Berkeleyside published a story last month breaking down how BUSD’s test scores changed in the last year.
The results show that students in Berkeley fared better on state tests through the pandemic, compared with the rest of the state, and bounced back faster. Math scores took a dip during the pandemic, but have mostly recovered in the last year.
To help you dig deeper into the test scores, we’re also sharing an interactive graphic published by CalMatters reporters Erica Yee and Carolyn Jones that allows you to see changes in test scores at every school in the state, broken down by grade and student sub-groups.
Here are a few quick hits from our analysis of the scores.
Overall, 67% of Berkeley students met state standards in reading last year, a number that hasn’t budged throughout the pandemic. In math, 61% of students met state standards, up five percentage points from last year and on par with results in 2019.
A few wins to highlight: Asian students have improved substantially in reading and math. Last year, 70% of Asian students in Berkeley met standards in reading, up from 58% in 2019. Students with disabilities, though still lagging significantly behind their peers, also improved in reading: 28% of students with disabilities met state standards in reading, up from 25% last year.
Across the board, test scores for elementary school students improved, especially at Thousand Oaks and John Muir Elementary.
Not all student groups saw progress, however. Black students fell further behind in reading, with just 26% meeting state standards last year, down from 30% in 2022.
Berkeley High saw the biggest decline in reading scores. The number of low-income students at BHS who met state standards in reading plummeted from 50% to 34% in the last year.
White students haven’t made up a big drop in test scores during the pandemic. Last year, 77% of white students met state standards in math, up from 74% but still well below results in 2019. Test scores for Latino students and English learners remained flat.
Featured photo: Mary Patterson teaches at Longfellow Middle School. Credit: Kelly Sullivan
