How Are We Doing?
California now has a new school accountability website, the California School Dashboard, to help parents and community members access important information about K-12 districts and schools. It features easy-to-read reports on multiple measures of school success, including test scores, graduation rates, English Learner progress, and suspension rates.
Carlsbad Unified has used this information to create our own user-friendly website, which includes helpful links and videos explaining the Dashboard, individual school dashboards, infographics, and district and state communications regarding these new tools.
Our school district is committed to providing an academically excellent instructional program for our students. We believe that a rigorous foundation will help our students to be better prepared for the workforce and their futures.
Our work in this regard is reflected in our students’ achievement scores on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) tests, the state’s accountability assessment system. Carlsbad Unified students scored “Very High” in English Language Arts and “High” in Math, with substantial year-over-year increases. Besides these commendable district-wide scores, each individual school scored “Very High” or “High” in ELA and Math as well. It is also reflected in the progress that our English Learning students are making, scoring “High.”
On the other hand, our graduation rate for 2015, although scored as “High,” showed a slight decline from the previous year, from 94% to 92%.
For the first time in 2017, all of our graduates will have met the UC/CSU “A through G” requirements. Carlsbad Unified now has some of the most demanding high school graduation requirements in the state. For instance, every graduate will have completed three years of mathematics, including Algebra II/ Trigonometry. Implementing our demanding graduation requirements while maintaining a high graduation rate will be a continuing challenge as we move forward. But early indications are that our students are thriving and well-prepared for the college and careers in store for them.
An April 11 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune provides an overview of graduation statistics for the class of 2016, which will not be reflected on the dashboard until later this year.
Additionally, although our overall suspension rate was “Low” in 2015, it had increased slightly from the previous year. Carlsbad Unified’s behavioral standards are also high, so this will be another indicator that our district will watch carefully.
We will continue to provide these accountability measures in a transparent way so our community can see how we measure up against other schools across the state.
Thanks for your interest and support as we work hard to “provide every student an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment.”
