LV scores higher than several others in certain categories; 3rd, 8th and 11th grade best performers
By Peter Day
and Caroline Lieber
While the recently released Smarter Balanced test scores revealed room for improvement for the Lucerne Valley Unified School District, buried in the numerous rows of spreadsheet data are relative bright spots.
"There's a whole lot more information if you look more carefully," said school district superintendent Suzette Davis.
But that's not all.
Lucerne Valley, at 35%, had a higher percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards in English than Adelanto, which had 33%, and Victor Elementary with 24%. The behemoth Hesperia Unified School District had 33%, and Barstow 30% in this category.
Moreover, Lucerne Valley beat out several of 18 High Desert-area school districts in the "nearly met" English standards category with 30% of Lucerne Valley students falling in that percentage. That was more than Barstow, Helendale, Needles, Sky Mountain Charter, Excelsior Charter and Victor Elementary.
In overall Mathematics scores, Lucerne Valley performed higher (14%) in the number of students meeting or exceeding standards than Adelanto (10%) and tied with Encore. Lucerne Valley (31%) had more students that nearly met Mathematics standards than Barstow, Excelsior, Helendale, Victor Elementary, Needles, Adelanto and Victor Junior/Senior.
Compared to the Apple Valley Unified School District, Lucerne Valley held its own in certain categories. In English, both districts had 16% of 3rd graders who exceeded standards, 9% of 5th graders who exceeded standards and 13% of 11th graders who exceeded standards.
Generally, Lucerne Valley students performed better than Baker Valley students in English, especially at the elementary school level. In the 4th and 5th grades, Lucerne Valley students exceeded or met expectations at higher percentages than Baker.
Compared to Barstow, Lucerne Valley performed about the same in English. Lucerne Valley 3rd graders scored higher than Barstow students in the same grade.
Ironically, Sky Mountain Charter School, which is chartered through the Lucerne Valley Unified School District, performed better than most school districts in the High Desert. In Mathematics, Sky Mountain had the second highest percentage of students who exceeded standards and third highest number of students who met standards.
WORKING TOGETHER
While Lucerne Valley's bright spots may give reason for a few pats on the back, high percentages in the "did not meet standards" category are cause for concern. And Lucerne Valley isn't the only local school district eyeing ways to improve future scores.
"We will have the information to drive our instruction, and improve," Hesperia Unified School District Superintendent David McLaughlin said earlier this month. "In the High Desert, we're all doing similar things, and whatever differences there are, will start disappearing over time, and we'll be closer aligned."
As a response to the test scores, Lucerne Valley has hired consultants for both school sites and provided 40 additional hours of professional development for its teachers.
"We're on it already," Davis said. "We're catching up tremendously now."
Smarter Balanced is a computer-based test that allows students to include written responses. It replaces the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test and has been introduced as a testing companion to the Common Core curriculum. Altogether, more than 3 million California students took the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress in the spring.
"This is going to give our baseline data," Davis said. "It gives us our launching point."
Peter Day is senior reporter for the Lucerne Valley Leader newspaper. Caroline Lieber is a Southern California freelance writer.