Black students in the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) have one of the largest academic gaps when it comes to student achievement, which the board hopes to diminish by monitoring Black student achievement and well-being.
A survey given to 4th-12th grade students last fall on their social-emotional well-being revealed that Black students rate their sense of belonging and their identity lower than other subgroups, according to superintendent Jill Baker.
When looking at the SBAC scores—a standardized test that assesses students’ math, reading and writing skill level—data shows 33% of Black students met or exceeded the minimum requirements in language arts, while 48% of all students tested at that level. For math, 18% of Black students met or exceeded requirements as opposed to 33% of all students.
The graduation rate for Black students is 86%, while for white students it is 90%, according according to data presented at the board’s Monday Oct. 3 meeting. When looking at college readiness, 49% of Black students meet the A-G requirements necessary to attend a CSU or UC after high school, compared to 58.6% of all students.
“These are the brutal facts of what we’re experiencing right now. It doesn’t mean that we can’t do better and it doesn’t mean that we won’t do better,” Baker said. “When we improve the outcomes for our Black students, we improve the outcomes for all students.”
Some district and school goals for monitoring Black student achievement include providing principal supervision that centers around their specific needs and performing quarterly and monthly data reviews.
“I think the one thing that’s always tricky about goal setting is [that] when it comes to goals, there needs to be an undertone of culture setting as well,” board member Erik Miller said. “I want to make sure that this isn’t us just checking a box.”
Moving forward, the board plans to create district, school and classroom-specific goals. When looking at student data, district staff and principals will assess similarities, differences and nuances across the different levels. Similarly, the data and research team will not only review data in terms of district goals but also look specifically at the goals for Black students.
“Every school has glaring needs in certain areas, so one of the things we encourage our principals to think about is to ask themselves, ‘Why?’” assistant superintendent of elementary schools, Brian Moskovitz said. “Once you identify the root cause of some of that data as best as possible, then that’s where we start putting plans together to try to address those root causes.”
“The great thing for me here is that we were looking at it at a system[ic] level and that we’re holding ourselves accountable at a system[ic] level,” board member Juan Benitez said.
The board will continue discussions around Black student achievement at its next meeting on Oct. 19.
Thank you for covering this very important topic, I hope that in the next article you get the voices of parents and students. LBUSD has not keep its commitment to Black students and parents. ~a LBUSD Parent