McSwain, Snelling report highest test scores in Merced County

Recently released state scores reveal large gaps in student performance among school districts in Merced County.

Schools in the Snelling, McSwain, Ballico-Cressey and Plainsburg districts reported the best scores in English and math in Common Core standards testing. Dos Palos, Gustine and Le Grand school districts received the lowest scores of the county in both areas.

The Common Core standards and the coinciding Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments are a big change from what students are used to seeing. Instead of multiple choice paper tests, students tested electronically with short-answer responses. And, they had to justify each of their answers with a written explanation.

Students were tested in the spring.

According to the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, more than 80 percent of students in the county did not meet the standards in math, faring worse than students statewide. Merced County students performed better in English and language arts, though 68 percent still did not meet the standard.

But as Merced County’s Office of Education superintendent, Steven Gomes, says in a Sun-Star op-ed published Saturday, educators did not anticipate students would perform well. This is the first year the scores for this kind of test were reported, and the state is not holding districts accountable for them.

Most district superintendents said they did not know what to expect from the scores, but Laurie Havel, principal at McSwain Union Elementary School District, said she was pleasantly surprised.

At McSwain schools, 55 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in English and language arts. Plainsburg, Ballico-Cressey and Snelling closely followed.

In Dos Palos, 82 percent of students did not meet the English and language arts standard. Schools in Planada, Gustine and Le Grand also struggled.

Brian Walker, superintendent at Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified, could not be reached for comment Friday.

The test seemed most challenging for third graders – the youngest to take the assessment – because they struggled with typing their short-answer responses, Havel said. This year, McSwain students will learn typing and keyboard skills as early as second grade.

Overall, students struggled more with the math portion of the test. Statewide, only about one-third of students met the standard. In Merced County, that number fell to 19 percent.

RoseMary Parga Duran, superintendent at Merced City School District, said English learners who took the test were at a disadvantage. “The math test is not just finding the answer, it’s critical thinking and analysis of word problems,” she said in a recent interview.

Nearly 30 percent of students in Merced County speak English as their second language. More than 90 percent of those students didn’t meet the standard in math, according to test results.

Snelling scored the highest in math, with 37 percent of students meeting or exceeding the standard, surpassing the state average. About 40 percent of Snelling’s students are English learners, said Alison Kahl, the district’s principal. More than 50 percent of Snelling’s English learners nearly met the standard in math.

Teachers and staff in Snelling do not view the number of English learners in the school as a hurdle, Kahl said. “We try our best for small grouplike instruction so we can meet individual needs,” she said. “We don’t ever look at them as subgroups. When they’re all on campus, we don’t really think about that.”

Kahl said having a small school and district likely was an advantage for Snelling. The district did not cut staff and programs in recent years, as did many other districts. She also believes having most students attend summer school, regardless of performance level, helps boost achievement.

In his op-ed, Gomes highlights issues such as the differences in the new test and lower funding for schools in previous years. Funding is essential when it comes to meeting the standards, he said, so districts can provide training for teachers and necessary technology.

“I want parents and the public to understand the challenge with which the county’s educators are tasked,” Gomes said.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "McSwain, Snelling report highest test scores in Merced County."