All Manteca Unified comprehensive high schools along with Ripon High have effectively prepared more students for college and careers than the state average.
That is one snapshot derived from the California School Dashboard released Wednesday by the State Department of Education.
Statewide 44.1 percent of all high school freshmen through seniors based on state testing were deemed prepared to either go onto college or pursue a career. Lathrop High topped area high schools at 71.2 percent followed by Sierra High at 69.3 percent, Ripon High at 59.6 percent, Manteca High at 58 percent, East Union High at 55.2 percent, and Weston Ranch High at 48.9 percent.
All local high schools easily outpaced California as whole when it came to graduation rates. The statewide rate was 85.9 percent. Ripon and Sierra were tops locally with 97.9 percent graduation rates followed by East Union at 97.4 percent, Lathrop and Weston Ranch at 96.4 percent, and Manteca at 95.4 percent.
Ripon High had the highest suspension rate with 9.6 percent of the student body being suspended for at least one day. That compares to the statewide average of 3.9 percent. The highest suspension rates locally after Ripon High were Manteca at 9.4 percent, Weston Ranch 8.7 percent, East Union at 5.9 percent, Lathrop at 5.8 percent, and Sierra at 4.3 percent.
Given that math as well as English language art skills are now rated by socio-economic considerations as well as how robust a student’s command of English is, there is no way to effectively compare high schools to each other as the bars to clear are adjusted according to a school’s unique student make up. That said East Union showed improvement in both areas, Ripon and Lathrop held steady, Manteca declined in English Language Arts and improved in math, while Sierra and Weston Ranch declined in both areas.
Statewide 60.9 percent of all students are considered socio-economically disadvantaged. Weston Ranch exceeded the state benchmark with 70 percent disadvantaged. Following Weston Ranch was Manteca at 58 percent, Lathrop at 56.9 percent, East Union at 55.2 percent, Sierra at 45.8 percent, and Ripon at 32.9 percent.
Overall 19.3 percent of California students are English learners. Weston Ranch topped the local high schools at 16.9 percent followed by Manteca a 14.9 percent, Lathrop at 12.6 percent, East Union at 11.2 percent, Sierra at 9.3 percent and Ripon at 6.8 percent.
Some 0.5 percent of the 6,128,278 students enrolled in public schools statewide are foster youth. Manteca and Weston have 1.1 percent of their student body enrollments that are foster youth. Lathrop is at 0.3 percent while Easts Union, Sierra and Ripon are all at 0.1 percent.
An overall look
at the dashboard
“The California School Dashboard is a data-driven approach to provide the ‘whole picture’ of a school for educators and parents,” said State Superintendent Tony Thurmond. “The Dashboard empowers local communities to identify opportunities and resources to better serve their students, and provides parents and educators with meaningful information on school and district progress so they can participate in plans to improve student learning.”
The Dashboard shows that California public schools are making progress on four out of six statewide indicators: The statewide graduation rate increased 2.2 percentage points from 83.7 percent to 85.9 percent. The suspension rate fell slightly from 3.5 percent to 3.4 percent. The college/career readiness rate grew 1.8 percent — 44.1 percent of students are now deemed ready for college when they graduate from high school. Both math and English language arts (ELA) test scores are up: a 2.9 point increase in math and a 3.1 point increase in ELA. Because of steady progress, the number of school districts eligible for state assistance based on Dashboard indicators fell from 386 last year to 333. Thirty-two charter schools are also eligible for the first time for state support.
Achievement gaps are narrowing in several areas, although significant disparities remain. For example, African Americans showed the largest graduation rate gain among student groups with an increase of 6.2 percent for a total of 78.6 percent of students graduating. The foster youth graduation rate increased by 4.2 percent for a total of 64.2 percent. By comparison, the graduation rate for white students increased 1.3 percent during that same time period for a total of 89.1 percent. Students with disabilities made the greatest gains in math (6.6-point improvement) and English language arts (7.6 points).
The Dashboard also shows a troubling 1.1 percent rise in chronic absenteeism. Students in grades K–8 are considered chronically absent if they miss 10 percent or more of expected days of attendance. (School closures are not factored into chronic absenteeism, as those are not “expected days of attendance.”) Possible issues that may have contributed to the increase include rising homelessness, work stoppages, and natural disasters/weather, which affect health, housing and transportation. County offices of education will be working with districts to determine specific local causes.
The Dashboard launch marks the first time the state has released the Dashboard and DataQuest reports on graduation rates, suspension rates and chronic absenteeism rates simultaneously, reinforcing California’s move to a multiple measures accountability system. DataQuest provides summary and detailed data reports for multiple subject areas at the school, district, county, and state levels and allows for filtering of various elements (charter vs. non-charter, grade spans, program subgroup, etc.)
Also new this year, the Dashboard has been translated into three more languages — Vietnamese, Tagalog and Mandarin—in addition to Spanish and English. For more information and resources, visit the California Accountability Model & School Dashboard web page.
The Dashboard is a key component of California’s five-year overhaul of the state’s school accountability system. It displays statewide data based on current year data (how each school or district performed) and prior year data (how much they have improved or declined from one year to the next). School and district performance levels are indicated by color, with red the lowest and blue the highest. The Dashboard also breaks down information by student group (low-income, English learner, foster youth, etc.) to help pinpoint and address achievement gaps.
