San Joaquin County students make progress in reading scores

Public school students continued to make steady progress in reading by grade level while chronic absenteeism remained relatively stable in the 2019 San Joaquin Literacy Report Card, released today by University of the Pacific’s Beyond Our Gates program.

Beyond Our Gates has tracked the results of reading by grade level, truancy or chronic absenteeism and other educational metrics in the county since the annual report card debuted in 2012.

“Key determinants for predicting long-term educational success are reading and mathematics by grade level and chronic absenteeism,” said Mike Klocke, community relations director at Pacific. “We are heartened to see improvement and praise educators, parents and the students themselves for this consistent growth. While the county lags behind the state, the improvement is clear.”

There are three changes to this year’s report card: results for all public schools are listed (data was by school districts in the past), mathematics is now included and the format has been shifted from print to online.

The state’s California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) for the 2018–19 school year tracks whether students exceed, meet, nearly meet or do not meet achievement levels for their grade in reading and mathematics. Some key findings:

• The grade-level reading by third grade metric for San Joaquin County as a whole improved almost 2 percentage points (40.8% compared to 39.1% last year). There has been a 6 percentage point improvement (from 34.5%) since 2017.
• Reading (English Language Arts/Literacy or ELA) for all tested grades in San Joaquin County showed 43.2% of the students either exceeding or meeting standards.
• For mathematics, the results showed 30.9% of San Joaquin County students in tested grades exceeding or meeting standards. The state average is 39.7%.

Students are chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of school days for any reason, including unexcused or excused absences or suspension. San Joaquin County improved to 14.2% from 14.5% of students chronically absent and the state regressed to 12% from 11.1%. The San Joaquin Literacy Report Card also lists chronic absenteeism data by school district.

For more information about the report card, contact Mike Klocke, Pacific’s community relations director: mklocke@pacific.edu or 209.946.3134.