What are Inland Empire school districts doing about falling state test scores?

It’s something educators and critics alike feared since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and this past week, data confirmed it: The pandemic era set California’s — and the nation’s — students back.

“COVID was hard on everybody. Kids are frustrated, and there was some learning loss,” said Hemet Unified school board Vice President Stacy Bailey. “But kids are thrilled to be back in a school, not behind the computer.”

On Monday, Oct. 24, the California Department of Education released the results from the 2021-22 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), which tests students’ English language arts (ELA) and mathematics proficiency.

In Los Angeles County, 47.2% of students taking the CAASPP tests met or exceeded academic standards in ELA , along with 32.7% of students meeting or exceeding the standards in math.

“Collectively, as educators, we felt there would be a dip in scores,” said Darren Knowles, interim superintendent for Pomona Unified.

In Riverside County, 42.1% of students taking the tests met or exceeded academic standards in ELA, along with 26.1% of students meeting or exceeding the standards in math.

“Any test scores for this year still reflect COVID,” Bailey said. And all districts, including Hemet Unified, are “playing catch up.”

And in San Bernardino County, 39.9% of students taking the tests met or exceeded academic standards in ELA , along with 24.5% of students meeting or exceeding the standards in math.

“It is not surprising that the challenges of COVID-19, including distance learning, chronic absenteeism, social-emotional wellness and other disruptions such as staffing shortages, impeded student progress,” Jenny Owen, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, wrote in an email.

CAASPP results were released the same day as results for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly referred to as The Nation’s Report Card, were released, with similarly dismal results.

Last spring was the first time in two years that the CAASPP test was given to all California students in grades three through eight and 11. The tests were canceled in spring 2020 and were optional in 2021.

As a result, educators cautioned against doing direct comparisons between the 2019 and 2022 results, and said the 2022 results should be considered a new baseline for the future.

“For many students, particularly those in the elementary grades, these results represent the first time ever taking a standardized test and for middle and high school students, the last time they took a summative assessment (of the rigor of CAASPP) was in the spring of 2019; more than three years ago,” Riverside Unified spokesperson Diana Meza wrote in an email. “It is important to remember that tests are only one measure, at one point in time, of student achievement.”

But years before the CAASPP results were released — which school districts got to see before the public did — educators were attempting to address the academic damage caused by the pandemic.

“We know that the pandemic has had a negative impact on our students – academically, socially, and emotionally,” said Jurupa Unified Assistant Superintendent Dave Doubravsky. “Even before state testing data became available, Jurupa Unified began putting resources in place to address learning gaps and support student success now and into the future.”

The district is creating community school programs at six schools, along with free online tutoring for sixth through 12th graders, hiring literacy and math support teachers who work with smaller student groups and reducing class sizes and combination classes in elementary schools.

It’s a similar story elsewhere in the Inland Empire.

“When the kids started coming back, and we started seeing these effects, we had the staff in place,” said Lilia Fuentes, Pomona Unified’s deputy superintendent for educational services. Among other steps the district is doing to catch students up is tutoring, available to every student in the district.

“Small groups really benefit students who are really behind,” Fuentes said. “Tutoring was everywhere. Whether it was distance or in-person.”

Similarly, Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified provides 24-hour access to online tutoring, as well as tutoring after school and a new summer school program started during the pandemic.

“The additional (pandemic-related) funding we’ve received since distance learning has enabled to provide a lot of extra supports in both math and ELA both during and after school,” said Lance Bradley, spokesman for Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District.

San Bernardino City Unified “is using numerous strategies to help students get back on track academically, including delivering targeted instruction through school learning labs, tutoring through expanded learning opportunities before and after school, and double blocks of instruction at the high school level,” spokeswoman Maria Garcia wrote in an email.

Other districts expanded their focus to include supporting students’ needs beyond just academics.

Mental and social-emotional health became an area of focus for many school districts, after reports of rising suicides among youth in 2020, with growing concerns about students being isolated while in distance learning.

Moreno Valley Unified Superintendent Martinrex Kedziora said his district hired a new director of wellness and mental health outreach, as well as 10 new social workers. More mental health therapists and full-time counselors have been placed at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

“There’s a lot of anxiety among our children, more conflicts,” Kedziora said. “Teachers feel a lot more pressure because students have social-emotional needs that are more present. So, we’re using every opportunity to make sure that we can help students be better.”

And, even more fundamentally, Hemet Unified is focused on “improving student literacy and chronic absenteeism,” which “go hand in hand,” Bailey said, because if students “don’t show up to school, they don’t learn how to read better.”

Information on how individual districts performed on CAASPP can be found online at caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp.

Staff writer Brian Whitehead contributed to this story.