Test scores show SLO County students have ‘a long way to go’ to recover from COVID loss

The latest state standardized test scores show San Luis Obispo County students are still struggling to recover from learning loss experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s a sense that some foundational skills weren’t learned as well during distance learning as we hoped,” said Erin Haley, assistant superintendent of educational services at the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District. “We’re focusing on a lot of interventions, but we know there’s a long way to go.”

Last week, the state released the latest scores from the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments — given to students in third through eighth grade and again in 11th grade.

This year’s scores across the state for the English-language arts and math assessments stayed relatively level compared to last year’s scores, according to the data.

However, students statewide are scoring far below what the data shows for 2019. That was the year before the assessments were canceled because schools were forced to switch to online learning as the COVID-19 pandemic erupted.

Test scores improve but remain down from pre-COVID results

In San Luis Obispo County, English-language arts test scores improved this year: 52.2% met or exceeded state standards compared to 51.3% in 2022.

However, 56.9% of students met or exceeded state standards on the English-language arts test in 2019, a drop of 4.7 points from pre-COVID results, according to the state’s data.

Statewide, 46.6% of students met or exceeded that standards for English-language arts this year.

That trend continued for the math scores.

This year, 39.5% of county students met or exceeded state standards for the test, up from 38.5% in 2022 but still down 6 points from 45.5% in 2019, the data shows.

That compares to 34.6% who met or exceeded the math standards statewide.

“We know that this is just one test and doesn’t show the full culture and learning environment of our schools,” said Lisa Yamashita, assistant superintendent of educational services at San Luis Coastal Unified School District. “But it helps show us where to focus more of our resources to ensure our students have what they need to learn successfully.”

SLO County testing success varies across grade levels

In SLO County, some grade levels saw better test results this year compared to others.

In English-language arts, third grades improved nearly 3 points to 48.8% meeting or exceeding state standards. Fifth-graders and 11th-graders also saw improved test scores for English-language arts, the state data show.

But fourth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders saw declines on their test scores, according to the state data. The biggest drop in the county was seen among sixth-graders, of which only 50% met or exceeded state standards on the English-language arts test, down from 52.1% in 2022.

On the math test, scores improved more generally across all grades.

The biggest improvement was seen among the county’s seventh-graders: 40.5% met or exceeded state standards on the math test, up from 37.3% in 2022.

Sixth-graders were the only grade, on average countywide, that saw declines on the math test. Their results fell to 39% meeting or exceeded state standards, down from 40.8% in 2022, according to the state data.

Low-income students continue to score low on state tests

Students classified as socioeconomically disadvantaged in San Luis Obispo County improved only slightly on the English-language arts assessment this year compared to 2022: 38.3% met or exceeded state standards, up from 38.1% in 2022. That’s still down from 41% meeting or exceeding state standards in 2019, according to the state data.

In math, socioeconomically disadvantaged students saw slight declines this year. According to the data, 25.4% met or exceeded state standards, down from 25.5% in 2022 and 29.7% in 2019, the data show.

Those considered not socioeconomically disadvantaged generally did much better on the state tests, according to the data.

In English-language arts test, 67.4% of those students met or exceeded expectations this year, up from 66% in 2022 but down from 70.4% in 2019.

On the math test, 55% met or exceeded expectations this year, up from 53% in 2022 and down from 59% in 2019, according to the state’s data.

Test data informs SLO County schools on where to focus interventions

School administrators across San Luis Obispo County districts say they’re using the state testing data to guide them where to focus efforts to help students learn the key skills required by the state.

For example, in the Paso Robles district, Haley noted they were focusing on English-language arts last year by adding literacy coaches to classrooms. This year, the district is putting more of a focus on math.

The district has also placed paraeducators in every classroom at schools where there’s a greater number of socioeconomically disadvantaged students, Haley said.

That’s a resource other school districts in the county have also invested in as they attempt to narrow the gap between low-income and wealthy students.

“Where there’s more need, we put more professionals,” Haley said. “We don’t want to do a blanket approach.”

Attendance remains a problem in SLO County

Meanwhile, chronic absenteeism, when a student misses 10% or more of school per year, is a prevalent issue across San Luis Obispo County schools.

It’s what some administrators are chalking up to be a major cause of the bad test scores compared to pre-COVID years.

“The more kids are in school, the more they are learning,” said Lucia Mar’s Dixon. “Being at school is vitally important to ensuring they’re getting the class time they need to really learn.”

Yamashita said San Luis Coastal is attempting to tackle this problem by removing barriers to attending school such as transportation, parent education and childcare — a similar approach taken by other schools in the county.

Much of the one-time money schools received during the COVID-19 pandemic from the state and federal government has long been used up, or has a quickly approaching deadline for when it must all be spent. Those funds were largely used for the learning loss intervention efforts such as hiring paraeducators and counselors.

However, school districts in the county are hoping they can keep those resources in place by integrating them into their general funds.

Otherwise, some school districts are finding it helpful that they have seen an increase in the number of so-called “unduplicated” students — those who are English-language learners, who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches or who are foster youth.

They are called “unduplicated” because they are counted as only one student even if they qualify for more than one of the extra funding criteria.

More unduplicated students translates into more money from the state to help those students succeed.

“There’s a lot of work to do, and a lot of work that we are doing,” Haley said. “We’re really excited about the next few years and hope to see those scores improve.”