Standardized test scores drop by five percent

On Oct. 10, the California Department of Education released results for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress from the 2023-24 school year. The CAASPP test measures the proficiency of students in English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics based on the California Common Core State Standards and is taken by juniors each year.

In last year’s results, there was about a 5% drop in students who met or exceeded the Common Core Standard for both ELA and math compared to the 2022-23 school year at Aragon. This followed a trend of scores decreasing in recent years, with a small decline between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, but the amount that both subjects dropped last year was the most since students resumed state tests after distance learning.

The current seniors, who took the CAASPP test last year as juniors, missed at least one year of state testing in middle school during the pandemic. Some believe this affected those students’ experience and familiarity with state testing.

“Students who [took CAASPP in the 2022-23 school year] had [in-person] testing in middle school, [paid] a little bit more attention to it,” said Advanced Placement English teacher Victoria Daniel. “Looking at last year’s scores, those students have one [less] focused year on [CAASPP].”

Daniel also pointed out a shift away from prioritizing testing.

“There’s been a de-emphasis on testing in general, especially since [some] colleges [stopped requiring] the SAT,” Daniel said.

At Burlingame High School, which had the highest scores in the district, students are reminded about CAASPP testing through a letter and on Burlingame’s video announcements.

“[We] try to [tell] students the individual consequences of this test,” said Burlingame High School principal Jen Fong. “We do talk about how [their performance] is a reflection of Burlingame High … If you think that colleges want to know that we’re a good school, then perhaps you should make sure they know that we’re a good school by taking this test seriously.”

Similarly, Aragon sent out messages about CAASPP with studying tips from the district’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction Brian Simmons.

However, some felt that the importance of state testing for the school was not emphasized enough, which could have led to students expending less effort on it.

“The CAASPP testing is not [for] a grade,” said senior Sou Matsumoto. “It doesn’t affect [students], so people just fool around. They’re not taking it seriously … A lot of people take it as a challenge to do it as fast as they can. I had a friend finish [the two-hour test] in 15 minutes.”

Moreover, advanced students might have trouble recalling content from earlier courses.

“I was in precalculus last year instead of Algebra 2,” said senior Frankie Mayor. “Some of [the test content] was stuff that I had learned a couple years prior so I wasn’t totally up to date on it.”
Math teacher and co-department head Cheri Dartnell felt the scores were not fully representative of student capabilities.

“This is just a one-day test,” said math teacher and co-department head Cheri Dartnell. “It’s a snapshot of one day of a student’s entire school career. It’s low-stakes for students.”

Some believed the drop in scores this year was random, although larger trends may exist.

“You’re not comparing the same students,” Daniel said. “So there’s always going to be changes, and sometimes that’s just reflective of the particular students. [Although] the excitement over reading and the number of students who read for pleasure has gone down, I can’t point to that in a year. If I look at the past decade, it’s a marked difference.”

Aragon implemented a new elective course this year, called Community and Literacy in Action, that aims to address this.

“Students will practice and develop academic English proficiency to be successful in their content area classes,” said Assistant Principal David Moore. “[They’ll also] work on communication and collaboration skills that will support them in the areas of academics and life outside of school. We hope, as we continue to have these types of classes, that our scores do go up for certain demographics, most likely our multilingual learners.”

Apart from this, the school plans to continue utilizing resources such as Flex Time and the Roaming program, where math teachers offer extra support to students in algebra and geometry.

The next CAASPP testing will take place in two sessions, from April 8-9 and 15-16.