Source: LA School Report
A state task force newly assigned to narrowing California’s achievement gap got further proof of the challenges ahead with this month’s first-ever release of the California Science Test scores, showing that less than 1 in 5 low-income black and Latino students met or exceeded the standards.
The results released by the California Department of Education show that, across all grades statewide, 9.94 percent of disadvantaged black students and 15.64 percent of disadvantaged Latino students met or exceeded the science standards on the inaugural test known as CAST, compared to 44 percent of non-disadvantaged white students and nearly 60 percent of Asian students.
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“The results confirm the trends we continue to see in other assessment data — that our education systems are failing to support African American, Latinx, English learners, and low-income students to meet California’s Science standards,” Christopher J. Nellum, deputy director of Education Trust–West, said in an email statement Feb. 6, the day the scores were released. “These CAST results do not reflect the promise we must uphold to accelerate academic progress for all students, especially students of color and low-income students.”