Three Fresno school districts rank among the Top 10 best reading scores in California
Three of the 10 best California schools for teaching reading are in Fresno County, according to a new report card from the California Reading Coalition.
Kingsburg Elementary Charter (No. 3), Clovis Unified (No. 4), and Firebaugh-Las Deltas Unified (No. 8) were in the state’s Top 10, the CRC report said.
Fresno Unified ranked No. 100 and Central Unified came in at No. 89.
The report card used data from the two most recent California Assessment of Students Performance and Progress cycles, including 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 data. There were no assessment tests for the 2020 school year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The report card data focused on socio-economically disadvantaged Latinx students who “meet or exceed” grade level for the CAASPP 3rd grade English Language Arts test. Low-income Latinx students make up 43% of California’s K-12 student population.
The report stressed the importance of using a sub-group to collect data to make a more accurate “apples to apples” comparison.
Reading is a fundamental skill all students must learn. Being at the proper reading level by third grade is crucial for students’ success. Third grade is when students are expected to stop learning how to read and progress into reading for learning.
However, over half of California students are not reading at grade level, according to the California Reading Coalition. The data shows the top-performing school districts come from a variety of backgrounds. Some school districts like Firebaugh-Las Deltas had a high number of low-income, high-need students compared to other districts.
The top-performing district was Bonita Unified in Los Angeles. The lowest-performing school districts include Ocean View in Ventura County.
Four of the bottom 10 performing districts are located in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, the heart of Silicon Valley, and eight are in Northern California.
Two have less than 40% high-need students; Palo Alto Unified has 17% high-need students, the lowest of any district in the rankings, but only 20% of students meet or exceed grade-level reading.
“The clear message is that it is not the students themselves, or the level of resources, that drive student reading achievement - the primary drivers are district focus on reading, management practices, and curriculum and instruction choices,” the report said. “The Top 30 Districts come in all types: urban, rural, and suburban, across 10 different counties, with high-need students levels ranging from 39% to 96%. Any district can succeed at teaching reading.”