Plumas Lake Elementary School District

Today, the State of California is releasing the test results for the State, counties, districts and schools. This is the first year of the new State Standards Test. It is very difficult in the first year of a new test to  know how we did as a District or as individual school sites because this is the baseline data year. The results show that 53% of our students were proficient in English Language Arts and 39% in Math. As we did a first look around the Yuba and Sutter County school districts, we compared favorably. As we look around the other counties surrounding Sacramento we compare more mid-range. But what do those comparisons really mean is the difficult question to answer.

 

As Superintendent of PLESD, I am excited about the shift that we are making to teaching students to be stronger non-fiction readers, writers, mathematical thinkers and problem solvers. I believe that this new test (California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress-CAASPP)
far better measures these skills than the previous test. The old STAR test and No Child Left Behind laws truly began to focus teaching to a narrow group of standards that could be tested with multiple choice questions.

 

I believe that in a year we will know far more about what these test scores mean and how they can help us continue to improve our instruction. We will be able to compare the growth of individual students from one year to the next and look at the growth sub-groups are making. My goal is to continue our District's focus on teaching the standards as a whole with children becoming competent life long learners. With this focus the test scores will continue to increase because if students are truly readers, writers,and mathematicians they will do well on any test.  

 

We are still waiting for the individual student reports that are sent out to parents, as soon as these arrive we will distribute them to parents. 

 

I am proud of all of the work that has been done by the staff at PLESD to plan and teach the new California State Standards, I am excited about what I get to see in our classrooms on a daily basis and know that this is the right path for the future our students.