Article provided by Hollister School District.
Building on the momentum of successful “Back to School” openings at every school, and with renewed vigor and enthusiasm, Hollister School District (HSD) announced this week student test score results with another year of progress forward for local K-8 students.
The 2016-17 school year marked the third year of California’s new statewide student assessment system – California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) – which replaced the previous Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) system. The CAASPP system’s main component is the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment.
Overall results of the new assessment showed that the number of Hollister School District students who met or exceeded the state’s new standards increased by 14% in English language arts and 23% in mathematics.
“Our focus is 100% on building an extraordinary learning environment in Hollister neighborhood schools. We are thrilled to see that our approach is working and that student achievement is on the rise.” said Superintendent Lisa Andrew, Ed.D.
Unlike the California Standards Test (CST), the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments are based on a growth model that allows the California Department of Education (CDE) to produce growth comparisons that can track students’ progress through grade levels over time. The results of the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments should under no circumstance be compared to the CST results. That’s because the new assessments are too different from the old assessments to make any valid comparisons.
Examples of notable growth comparisons for Hollister K-8 students include:
- 5th grade students in the Hollister School District are improving at over double the rate in English language arts and mathematics as their peers in the county and triple the rate of their state peers..
- 6th and 8th grade students in the Hollister School District are improving at almost triple the rate in English language arts and over double the rate in mathematics as their peers in the county and state..
- The percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards grew in 6th and 8th grade in English language arts at every school site and in 4th grade at 7 of HSD’s 8 school sites.
- The percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards grew in 4th and 6th grade in mathematics at every school site.
- The percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards grew at every grade level, in both English language arts and mathematics at Ladd Lane School.
- For the third year in a row, every 5th, 7th, and 8th grade student in Hollister School District met or exceeded standards in English language arts at the Accelerated Achievement Academy.
In announcing the latest student test scores Superintendent Andrews emphasized, “This is really good news for us because the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments are very different from the old California Standards Test (CST) – in a good way – so it’s doubly good to see that our students are improving according to the new, more rigorous and realistic assessment system.”
The new student testing system is different in these key ways:
- They are aligned with California’s updated content standards for English language arts and mathematics.
- They reflect the critical thinking and problem solving skills that students will need to be ready for college and the 21st century job market.
- They are taken on a computer and are adaptive, which means that during the test, the questions become more or less difficult on the basis of how the student performs.
- They provide many more supports for students who need them, including students learning English and students with disabilities.
Hollister School District serves a student population of about 5,500 students with the help of more than 560 staff members, including certificated and classified employees, substitutes and others. The District is committed to providing an extraordinary learning environment for students and staff, which research shows is conducive to continuous improvement in student achievement.
“I am heartened to hear from so many members of our Education Community that they are all-in with us in this journey to build on the successes of last year and accelerate student achievement as we start this new school year,” added Superintendent Andrew.
For more information contact the Hollister School District at (831) 630-6300.