Standardized iReady test scores continue to improve over time according to data presented at Wednesday’s Long Beach Unified (LBUSD) board meeting, but to varying degrees among grade levels.
About 40,000 students participated in the iReady diagnostics tests throughout the year. Students took their first diagnostic in October which showed that one-third of LBUSD students tested three grade levels behind in reading and math.
The second diagnostic, in February, revealed that although there was some growth in academic learning, three-fourths of students were still testing below their grade level.
The third diagnostic was taken in late May or early June depending on the school site. The most recent data revealed an overall growth in academic achievement, particularly in math, across elementary and middle schools to different degrees.
47% of elementary school students placed on or above grade level in math—a 34% increase compared to October—whereas for reading, 50% placed on or above grade level which signified a 23% increase from last year.
That means that 53% of elementary students are between one to three grades behind in math and 50% are behind in reading.
Middle school students show slight improvement, but majority still place below grade level, 6th grade math scores reach growth target
Assistant Superintendent of Research Chris Brown said there were overall more students leaving the year on grade level across all grades but that jump was significantly lower at the middle school level.
For middle school, 61% of students placed behind in reading—only 8% less than in October.
As for math, 64% of students placed at least one level behind, which is 47% less than in October.
“We talked a lot last year about acceleration, not remediation,” Brown said.“This shows that for a lot of our students, we were able to accelerate them and take them from being behind…to being where they are supposed to be as they get ready to start this next school year.”
The gaps in math were narrower than they were in reading among all first through eighth-grade levels, which Brown called surprising. He said that historically speaking, there have been bigger gaps in math. He associated this result with the focus and work the district has been putting into math courses over the last year.
In a previous presentation in May, Brown presented data to the board that revealed that students who took Math 6 Accelerated regardless of academic standing, showed greater growth in iReady test scores.
As per the data presented by Brown on Wednesday, the median in sixth-grade math reached the goal of 100% growth.
“We talked a lot about sixth-grade math last year, but here’s another indicator that some of the work being done in sixth-grade math really impacted students,” Brown said.
However, middle school growth in reading was below the June target growth and grades 7 and 8 were underneath the June target growth in math.
“I’m super worried about our middle school kiddos,” Board President Megan Kerr said. “We know that that age group really did bear the brunt of the pandemic and social-emotional growth.”
Brown said he and his team have been working with both elementary and middle school principals to go over this data and see how best to address the gaps and replicate what is beneficial.
“If we’re going to make big swings to change we have to find out what’s happening right now so that we can make adjustments right now,” Brown said.
