by Mark McDermott
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District saw across-the-board increases in student performance, as measured by standardized test results recently released by the California Department of Education.
The California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) are tests designed to measure student progress on grade level literacy, math and science standards. MBUSD jumped 2.09 percent in exceedance of English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency and now ranks fifth among unified school districts in California in ELA performance. Scores increased 2.68 percent in students exceeding proficiency in math over the last two years to rank sixth in the state in that category. Meanwhile, MBUSD student performance in the California Science Test (CAST) jumped a whopping 7.39 percent.
Jonathan Erickson, MBUSD Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, presented the data to the Board of Education at its October 8 meeting. Erickson said MBUSD is now the highest ranked district of its size in the state.
“Another way to compare would be [to] districts the same size, but then we’d be so far ahead,” he said. “Which is a testament. If you look at this [comparative data], Palos Verdes has some bigger schools, but that’s really it. All the people above us are much smaller than us, and it is really amazing that a district our size is still competing with them.”
“There are 1,000 districts in California,” said Trustee Tina Shivpuri. “And we are number six [in math] and number five [in ELA].”
The scores marked a resurgence to pre-pandemic levels of achievement. MBUSD, like most districts, suffered declines when students learned remotely and in the years immediately after the pandemic.
“I love seeing that as we move further away from COVID, we are bouncing back to the numbers we anticipated originally.…That three plus year break, especially in math, hit pretty hard,” said School Board Trustee Jen Fenton. “So this is a beautiful story to tell beyond our performance indicators. I think we need to highlight the story.”
MBUSD, like almost all public schools in California, also experienced steep enrollment drops post-pandemic. Fenton expressed hope the achievement represented by the test scores might help lure back families who left for private schools.
“I’m just thinking about tangible, bite sized pieces that we can share with parents, especially as they’re going into that middle school or high school transition, where parents sometimes leave for the private schools, thinking that they have better academics,” she said. “This proves that MBUSD has the academics. We have the academic achievement, we have the [effective academic] interventions, we have the support, we have the APs. We are this package, even with our extracurriculars, whether it’s music or sports.”
Erickson’s presentation gave a closer, grade-level analysis of the test results. The standardized tests are taken by students in grades 3 through 8, but only grade 11 in high school. The results are categorized in four ways — met standards, exceeded standards, did not meet standards, and nearly met standards. The story for MBUSD students was mainly about its growth in both meeting and exceeding standards, while the corresponding “not met” categories shrank. Among the many highlights were 4th and 5th grade ELA scores; 89.42 percent of 4th grades met or exceeded, while 90 percent of 5th graders did so.
“All the way to 90 percent…is really rare to see in any grade anywhere,” Erickson said. “So we are very proud of our grade five teachers for growing and maintaining a super high level.”
“When you get into the upper 80% or near 90%, you’re considered super high performing….It’s incredible that they’ve maintained above 80%, which is really rare, but now are maintaining high 80s.”
Another recurring theme was the strong performance by Mira Costa students. Erickson noted a strong trend exists in students who take these tests throughout the state — scores tend to drop in higher grade levels.
“We’ve talked about ‘skill versus will’ in the past, but I think what most people theorize here is that part of it is will — that as students get older, they may not take the test as seriously,” he said. “But another component is that the test is just harder….It’s clear across the state that students perform lower at higher grade levels.”
While this remained true in MBUSD’s test results, it was less so than in years’ past. Over 81 percent of 11th graders met or exceeded standards, a growth of over 6 percent over the past four years, including a 14 percent increase from 2022-23, when that number briefly dropped to 67 percent.
“Grade 11 for English Language arts had a very strong 5 percent growth, but if you look back, they also had a very strong growth the year before,” Erickson said. “So Costa is on an incredible trajectory, having reached a new four year high, and you can just see that staircase — over the last two years they’ve decreased the number of students ‘not met’ by nearly 10% and they’ve had an increase in the proficient advance of nearly 13% in two years. So very, very impressive work at the high school.”
Mira Costa did well in math and science as well. In math, 62.05% of students met or exceeded standards, an increase of 7.96% from last year. In the California Science Test, Mira Costa scored 56.93%, an increase of 13.32% from last year.
“This is now three for three for Costa, huge gains in English, math and science,” Erickson said. “I can’t say enough about how proud we are of Mira Costa doing so well in all three subjects — in science, most of all, with a whopping 13% growth, especially after having the two years of decline, so very impressed by that. One thing worth pointing out is that the science department and the math department administered the test themselves last year. That was something that they hadn’t done before. It was something that they chose to do, and I think that shows up in the data here, not just the ownership of them giving the test, but really everything that comes with that — talking to the students, preparing the students, telling them ‘You’re going to be with me’ is a huge part of that…Along with the skills that they’re teaching them in the curriculum.”
Districtwide MBUSD saw upticks in both math and science, with 75.67 of students meeting or exceeding math standards (up .5% from last year and over 3% over the past four years) and 65.68 in the California Science test, up 7.39% from last year (scores in math and science are typically lower than ELA statewide).
Erickson said even the small gains were more than almost all the other top performing districts in the state, most of whom dropped slightly. He pointed specifically to the ELA rankings.
“This is really outstanding to see the district have sustained growth over two years, especially when we compare ourselves to the other top districts,” Erickson said. “Because one thing that is true, and we kind of alluded to this earlier, is the higher you are, the harder it is to grow. It’s one thing when you have a lot of lower performing students — you have a lot of places to push them. When you have a lot of high performing students, it becomes harder and harder to push them up a little bit higher.”
“We’re knocking on the door of some of these other districts that have been at the top for a very long time.”
Trustee Jen Dohner praised the teachers and staff for their work in making the improvements possible. She singled out Mira Costa Principal Jennifer Huynh and her assistant principals for the big gains made at the high school.
“I know Dr. Huynh was very proactive last spring, around rallying [student participation], and I know her APs were, as well, and the teachers really emphasized to the students how important it is that they show up…” Dohner said. “That hard work paid off. I hope they keep that momentum going, because I know that it was a lot of work for them to make sure that students were taking the test.”
Dohner also praised Erickson and Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, Dr. Irene Gonzalez-Castillo, and the rest of her staff for using past years’ data to help focus on areas to improve.
“To have so much improvement so broadly across the board is obviously a testament to the fact that you’re doing something right,” she said. “So thank you for all the hard work, and thank you to all the people at all the levels who are doing all the hard work to make this happen.”
Erickson also revealed unusual growth in an area beyond standardized tests — Mira Costa student participation and performance in Advanced Placement (AP) courses and tests. The number of students taking AP courses increased to 1,357 last year, up from 1,107 in 2020-21. Even more strikingly, 90.13% of MCHS students scored 3 or above, an almost 6% increase from last year and 13% increase over the last four years. APs are graded 1 to 5, with scores 3 and above meaning students have achieved a college equivalency that often allows them to not have to fulfill that requirement in college.
Erickson shared a story within that story. MCHS considered adding an AP Precalculus course but did not do so, because MBUSD enacted a policy limiting students to four AP courses due to social and emotional wellbeing concerns that the board has taken great pains to address in recent years.
“We felt like adding the course was not advisable because our students already have a four AP course limit, and that would kind of put them in this weird dilemma of, ‘If I want to take this course and I’ve already planned on four, how does this change my plan? Like, I had my whole high school plan, and now you’ve thrown this course at me.’ But we felt like our Honors Precalculus class was equivalent in rigor to the AP Pre-calculus course, so we just decided to offer the test.”
“We had over 200 students take the test, and 98% passed,” Erickson said. “Crazy data, 98% of these students passed the test taking our Honors Precalculus course, which is great. It really says that we were teaching AP Precalculus without naming it that, and we were able to have a huge win here, where the students got to take the test, the parents were thrilled, and we didn’t force anybody to make any difficult decisions about their courses or schedules.”
Superintendent John Bowes also praised staff, especially teachers, for the improvement achieved in so many areas.
“I want to start by thanking our teachers, who are so skilled,” Bowes said. “I’ve been in four districts, some of them top performers like us, and I really do believe we have the finest set of teachers I’ve seen, visiting classrooms. Also to all of our aides and classified staff who support in the classroom, and our principals.”
Bowes noted that the district is achieving at this level despite the fact that many of the other top performing districts receive “10 times, 20 times, 30 times” as much state funding due to the allocation structure that has uniquely disfavored MBUSD. He also credited Erickson, Gonzalez-Castillo, and her staff for finding ways to maximize scarce dollars and still help deliver such results.
“This is a powerful way for us to live within our budget,” he said. ER
