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LAUSD test scores improve again, exceeding pre-pandemic performance. Here’s what parents should know
California students take the reading and math Smarter Balanced assessment in grades 3 through 8 and as high school juniors.
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Mariana Dale
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LAist
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The 2024-2025 California standardized test scores show students continue to make academic gains following the pandemic school shutdowns. While the Los Angeles Unified School District’s scores are slightly lower than the statewide average, they’ve improved more rapidly compared to before the pandemic.
California’s standardized tests
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California’s standardized tests
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- California students take the reading and math Smarter Balanced assessment in grades 3 through 8 and as a high school junior.
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- The science test occurs in grades 5 through 8 and once in high school.
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- You can view and compare the scores for the state and individual schools, counties and districts online.
In the last school year, here’s the percentage of LAUSD students that met or exceeded the standard for:
- English language arts: 46.5%
- Math: 36.8%
- Science: 27.3%
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the gains marked a “historic moment” for the district.
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“We have never seen the rate of improvement outpacing the state the way we're seeing,” Carvalho said in a press briefing Wednesday. “But we certainly have never been in a position where we caught up to a pre-pandemic level and exceeded it.”
The district’s scores show improvements at every grade level between this year and the prior year and when compared to before the pandemic.
Morgan Polikoff, a professor at the USC’s Rossier School of Education, said the data represents a “big accomplishment,” particularly because LAUSD enrolls high numbers of students that historically score lower on standardized tests, including English language learners and students with disabilities.
”The gap has been continuing to narrow almost every year,” Polikoff said of the district’s outcomes. “And that does seem to suggest sustained progress, that it's not a one-time aberration.”
Polikoff said one factor in the district’s success may be the stability brought by Superintendent Albert Carvalho’s leadership who joined the district in 2022. The LAUSD board recently voted unanimously to renew Carvalho’s contract for another four years.
”The district seems to be in particular more focused on quality teaching and learning and having a coherent strategy to improve teaching and learning,” Polikoff said.
Polikoff said a child’s individual test scores are one piece of data that parents can use to advocate for more support at the school, but that it’s not the “end all, be all.”
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“It's not something that you need to fixate on,” Polikoff said. “What you want is, you want a school where your child is cared for, where your child is learning, where your child, you know, feels safe.”
While scores have increased for a second consecutive year, fewer than half of students, both at LAUSD and across the state, still do not meet the standard for reading, math or science.
Education leaders locally and at the state level acknowledge there is more work to be done.
“Some growth is modest and some is profound, but in all cases the data reflects the impact of these investments and the hard work of educators to help students succeed,” said State Superintendent Tony Thurmond in a statement. “We aspire to achieve even greater student outcomes. We are working to secure additional investments to support comprehensive, long-term statewide strategies to further move the needle in student proficiency for years to come.”
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