Compton unified test scores is a national bright point in academic growth

The Unified Compton school district gains recognition of its success with students, who show a significant and long -term school improvement that exceeds growth in California and the nation.

An analysis of the recent standardized test score shows that Compton has proven to be a remarkable exception to the overall scores of mathematics and reading tests – even if its overall levels of skills of students have a lot of space to develop.

In recent years, Compton Unified teachers have carefully studied how students carry out tests and lessons targeted on weak points. The district – where almost all students come from low -income families – also brings a body of tutors that work on the classroom and offer aid on the point. And teacher training in mathematics and reading has been reinforced.

Compared to other districts with similar demographic data, Compton is part of a handful of districts that have managed to increase scores beyond the 2019 pre-pale levels, according to a project called The Education Recovery Scorecard-A Collaboration between researchers from Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth Universities.

Researchers from the recovery dashboard used test results from the national evaluation of educational progress, which is based on a relatively small sample of students of the fourth and eighth year, and determined a correlation with the programs state test who measured practically all third to eighth year students. This calculation allowed a comparison of 8,719 school districts in 43 states.

The reversal of Compton – which is also reflected in other analyzes – has rewritten the script for a school system which, for decades, made the headlines: a district bankruptcy, a state takeover , allegations of corruption, cheating scandals and a success of perpetually weak students.

Compton students get more than half a level better in mathematics than in 2019 and approach half a level in reading.

On the other hand, state and national scores show that the average student remains half a level behind the pre-pale results in reading and mathematics. In reading, in particular, students are even more late than in 2022, shows the new analysis.

“Compton’s test results increased rapidly before the pandemic and continued to increase,” said Sean F. Reardon, a professor of poverty and inequality in education at Stanford University.

In 2015, Compton students obtained two levels lower than the Californian average and 2.5 levels lower than the national average. Today, Reardon said that Compton has equaled the state average in mathematics and stands approximately a third of a school level below the average state in reading: “It is a model of Remarkable and sustained improvement in the past decade. “

Compton formula for academic gains

The Compton formula, which includes the preparation of students for standardized tests, is an approach considered controversial in certain quarters. A sur-Souci on the test test can reduce the study program and make the school less attractive and less academically and socially in the long term, according to some educators.

Compton administrators think they have found a reasonable balance. The district justifies a strategy centered on the test on the grounds that state tests are aligned with what students are supposed to learn. The Compton approach includes frequent diagnostic tests that are used to accustom students to the language language and also to adjust students’ education and celibacy for additional help – at school, after school or the SATURDAY.

Data analysis in Compton occurs at all levels. Teachers meet each week with their colleagues in their schools. Directors at each academic – elementary, intermediate and secondary level – meet every four to six weeks and the Surint. Darin Brawley.

Students are included in the analysis so that they know where they are.

“Looking at my data, that disappoints me in a way” when the figures are low, said Harmoni Knight, a sixth year student, a student at Davis Middle School. “But it makes me realize that I can do better in the future, and also now.”

Compton has also largely supported a form of tutoring that researchers considered the most effective – immediate help in person and in class. The district deploys more than 250 tutors daily through the school system of around 17,000 students.

The district also benefited from philanthropy and higher levels of state and federal aid – and seems to have effectively used these resources.

Compton received $ 9,064 per student from the emergency rescue program for federal elementary and secondary schools for pandemic recovery – one of California’s highest amounts, according to researchers.

In comparison, the Unified, the second largest school system in the country, also fell into this high funding category, receiving nearly $ 200 more per student than Compton. It has behaved much better from the pandemic than a number of other major school systems, but it has not followed the pace of the rate of improvement in component.

The researchers concluded that, across the country, more money made a positive difference, but that it helped certain school districts more than others.

Stable leadership

Stable leadership could also be a factor for Compton: Brawley joined the school system as a superintendent in 2012 after having directed school efforts at school as an assistant superintendent in Adelanto.

“When I arrived here,” said Brawley, “each surrounding district gave us a kick, whether it be Lynwood, Paramount, the unified, Bellflower – you call it. They surpass us all. So we started to literally mark their performance so that our performance becomes better.

The mathematics instructor at the Compton high school, Annie Belonio, who began teaching in Compton in 2002, said that at the start of her career, training and studies councils were “successful”.

“They would give a day of training at the start of the year and then give you the program and you are alone,” she said. But in the past decade or more, “we have started to have study advice with teachers of different levels. We meet, talk, planning things that should be included and how to deliver and how to assess. »»

The district targets the areas that the state measures – the results of reading and mathematics tests – but also graduation rates, preparation for college, chronic absenteeism and suspension rates.

“We wanted Compton Unified to become one of the best districts we could in the districts that we plan,” said Brawley. “And we have done that.”

Brawley’s presentation includes a list of school districts through the State with a poverty rate similar to 93% of Compton students who are eligible for a free school lunch or at a reduced price due to the low family income. Among these districts, Compton is a leader in global academic success, not just the improvement rate.

California’s own test data supports Brawley’s claims, while specifying that the challenges awaiting us. In Compton, for the third to the eighth year, 41.9% of students read at a competent level in the tests administered last spring. This is compared to 39.8% in the unified and 44.8% for the state.

In mathematics, the rate of component competence was 36.7%, compared to 34.6% for the unified and 36.9% for California.

“Even if we have won, and we celebrate the gains, at the end of the day, we all know that we can do better,” said Brawley.

Brawley said its current objectives include a 50% skill rate for mathematics and 60% for reading.

A glance inside the class

A recent Friday, the second -year instructor Nathalie Robles, taught in Compton High, the 11th year students on the exhibitors of her integrated mathematics class – and had several strategies to ensure that the students followed.

She has brought cards with student names – so that she calls everyone. She set a timer for certain mathematical problems – so all the students knew that they were challenged to pay attention and to move quickly. She called students to a whiteboard to explain how they resolved mathematical problems.

But it is difficult to know at the moment if the 28 students follow, even if she moved from table to table to help them.

For this class, she also had two table tutors at the table.

One of them, Joseph Flores, slipped to a student table to help a girl withdrawn. She hesitated on a problem involving the handling of the exhibitors.

“We take the exponent from the top less the bottom exhibitor, right?” explained Flores, who specialized in mathematics at Cal State after about a minute of coaching, the student was ready to finish the problem.

“We immediately strengthen what they learn,” said Flores. “We are able to really grasp all the types of concerns they might have, everything they could have missed, really making sure they receive all their questions there and before forgetting.”

“I see a drastic improvement among students from the start of the semester at the end of the school year.”

This approach is also based on research stressing the importance of making students teach a concept when it is taught for the first time – Because it is more difficult to catch up.

Delshanae Williams, a student of 11th year of Compton, recalled that in college, she had worked with mathematical tutors every day. Now she is in specialization mathematics.

His classmate Froylan Diaz said it was difficult to get back on the right track – academically and socially – when campuses reopened following the pandemic.

“The pandemic affected me in the way I did not understand the subject or mathematics as much as now, in person,” he said. “I felt that I was fighting more during the pandemic because it was not practical … Solving problems in person.”

The journalists of Associated Press Annie Ma, Jocelyn Gecker and Sharon Lurye contributed the reports and the analysis.