Higley students' test scores beat state averages

Sep. 5—When it comes to math, English and science skills, Higley Unified School District students on average are more proficient than their peers in the state.

And students in grades third, fourth, sixth and eighth in 2022-23 showed improvement in Arizona's Academic Standards Assessment, or AASA, in English compared to the previous school year. The exceptions were fifth and seventh graders.

"In both of those grades the state also saw decline in proficiency so we pretty much mirror the state in terms of our performance," Marcus Berkshire, director of assessment and student information, told the HUSD Governing Board Aug. 23.

"But you can see consistently our schools outperformed the state average."

In the math portion of the AASA, only grade 6 dropped its score from the prior year.

HUSD "outperformed the state pretty consistently across the board again increases in proficiency in all grade levels except for sixth grade," Berkshire added.

"Again, we mirrored what happened at the state level in terms of those increases and decreases."

HUSD's test scores in AASA for both English and math were generally lower the district's pre-COVID-19 results.

HUSD also outperformed the state average in the ACT Aspire tests of proficiency in English, reading, science and math given to all ninth graders.

Those results show how ready they are to reach the benchmark on the ACT tests in their junior year, according to Berkshire.

"Basically, what you are seeing here is 62% of our kids are predicted at benchmark," he said. "These are good numbers looking forward to these kids as 11th graders."

This year's ACT average scores for HUSD 11th graders also were higher than the state's averages.

However, in three subject areas with benchmarks, HUSD fell short in math, science and reading but surpassed in English.

Berkshire said that the cut scores for proficiency are lower than the benchmark scores that ACT puts out "because not all our kids are going to college."

According to ACT, benchmarks are scores on subject-area tests that represent the level of achievement required for students to have a 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher — or about a 75% chance of obtaining a C or higher — in corresponding courses in their freshman year in college.

"So, we are very close in most of those subject areas, including English, where we are above that benchmark level," Berkshire said, calling that "truly a testament to our students and our staff."

He added that three students this year earned perfect scores of 36.

The state calculates the scores from ACT and three other standardized tests to determine its annual A-F letter grades for individual schools. The grades are expected to be released no later than Nov. 1.

HUSD also did well in the state's AZSCI test, given to fifth, eighth and 11th graders.

"Here again we are consistently above the state's," Berkshire said.

HUSD also shined when it came to its graduation rate of 96% in 2022, said Berkshire, citing the Arizona Auditor General.

"That puts us as the highest graduation rate of any district in Maricopa County," he said.

He said only three districts, all smaller than Higley Unified, boasted higher graduation rates. They are Hayden-Winkelman Unified in Gila County, Duncan Unified in Greenlee County and Thatcher Unified in Graham County

Berkshire said HUSD's dropout rate of 1% also was "huge" compared with the state's average of 5%.

"These numbers are amazing, they are so good," Board President Tiffany Shultz said. "It's a testament to our teachers and our students. I'm super excited to see these numbers."

Board member Anna Van Hoek said although HUSD's scores were higher than the state's, for her they didn't match with the graduation rate.

She questioned the seeming disparity between graduation and proficiency rates.

"Our numbers are higher but at 60%, if you equated that to a grade, it's still a 'D,'" she said. "So how is our graduation rate so high when we are only at 60% in those areas?

"Is everything kind of watered down to push these kids through to increase our graduation rates?"

Berkshire said that state tests are "very rigorous."

"It is very hard to equate a standardized test a child takes one time a year to a collection of evidence that goes into a student's grade," he explained.

"There are a lot of factors that could impact besides the rigor of the test on that student's one day of taking the class. They could have had a cold, been sniffing the entire time, headache and just weren't able to engage in the test like we know they could.

"They could have gotten off the bus that morning tripped and fell, lots of different things that could have happened to impact their scores on that test," he continued, adding:

"What the state test results do is give us a snapshot of where our kids are. They allow us at a district level to look at trends and identify maybe we have some gaps in our curriculum and in our instruction that we could address.

Board member Amanda Wade, a former teacher, agreed that standardized tests put pressure on students.

"The kids feel the weight of it," she said. "There is a weight of stress."

She said it's often hard to persuade students that the state tests are just like any other they take in school.

"I think it's important to keep in mind when we look at these tests and why there is such a big difference is because of the nature of standardized tests," Wade said.

"All of us in education, who are not profiting off of these tests, recognize that these tests are not a measure of intelligence or capabilities, which is why our graduation rate tends to be what it is in comparison with these numbers."