Patterson Irrigator

By Maddy Houk, Patterson Irrigator

Growth in state standardized testing scores leveled off within the Patterson Unified School District this year, with mixed results overall.

California Standardized Testing and Reporting scores were released Wednesday after second- through 11th-grade students throughout the state took the tests last spring.

Students are measured on five levels — advanced, proficient, basic, below basic, and far below basic.
Proficient level has been established by the state board of education as the desired achievement goal for all students. That goal is consistent with school growth targets for state accountability and the federal No Child Left Behind Act requirements.

“Over the last few years, there’s been steady growth, but the results this year are not as strong as previous years,” Kathy Pon, assistant superintendent of educational services, said.

Math scores in the district were higher in all local schools than English language arts, with more than half of the students in the district from second to fifth grade scoring at advanced and proficient in math.  

Though half of the district’s second-grade students scored at the advanced and proficient levels in English language arts, only one-fourth of third-grade students were at advanced and proficient.  

Jennifer Benjamin-Yacoub, principal at Las Palmas Elementary School, said part of the reason there is a dip in scores is because there is a transition for students between second and third grade. Tests are read to students in second grade and students read the test to themselves in third grade.

Students at Las Palmas scored well overall in math, with 63 percent of second-graders at advanced and proficient and a low of 39 percent of fifth-graders scoring in the same two levels. In English language arts, second-graders scored 55 percent on the advanced and proficient levels, while 15 percent of third-graders were in the top two levels. Fourth-graders came in with 41 percent in English language arts and 52 percent in math while fifth-graders scored 34 percent in English language arts and 39 percent in math in the advanced and proficient levels.

“Actually, we’ve had some good gains,” Benjamin-Yacoub said. “… We met our target growth in every grade except third grade.”

Benjamin-Yacoub and Pon both stressed the importance of moving students out of below basic and far below basic levels. 

“We’ve moved more students from the bottom,” Benjamin-Yacoub said. “That’s very important — I’m happy to see the kids are showing growth.”

Benjamin-Yacoub said teachers will continue to work on reading and writing to ensure gains in student scores continue.  

Pon said movement out of the far below basic and below basic levels was consistent in both English and math for kids from second to eighth grades throughout the district.   

Steve Charbonneau, Apricot Valley’s principal, said the elementary school has grown from 400 to over 700 students, and possibly to 800 in another year, and although test scores took a slight dip, they are still at the top.  

“The scores are still good — we’re still by far the highest in the district,” Charbonneau said. “But we’re not living and dying by this.”

Apricot Valley students did fairly well across the board with 49 percent of second-graders, 32 percent of third-graders, 46 percent of fourth-graders and 33 percent of fifth-graders proficient or advanced in English Language arts. Apricot Valley kids also had 53 percent of second-graders, 51 percent of third-graders, 59 percent of fourth-graders and 42 percent of fifth-graders proficient or advanced in math.

Creekside Middle School students had reason to celebrate as students moved up from below basic and far below basic into proficient levels. Students there are moving out of general math classes into algebra and geometry in preparation for high school.

Sixty-five percent of sixth- and seventh-graders who took the Algebra I test scored in proficient and advanced while 75 percent of eighth-graders were on the proficient and advanced levels in geometry.

“Creekside demonstrated across the board the most consistent growth,” Pon said. “In algebra and eighth-grade geometry we were pleased because we are dealing with kids on a higher level of math skills. We expect they’ll continue the trend to high school next year — they will continue to have high performance.”

Meanwhile, scores at Patterson High School in English language arts dipped — 34 percent of ninth-graders were proficient or advanced this year compared to 37 percent last year, while 25 percent of 10th-graders were proficient or advanced this year compared to 27 percent last year and 26 percent of 11th-graders at proficient or advanced compared to 28 percent last year. Math once again showed gains, as did biology, Earth science and U.S. History.  

Parents at all district schools received individual student test scores earlier this week.

Pon said students at even the smallest school — Rising Sun School in Vernalis — should be recognized for hard work.  

“We need to focus on individual gains and celebrate them,” Pon said.

Tests at all schools in California are broken down further by ethnicity, English language fluency, gender, economic status, disabilities, parent education and special programs participation.  

Statewide, the percentage of students who scored in the proficient or advanced level has risen from 35 percent to 43 percent in English language arts since the tests were instituted in 2003 and from 35 percent to 41 percent during that time.   

Locally, the district plans to work with students in the below and far below basic levels in small interventions classes; give short exams every month to monitor student progress and get additional training for staff, among other steps.

In addition, school district administrators will be in the classrooms on a regular basis.

“We are all going to be in the classroom more frequently this year to support these improvement efforts,” Pon said. “You get a sense of what’s going on at the class level and talk to teachers and principals about the challenges they are facing.”          

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