State test highlights achievement gap among Monterey County public school student

While test scores improved overall in Monterey County this year, public school students still lag behind in California’s state exams.

Educators said some issues are particularly difficult to tackle.

“Obviously, poverty plays a great part in that, and we do have a large percentage of at-risk students, and we have the largest homeless rate in the county,” said Martha Martinez, Salinas City Elementary School District superintendent.

Challenges at home often affect students’ performance in school.

“The achievement gap are particularly for our English learners, students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and students with disabilities,” said Nancy Kotowski, Monterey County superintendent of schools.

The state has been giving the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress Tests or CAASPP for three years.

In 2017, students in those subgroups scored more than 30 percent below their peers in Monterey County.

Overall, 35 percent of county students met or exceeded the standards in English, compared with 49 percent statewide. And in math, 25 percent of students passed, compared with the state average of 38 percent.

Some parents said they were happy with the education, not so much the test.

“When they are still young, I don’t even know why they need to take a test for it. They should wait until they get to, like sixth grade. I think that will be better,” Salinas parent Renante Evangelista said.

Educators said they are not trying to turn kids into test-taking machines.

“The sooner we have information about the rigor and the standards we are requiring of our students, the best prepared we can be for providing staff development for our teachers,” Martinez said.