State of the Schools

The latest round of standardized test scores for California’s public schools were released today and at least on the macro level they provide good news. Five percent more students scored at the proficient or better level in English than last year—bringing the total to 40 percent. And 38 percent of students scored proficient or better in Math—an increase of 4 percent over last year. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell announced the results and provided a positive spin in a press release, “"I am particularly pleased with the improvement seen in our high school scores. After years of stagnation, our high schools are making some positive progress," O’Connell said. "In addition to showing improvement on our standards-aligned tests, greater numbers of high school students are taking more college preparatory mathematics and science courses like algebra, geometry, chemistry and physics." But not everything was so peachy, particularly when looking at ethnic and economic subgroups. Only 29 percent of economically disadvantaged students were proficient or better in math, and only 25 percent of that same group were proficient in English. Sadly, those numbers are steady improvements since four years ago. Beyond those dismal numbers, I have included charts showing the ethnic and economic breakdown of the statistics. Click on the images below to see them in full. Read the full report here.