Clark County’s largest school districts this year saw their students passing standardized tests at a lower rate than the state at large.
That’s according to data released by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction last week. It showed mixed results for Smarter Balanced Assessments across Washington depending on grade level, subject and demographic group. Washington’s Smarter Balanced tests were given this spring to third- through eighth-grade students, and to high school sophomores.
“We’re seeing growth in nearly every student group on [English language arts], and we’re pleased with that,” State Superintendent Chris Reykdal said in a news release. “The math results, though, are a bit flatter, and we know there is more work to be done.”
But Reykdal stressed that the test results are only one marker of a district and individual student’s success.
“Our focus is on all aspects of student learning, with an emphasis on growth,” he said.
To what degree local results trailed the state varies from grade and subject. In Evergreen Public Schools, for example, 44.4 percent of eighth-graders passed the math exam, 3.1 percent less than the state rate of 47.5 percent for that test. For sixth-grade math test-takers, however, the gap was much wider: 36.6 percent of students passed locally, compared with 48.3 percent statewide.
Matt Handelman, chief academic accountability officer for Evergreen Public Schools, said the district knows it can work to improve those scores.
“I think the overall picture is we have work to do,” Handelman said.
Handelman said test scores are a “very public face” of school success but are only one indicator in the full slate of academic achievement and social-emotional growth students experience over the course of their school career.
“We’re trying to figure out how do we understand each student and get them on the trajectory to having students graduate, which we’re actually doing a pretty good job at,” Handelman said. “This is something we need to keep working on.”
Vancouver Public Schools, meanwhile, saw gaps ranging from 6.5 percent for its fifth-grade math test-takers (42 percent of students passed locally, compared with 48.5 percent statewide) to 9.2 percent for third-grade math test-takers (48.4 percent of students passed locally compared with 57.6 percent statewide).
Travis Campbell, chief accountability officer for Vancouver Public Schools, said this year’s test results reaffirm to the district that there are still areas of concern in elementary school math. The district is rolling out new math curriculum that will more closely align with state standards, and Campbell hopes to see improvements in the schools’ scores in the years to come.
“We’re really excited about it,” Campbell said of the new curriculum.
Campbell echoed his Evergreen counterpart, saying there is a sense of urgency around narrowing the gap between the district and the state, but the district is more focused on what it can do to help individual students grow than it is on standardized test scores in any given year.
“We’re concerned but we’re not alarmed,” he said. “There are plans that are in place that are constantly being adjusted and adapted.”
Morning Briefing Newsletter
Get a rundown of the latest local and regional news every Mon-Fri morning.
