The California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) and the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) state test results were recently released. The results are troubling.
Statewide, only a little (and I mean very little) over 50% of students are proficient in English Language Arts (ELA) and just shy of 40% are proficient in Math. There are more than 6 million students enrolled in California schools. That means that only about 3 million of our students are actually learning. So at what point do we look at how they are taught and by whom?
What is going on here? Year after year we see the same thing. It does not get better. In fact, it has gotten worse. What are we missing? What are we not taking into consideration? What group of folks seems to always be missing from the education equation? Teachers. There is no accountability for the teachers.
Just for shits and giggles, let’s look at the teachers and how their students performed. If for no other reason than to prove me wrong and shut me up! Please, put up your scores teachers! Show us your evaluations! We need teacher accountability. Not every teacher would have an evaluation to post.
Would it shock you to know that some teachers are only evaluated every five years? I submit to you once again this year that we need to look at the one variable in education that we are not allowed to look at: teachers. We are prohibited from asking about the teachers. That needs to change. We know that there is such a thing as the belief gap, and we also know about the soft bigotry in education. We need to address tenure and teachers that perpetuate these detrimental attitudes in education that are clearly affecting our black and brown children with apparent impunity.
You can look at your child’s school or district by going on this website and entering your information: 2019 Test Results Search
Edsource has also developed a great tool for parents to use here: 2019 Test Results
If you look at this chart, you can see that Black and Latino children have the furthest to climb.
This is unacceptable.