BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress released the English language arts, literacy and mathematics test results for the 2018 to 2019 school year.
In California, 50 percent of students statewide met or exceeded the standards for English language arts literacy and scored 40 percent for mathematics.
In Kern County, 43 percent of students met or exceeded the standard for ELA and only 28 percent met or exceeded for mathematics.
Despite the lower numbers, Heather Richter, administrator of continuous improvement and support for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools says they are remaining hopeful.
"Since 2015 we have seen that our county has grown 10.2 percent in closing the achievement gap compared to the state of California who is actually only had 6.9 percent growth in ELA," said Richter. "We are also closing the achievement gap faster than the state of California mathematics they only grow 5.7 percent and Kern County grew 6.8 percent."
Richter, says they believe that Kern County will meet the state standards pace in two years in English language arts and four years with mathematics.
Richter says that another contributing factor of the lower test scores is that currently, 75 percent of students are living in poverty in Kern County which can affect their performance
"We know that living in poverty presents its own challenges and those students don’t have access to literacy within the home," Richter said. "Now districts are implementing parent education centers to try and support those families."
Richter tells 23ABC that they are offering tools to parents such as parents resource centers that provide English language classes, help with technology and how to communicate with teachers.
Also, nine school districts are participating in a pilot program for teachers to track students' progress.
"Our Kern Integrated Data System called K.I.D.S and all 47 districts within the Kern pledge have agreed to share data and be able to look our students and see where districts are doing well and exceeding and being able to replicate those," Richter said.
To see how your schools' district scored compared to the rest of the state follow this link.
