October 23, 2023 – CUSD reported that they had been conducting “school-by-school reviews” of state testing data across the school district. Below is their statement on that data received:
“In the wake of the state’s release of the 2023 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) results, Clovis Unified educators are analyzing the data and using the information to shape classroom instruction on a student-by-student basis.
‘While our Clovis Unified students continue to perform above the County and State averages, and we have seen some classrooms make great gains, we are not where we want to be as a District with respect to our overall districtwide CAASPP results,’ said Superintendent Corrine Folmer, Ed.D. of the district’s overall results.
In English Language Arts (ELA), 66.18% of students in Clovis Unified scored at or above proficiency level. In math, 51.02% of students were at or above grade level proficiency. In comparison, statewide the number of students testing at grade level was 46.66% in ELA and 34.62% in math.
‘There is no doubt that our team of incredible educators are working hard to overcome obstacles to learning, and we are using this data to drill down to look student-by-student at how it can inform instruction in the current school year,” said Superintendent Folmer, “Some of our schools saw student achievement grow by anywhere from 15-22% at certain grade levels. We must now work together to replicate that level of achievement across every grade level and school in our district.’
This fall, the district has been conducting school-by-school reviews of the data and each school site leader is engaged in a process called ‘Principal Grade Level Expectations’ or PGLE, in which individualized plans are created to promote student-by-student growth toward mastery of grade level standards.
This same level of analysis is happening at every level of the district including the individual teacher-student level, where teachers work with their site leadership to create individualized intervention plans for every student who did not achieve at or above their grade level standard. That work informs the day-to-day instruction delivered by teachers in the classroom.
Across the state, students have been slow to rebound to pre-pandemic levels of academic achievement. By comparison, among school districts testing over 20,000 students, Clovis Unified results are the second highest of any school district in the state, and the highest of any school district with an SED population of over 40%.
While teachers are putting in incredible effort to overcome challenges to learning such as restoring classroom behavior expectations; re-developing the interpersonal relationships between students and their peers and between students and their teachers that equates to success in the classroom; they have also faced the decreases in attendance rates and the impact time away from the classroom has on a students’ learning.
With research showing that every year of school builds on the learning that took place in the years before it; though the pandemic is receding further into history, it would be premature to say that our students are no longer experiencing its impact.”