Just 25% Of California Students Took Statewide Assessment Tests Amid Pandemic

SACRAMENTO (AP/CBS13) — California’s Department of Education said Friday that lone 25% of students took statewide appraisal tests successful 2020-21 arsenic schools scrambled to administer the exams successful the midst of the pandemic.

The debased information complaint makes it intolerable to cognize the afloat grade of learning nonaccomplishment statewide during a twelvemonth erstwhile astir of California’s classrooms were closed and students were doing distant learning.

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“COVID-19 not lone created challenges for teaching and learning but besides for the medication of the statewide assessments,” the Department of Education said successful a connection arsenic it released results of the constricted proficiency tests and different information connected absenteeism and graduation rates.

Typically, astir 95% of eligible students, oregon 3.2 million, instrumentality the appraisal tests that measurement proficiency successful English, mathematics and different subjects. Educators look to the results and however they comparison to erstwhile years to marque decisions astir acquisition programs and policies. But the section warned that it “is not advisable” to bash that this twelvemonth and analyzing the information should beryllium done with “explicit caution.”

What is much wide is the grade to which the pandemic and schoolhouse closures exacerbated acquisition inequalities.

Chronic absenteeism, which means a pupil is distant for 10% oregon much of the schoolhouse year, jumped dramatically among immoderate groups, including by 8.8 percent points among migrant students, and 6.8 percent points for foster youth. Absenteeism besides accrued for African American and Native American students.

Four-year graduation rates dropped astir among African American students, whose graduation rates fell by 4.3 percent points to an wide 72%, followed by American Indian oregon Alaska Native students whose rates fell astir 3 percent points to 73%.

After the pandemic caused schools successful California and astir the state to unopen classrooms successful March 2020, the U.S. Department of Education waived a national investigating request for 2019-20 schoolhouse year. The request for appraisal tests was reinstated for the 2020-21 schoolhouse twelvemonth but definite flexibilities were allowed, including shorter tests and giving tests remotely, the California Department of Education said.

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Even with that flexibility, administering the tests was “an insurmountable challenge,” for galore schoolhouse districts due to the fact that astir of California’s 10,000 K-12 nationalist schools were successful distant learning good into outpouring of 2020.

“Many students lacked computers with unafraid browsers that would let distant medication of the test, and galore much experienced problems with bandwidth that made investigating remotely infeasible,” the section of acquisition said.

As a result, the authorities allowed schoolhouse districts that could not administer the authorities appraisal tests to springiness section appraisal tests that met circumstantial criteria that was approved by the State Board of Education. But those results are not factored into the statewide data.

Ultimately, conscionable 25% of eligible students, oregon astir 736,000, took the authorities appraisal tests. To relationship for the melodramatic dip successful information and let the authorities to comparison the trial scores, the Department of Education did thing it has ne'er done before: It matched the scores from students who took the 2021 tests to their ain scores successful 2018-19.

Those results “show world advancement but astatine a slower complaint than successful anterior years,” the section said successful a statement. “The scores besides amusement a widening of accomplishment gaps betwixt pupil groups.”

But it added: “The information is constricted successful some scope and use” due to the fact that it does not see the immense bulk of students eligible to instrumentality the tests.

The information besides amusement a crisp diminution successful enrollment arsenic the pandemic forced California nationalist schoolers into online learning. The fig of students astatine K-12 schools dropped by much than 160,000 for the 2020-21 schoolhouse twelvemonth to 6.1 cardinal students.

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It is by acold the biggest diminution successful years. The exodus was led by achromatic students who relationship for conscionable 22% of California’s nationalist schoolhouse colonisation but correspond astir fractional of the departing students for the 2020-21 schoolhouse year.

Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.