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The first results from California’s new standardized testing, which looks at how students meet the new Common Core standards, were released Wednesday, Sept. 9. The California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) tests mathematics, English language arts and literacy levels of students in grades 3 to 8 and 11.

In releasing the results, State Superintendent of Schools Tom Torlakson said the former paper-based exams have been replaced with “new, computer-based assessments.”

“Because they are based on more challenging academic standards, the new tests are too fundamentally different to compare old scores with new,” he said. “Instead, these scores are a starting point, a baseline for the progress students will make over time.”

Results for individual students will be sent to parents later in the month.

An example of an individual Student Score Report is posted online as well as a California Department of Education video explaining the score reports.

To see detailed results for each district and school go to the state website and choose a report to view. The website has results for the entire state, for each county, each district and each school and also lists results by disability status, economic status, English-language fluency, ethnicity, gender and parent level of education.

The results are also available at EdSource.org.

To find a school, first choose the county, then the district and then the school. Data is shown in bar graphs, with actual percentages shown by hovering the cursor over the bar.

Below are results for the Almanac coverage area’s kindergarten to eighth grade school districts, Woodside High School and Menlo-Atherton High School.

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Las Lomitas Elementary School District

English Language Arts/Literacy

Grade 3 82% at or above standard

Grade 4 81% at or above standard

Grade 5 85% at or above standard

Grade 6 79% at or above standard

Grade 7 87% at or above standard

Grade 8 85% at or above standard

All students grades 3-8 83% at or above standard

Mathematics

Grade 3 86% at or above standard

Grade 4 74% at or above standard

Grade 5 61% at or above standard

Grade 6 73% at or above standard

Grade 7 85% at or above standard

Grade 8 79% at or above standard

All students grades 3-8 77% at or above standard

—

Menlo Park City School District

English Language Arts/Literacy

Grade 3 83% at or above standard

Grade 4 81% at or above standard

Grade 5 86% at or above standard

Grade 6 74% at or above standard

Grade 7 84% at or above standard

Grade 8 85% at or above standard

All students grades 3-8 82% at or above standard

Mathematics

Grade 3 83% at or above standard

Grade 4 82% at or above standard

Grade 5 80% at or above standard

Grade 6 75% at or above standard

Grade 7 74% at or above standard

Grade 8 80% at or above standard

All students grades 3-8 80% at or above standard

—

Portola Valley School District

English Language Arts/Literacy

Grade 3 77% at or above standard

Grade 4 84% at or above standard

Grade 5 83% at or above standard

Grade 6 79% at or above standard

Grade 7 85% at or above standard

Grade 8 94% at or above standard

All students grades 3-8 83% at or above standard

Mathematics

Grade 3 81% at or above standard

Grade 4 87% at or above standard

Grade 5 75% at or above standard

Grade 6 81% at or above standard

Grade 7 91% at or above standard

Grade 8 89% at or above standard

All students grades 3-8 83% at or above standard

Note: Portola Valley Superintendent Lisa Gonzales has pointed out that the results for the 8th grade in Portola Valley are different on the listing of results for the district than on the results for the individual school. On the site for Corte Madera School, the state website says the percentage of students at or above standard were 95% for English and 90% for math.

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Ravenswood City Elementary School District

English Language Arts/Literacy

Grade 3 15% at or above standard

Grade 4 16% at or above standard

Grade 5 23% at or above standard

Grade 6 12% at or above standard

Grade 7 24% at or above standard

Grade 8 19% at or above standard

All students grades 3-8 17% at or above standard

Mathematics

Grade 3 18% at or above standard

Grade 4 11% at or above standard

Grade 5 10% at or above standard

Grade 6 10% at or above standard

Grade 7 15% at or above standard

Grade 8 9% at or above standard

All students grades 3-8 12 % at or above standard

—

Woodside Elementary School District

English Language Arts/Literacy

Grade 3 84% at or above standard

Grade 4 88% at or above standard

Grade 5 82% at or above standard

Grade 6 89% at or above standard

Grade 7 95% at or above standard

Grade 8 84% at or above standard

All students grades 3-8 87% at or above standard

Mathematics

Grade 3 87% at or above standard

Grade 4 85% at or above standard

Grade 5 78% at or above standard

Grade 6 89% at or above standard

Grade 7 86% at or above standard

Grade 8 74% at or above standard

All students grades 3-8 83 % at or above standard

—

Woodside High School

English Language Arts/Literacy

Grade 11 57% at or above standard

Mathematics

Grade 11 31% at or above standard

—

Menlo-Atherton High School

English Language Arts/Literacy

Grade 11 62% at or above standard

Mathematics

Grade 11 45% at or above standard

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3 Comments

  1. Common Core, like most other testing, is another time and money-wasting bureaucratic response to basic inequality. Here’s what these results show: The Haves have, and The Nave-Nots don’t. We don’t need to measure Las Lomitas, Portola Valley, MPCSD other than group subsets of whatever small population of low-income or disabled students they have. The only scores here that really tells a story are from M-A. They teach us about averages. When you add high test scores and low test scores you get middling test scores. Because half of M-A comes from Ravenswood. That’s where you can see what a lifetime of ineffective practices will do to a kid. Those students don’t need tests — they need better teaching methodology starting with universal pre-school so all kids will enter kindergarten on a level playing field. There are statistics to back that up — not a bunch of bureaucrats who wave sticks with no clue about the real world inside classrooms. And please don’t start preaching about poverty and drugs and parents who don’t care. They care plenty, but they don’t have the means to work with their kids or hire tutors. So we can either find the money to educate the entire public effectively or pay the high cost of prison.

  2. I saw YES to “Common Core NOT Common Sense”! I was sure that this silly Common Core was just another educational fad – and it is. And our precious kids are paying a huge price for this nonsense. What a shame.

    Real learning cannot be measured on computers. It is impossible to ever quantify the passion for learning that a good teacher ignites and encourages in each student.

    Common Core forces teachers to “teach to the test”, which is wrong. Far too much time is wasted preparing students for these unnecessary tests.

    I have read that many teachers have found that Common Core many times presents students with material they are simply not old enough to grasp.

    Class sizes should be much, much smaller. The more individual attention a student gets, the better he or she will do — as long as proper help is given to every parent and caregiver who needs it.

    Common Core is a very bad idea, and should be dumped ASAP.

  3. This highlights the dichotomy we have in Menlo Park. While I live in the MPCSD catchment area and will donate to the MPAEF, this year I will also be donating to the Ravenswood Education Foundation. We live in the same city, we can all do more.

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