts are more known to them, a trend that is seen across the entire state.
“As we move into the upper grades, and particularly in fifth grade, it becomes much more abstract,” Peattie said. “So you have students at a developmental age where they’re just starting to comprehend that they have that ability to think abstractly, and at the same time you’re introducing skills and ways of thinking, higher-level thinking skills that are more complex. And so, as we’ve talked about in years past, fifth grade does tend to drop in terms of those scores, and then students make up for that as they move into sixth grade.”
Governing board President Sue Solomon and board member Ernesto Smith said they both appreciated being able to see how those cohorts are doing year-over-year.
English learners
Also taking a standardized test each year are English learners, who take the English Language Proficiency Assessment each year until they are able to reclassify as being English proficient, on top of also taking the other state tests.
In order to reclassify, according to Peattie, a student must:
- Meet minimum state standards on the English portion of the CAASPP.
- Receive a 4, the highest score, on the ELPAC.
- Show that progress is being made toward meeting grade-level standards on report cards.
- Receive a recommendation from their classroom teacher.
For those still transitioning, 23% of English learners overall at least met the state standard in English in the CAASPP. Peattie said that is not a surprise considering they are “by definition, not yet proficient” in English.
But when students who have reclassified are looked at, the Newhall School District had at least 75% of those students in each grade level meet the standard in English, compared to no fewer than 65% of English-only students doing so.
Fifth grade had the highest rate for both categories of students, with reclassified students meeting that standard at an 83% clip — the same rate that fourth-graders did — and 76% of English-only students doing so.
“Research shows that’s not just here in Newhall — that’s across the state, across the nation, and that really is because our students who are English learners have a real gift, because by the time they become English proficient, they now have two languages,” Peattie said. “And we know that bilingualism really promotes creative thinking and critical-thinking skills. And so this is a real celebration.”
Next steps
While progress has been made, Peattie said there are still things to work on.
She said teachers and district and site leaders have been working over the summer to identify which strategies to improve upon.
One area that could need just a slight tweak, as Peattie called it, is in science, where roughly 36% of students were just below meeting the state standard.
“We have a big group of students who have nearly met (the standard),” Peattie said. “That means we just need to figure out what is that tweak to bump them up over the line. So that’s a real level of opportunity for us as we move into this year and really think about science instruction.”
More strategies on how to help underserved populations — students with disabilities or from lower socioeconomic status, for example — are also being discussed, Peattie said.
Parents in the Newhall district should have received an email that contains a link to the Aeries Parent Portal that has individual student reports. Parents are also encouraged to use the Starting Smarter website, available in both English and Spanish, that has guides on understanding the assessments, allows for comparing results and has practice tests.
