Manhattan Beach students improved on most areas of state standardized tests compared to last year’s results, according to results released by the California Department of Education. In total, 5,046 students in the district were tested this past spring.
The most significant improvements were seen on history and science – students who performed at proficient or advanced levels increased by 5.8 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively; 84 percent of students performed at proficient or advanced levels in history, and 91.4 percent in science. About 1,600 students were tested in history, and 1,457 in science.
English and language arts scores improved by 1.8 percent – 88.8 percent of students scored at proficient or advanced levels, out of 4,948 students who were tested.
The only decline in scores was a 0.3 percent drop in the number of students performing to proficient or advanced levels in the science end-of-course tests, which include biology, chemistry, earth science and physics. In total, 75.2 percent performed as proficient or advanced on these science tests, out of 1,588 students. End-of-course refers to subject courses in which students from different grade levels can be enrolled. For example, a student could take biology anytime from ninth to 11th grade, so when that student completes the course, he or she will take the end-of-course test.
The test covered English and language arts for grades two through 11, different levels of math for grades two through seven and end-of-course, history for grades eight, 11 and end-of-course and science for grades five, eight, 10 and end-of-course.
