Slumping School Statistics Show Societal Shift

District-wide academic performance and engagement has slumped past pre-pandemic levels. However, there are some metrics that show a slowing decline. “As teachers and educators, we’ve somewhat enabled some student behaviors to carry over from COVID. I don’t know if we’re expecting as much out of our students as we did before,” said English teacher Eric Unti. “There are some good things that we can learn from COVID too; there are other things that are more important. People want to spend time with family and want to have time to do things.”

SBAC results were only taken from juniors in the district. English scores are 31.5 points above the standard; however, this was a 13.5% decrease from 2023, which was a 10% decrease from 2022. 

Math scores have fared better; although it is 12.3 points above the standard, there was only a 6.8% decline from last year. 

For CVHS specifically, there was a 5.7% decrease in passing English scores and a 3.2% decrease in passing math scores. District-wide, the decline was felt by almost all racial/ethnic groups, while in CVHS, African American students experienced a sharp increase in scores from 2023.

“These are complicated issues, and there’s no one simple answer. Anyone who points to one test or one answer and says, ‘This is the reason,’ isn’t being honest with the realities and complexities of the situation,” said Unti.

“We’ve driven away from high-stakes, single-attempt tests to multiple attempts to show your learning over time… Our district initiative to enhance student learning isn’t necessarily equating to higher standardized test scores,” said math teacher Shad Emam.

The College/Career Indicator (CCI) measures how prepared high school graduates are for their future. To be categorized as prepared, students must meet criteria such as a score of three or higher on at least two AP exams, meeting the SBAC standards, or meeting A-G requirements. The CCI for the district has seen a dramatic shift, with 52.8% of graduates now qualifying as not or under prepared, a jump from just 39.7% of graduates in 2023.

“I think more and more students are looking at the option of not going to a four year university… so less and less students are going to push themselves to make sure that they’re eligible, prepared or ready,” said Emam.

Chronic absenteeism (students missing 10% or more of school days) is at 11%. This is down 5% from 2023 but still not at pre-pandemic levels, which was 4.6% in 2019. The suspension rate is at 2.2%, down 0.4% from 2023.

Despite these declines in test scores and college preparedness, the district graduation rate (which includes students graduating in their fifth year of high school) is higher than pre-pandemic levels at 96%.

“Whatever the test scores say, they say, but are we giving students the tools they need to be successful? Part of those tools are academic knowledge, but part of those tools are also responsibility, accountability, and communication, so there’s a lot that we’re trying to do at school and grades and test scores are just a part of that,” said Unti.

“As college tuition or prices go up, I think there’s less value for more students to be going there,” said Emam. “So is it a good thing that we’re not, according to some of our metrics, preparing students? I’m not gonna agree with that statement, but the question is: is the end goal actually directly always going to college? Or is it focused on somebody’s ability to learn?”