Students in Los Angeles Unified would have one of the longest school years among urban districts if a trustee's proposal is approved. Credit: LAUSD, Selma Avenue Elementary School

Students in Los Angeles Unified improved in reading and math on a national assessment of urban districts. Credit: LAUSD, Selma Avenue Elementary School

Three of California'south largest school districts showed gains on a national assessment of urban districts that also singled out Los Angeles and Fresno Unified for special recognition from U.S. Secretarial assistant of Education Arne Duncan.

50.A., Fresno and San Diego Unified were amongst 21 districts across the country that participated in the Trial Urban District Assessment, known every bit TUDA, which is based on scores from the National Cess of Educational Progress, a test often referred to equally the nation'due south written report carte du jour. No other California districts participated.

Los Angeles had been steadily but slowly progressing since information technology joined the voluntary urban district testing program in 2003, but scores rose significantly this yr over 2011, when the exam was last administered. Only Washington, D.C., showed greater improvement.

Gains beat nation

Across the three districts, students made larger gains than the national average and bested the country in nearly every category.

In a statement, Secretary Duncan cited Los Angeles and Fresno Unified among iii TUDA districts – D.C. Public Schools is the other – "that pressed ahead of ambitious reforms" and "made notable progress since 2011."

In Los Angeles, quaternary and eighth grade students additional their average reading scores by 4 points each. In math, while eighth graders showed no statistically significant increases, fourth graders gained five points overall in improvements that crossed racial, ethnic and income levels. Hispanic fourth class students went up by 4 points, while African-American students showed an 8-bespeak jump in two years.

The results caught LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy off guard.

"I don't commonly become extremely pleased, simply I am extremely pleased, it'southward really quite something," Deasy said. "I retrieve the reforms that nosotros're doing in Los Angeles are clearly paying off."

The district has implemented programs targeted at improving algebra teaching in middle and high schools and providing actress support for African-American, Latino and low-income students. The district has likewise stepped upward professional person evolution for teachers and staff.

Other successful changes in Los Angeles focus on student wellness and well-being. Fourth form instructor Shannon Garrison credited the district's breakfast in the classroom programme with giving all students, just especially those living in poverty, the nourishment they demand to focus in grade.

"I can run across a huge difference for some of my students who possibly don't eat well in the morning, or possibly only accept a couple of meals a solar day, only every bit far as their attention, their ability to engage in work," Garrison said. "They're not worried virtually being hungry."

Source: 2022 Trial Urban District Assessments, National Center for Education Statistics

Source: 2022 Trial Urban District Assessments, National Heart for Pedagogy Statistics

She is 1 of the three classroom teachers on the governing board that sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, which is given to a representative sample of fourth, eighth and 12th grade students. In the nigh recent NAEP results, released terminal month, California was well below the national average for all grades and areas except for eighth class reading, which rose by 8 points, the largest proceeds in the country.

'Good twenty-four hours' in Fresno

TUDA results are taken from the NAEP scores; no additional testing is involved. Participation is voluntary, but districts do have to run across certain eligibility criteria. At least half of district students must be ethnic or racial minorities and half must exist eligible for gratis and reduced-toll lunch. Districts must also exist located in cities with a population of 250,000 or more than and have a minimum of about 1,500 students in fourth and eighth grade math and reading classes.

The purpose of pulling out NAEP information for large urban schools districts is to demonstrate that these districts are "committed to the highest bookish standards," said Mike Casserly, executive director of the Quango of the Great City Schools, which partners with the U.S. Section of Education on TUDA. Casserly, who pressed for the plan, also said in that location's greater benefit for districts to assess their progress and reform efforts through comparisons with districts that share their demographics and challenges.

"Information technology's for me, the first time that I've been really glad I put us in TUDA," said Fresno Unified Superintendent Mike Hanson, whose district started participating in the 11-year-old plan in 2009. "I would call information technology a good 24-hour interval," he added.

Fresno'south eighth grade students gained 7 points in reading, the 2nd highest among TUDA districts, and four points in eighth form math, which Hanson attributes, in part, to the pre-advanced placement work nether mode in the commune to increase the number of students taking the higher level course when they become to loftier school.

He as well feels somewhat vindicated about Fresno existence on the right track following its two-point drop on the Academic Performance Index this twelvemonth, the first driblet in years, mirroring the statewide decline on the alphabetize that tracks student scores on standardized tests. If the district had fallen on TUDA as well, that would accept signaled a big problem, said Hanson, who views TUDA as a improve indicator than the API of how well the district is doing.

Dissimilar the statewide data from the regular NAEP exam, with TUDA Hanson can tell whether district reforms are working and can identify and contact other urban districts around the land to exchange ideas.

Racial gaps remain

TUDA also shines a spotlight on areas that demand improvement and this year, as with most others, despite the increases in scores amid racial and indigenous minority students and poor children, the gap in exam scores along racial lines shows nearly no motion.

In Fresno, for case, white 8th graders scored more than than 20 points higher on boilerplate than blackness and Hispanic students in math. The comparable divergence in L.A. Unified was 40 points. The gap with San Diego's depression-income students widened in some areas, although going into the assessment, San Diego's scores were already higher than those in Los Angeles and Fresno.

"Certainly there is disappointment that we had not done more to close those achievement gaps," said Ron Rode, San Diego Unified's executive director of accountability.

Rode said the new superintendent, Cindy Marten, is doubling down efforts to improve teaching and learning through half-twenty-four hours site visits to schools with an instructional team.

San Diego students overall improved their scores between i and four points in all grades and subjects with the exception of eighth grade math, where results dropped past a bespeak. All the same, the district is however above Fresno, Los Angles and the state in proficiency rates.

TUDA has an interactive website that allows people to plug in different grades, subject and students groups and to show comparisons between districts and states, other TUDA districts and the country.

Overall, California's participating districts did well, Casserly said. California would non have shown the increase in reading on the regular NAEP exam with the districts' improvements, he said.

"The results give us conviction that urban education can and is being improved beyond the country," Casserly said.

Contact senior reporter Kathryn Baron and follow her @Tcherspet.Sign up here for a no-toll online subscription to EdSource Today for reports from the largest teaching reporting team in California.

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