Most District high schools saw a decrease in the number of students who met or exceeded state standards following the release of the CAASPP last October. Simultaneously, M-A’s overall test scores improved, with scores for socioeconomically disadvantaged, or SED students seeing the largest growth in the District.
The CAASPP, or California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress results revealed that in the 2023-24 school year, 72.01% of M-A students met or exceeded state standards for English Language Arts, and 54.27% of students did so for math.
Different types of standardized tests offer insight into trends in overall academic performance. The class of 2025 was the first class to take a detracked freshman and sophomore-year course load. Although M-A’s AP scores increased recently, these exams only reflect the academic performance of students taking AP classes. CAASPP tests, on the other hand, are taken by all juniors. These scores indicate how well M-A is serving its students, especially those who need more academic support.
M-A has generally hovered around District averages for students meeting or exceeding CAASPP ELA and math standards in the past. Likewise, rates for SED students more or less followed District averages.
Compared to other schools in the District, M-A’s CAASPP scores improved the most last year. There was a 4.86% increase in students who met or exceeded state standards for ELA and a 5.74% increase in math between the 2022–23 test and this year.
M-A’s SED students’ CAASPP scores also showed the greatest improvement in the District. Compared to last year, the percentage of SED students who met or exceeded standards increased by 5.86% and 6.19% for ELA and math, respectively.
In the 2023-24 school year, M-A administration made efforts to ensure students were not only present to take the CAASPP test but also that students took the test seriously. Principal Karl Losekoot expressed that he wants the atmosphere of the school to feel relaxed during the state test.
“We try to create some incentive for students to come in on time and make an effort,” he said. Last year, students who took the CAASPP were entered into a raffle for prom tickets and Leadership hosted a barbecue for students. As M-A’s juniors are preparing to take the 2024-25 CAASPP this week, administration is offering similar incentives with raffles for prizes like Beats headphones.
“It’s not just the incentive of offering a donut or prom ticket. We want to show that this test is important to us and that students should not only take it seriously but also not feel stressed out about it,” Losekoot said.
“We are communicating that this is what you and the state of California are doing, and we want you to be at the standard like everybody else,” he said.
Love to see the improvements at MA! Thanks for covering this story.
Two clarification points.
Sophomore year at M-A is not “detracked.” Sophomores are offered Honors English II as well as AP World History and AP Psych.
It’s a stretch to attribute increases in junior year CAASSP scores to “detracking” of one class – English – their Freshman year. A more likely causative variable is reduction in chronic absenteeism rates, as there seems to be a consistent (negative) correlation between chronic absenteeism and test scores at each of the sites that doesn’t exist with “detracked” 9th grade English, which is not in place across SUHSD schools. Carlmont continues to offer Honors English I alongside College Prep English and Sequoia High school “detracked” all 9th graders into ICAP (Honors) English.
sophomore year has been detracked, 1, AS chem used to be offered but it’s since been combined into a single chemistry class. 2 re: AP world/AP psychology(which is a senior only class, so not sure where you’re getting this from), AP classes are irrelevant here because the district has never “detracked” an AP class, they’ve only done it to AS/honors classes.
the article doesn’t make the assertion that detracked freshman year classes caused this increase in scores, it clearly says “These scores indicate how well M-A is serving its students,”
detracking however does provide valuable context, this article specifically shows that students aren’t less prepared for ap lang or english in general because of detracking, as many claim.
Thanks for commenting. I was mistaken re AP psych and forgot about the removal of AS Chem. Thanks for that. However, per the course catalog, AS Algebra II is offered to Sophomores who have taken Geometry Enriched (which is the advanced option for Freshman). Also, AP World History is offered to Sophomores per M-A’s course catalog.
My perspective, is that AP IS relevant because AP is a level, just like College Prep and AS, regardless of whether or not a school has done any “detracking” with it. Some schools in Southern CA have done away with AP classes for the same reason SUHSD did it – for equity.
I agree with the author that CAASSP scores can indicate how well a school is serving its students. I appreciated his examination of that because when the district and principals have studied the effect of removal of honors classes and presented it to our school board, they chose NOT to look at CAASSP scores (because it’s just one day in the life, they said), but rather at more subjective outcomes like grades and graduation rates. I say more subjective due to teacher discretion, standards-based grading, risk of grade inflation and an increase in group projects all of which can mask struggling students’ performance. CAASSP scores cut through that to look at underlying knowledge of each student.
The key issue I have with looking at trends in AP Lang and AP English scores is it’s impossible to discern the private tutoring effect from the teaching effect, so it is a leap to use AP score trends to gauge how detracking has affected preparedness. (It also neglects to assess changes in student stress levels as they take increasingly AP-heavy course loads since many honors courses were removed.)
All this said – love the data-based approach. Thank you! Would love to see some analyses vs. state scores and also an examination of chronic absenteeism and CAASSP scores.