Though Mountain View Whisman students performed slightly better overall on English and math standardized tests last school year, scores remained below pre-pandemic levels and long-standing achievement gaps among student groups persisted.
This spring, 62.98% of Mountain View Whisman students scored advanced or proficient on the English language arts exam, a 0.84 percentage point increase compared to the year prior. For math, 58.28% of Mountain View Whisman students scored advanced or proficient, a 0.2 point increase.
While the year-over-year numbers remained roughly steady, the district continues to fall short of its pre-pandemic scores. The share of students who were proficient or advanced in English was 8.02 percentage points lower than it was pre-pandemic. In math, it was 5.38 points lower.Â
Additionally, the data continues to show significantly lower scores for Latino and socioeconomically disadvantaged students, compared to their peers. That’s something the district has been working to address for several years, said Cyndee Nguyen, the district’s director of curriculum, instruction and assessment.
While these achievement gaps have been longstanding, they have widened substantially since 2019, as the impacts of pandemic-era schooling impacted some student groups more severely than others.
Just 21.75% of Latino students scored proficient or advanced on the math exam this spring, compared to 79.5% of white students, 89.05% of Asian students and 83.15% of multiracial students.
The district has seen a sharp decline in Latino students’ math performance since the pandemic hit, with the share of students scoring proficient or advanced dropping 14.58 points since 2019. In contrast, there has been a 4.49 point decline among white students, a 0.21 point increase among Asian students and a 0.82 point decline among students of two or more races.
When it comes to English, the drop in performance among Latino students has been more pronounced, with a 19.38 point decrease in the share of students scoring proficient or advanced, compared to a 4.41 point drop for white students, a 0.12 point increase for Asian students and a 0.48 point increase for multiracial students.
This year, 30% of Latino students scored proficient or advanced on the English test, versus 89.87% of Asian students, 82.77% of white students and 85.32% of multiracial students.
“We are not making the gains that we would want and hope to make,” Nguyen said. “It just confirms for us the need to strengthen our first-instruction for student groups and to continue to provide targeted interventions and support for students that need it.”
Latino, white, Asian and multiracial students make up more than 95% of the district’s population. Though the state reports test results for any group with more than 10 students, the data for smaller groups is much more volatile over time.
There are also large discrepancies in Mountain View Whisman students’ performance based on socioeconomic status.
Only 27.8% of socioeconomically disadvantaged students scored proficient or advanced on the English exam this spring, compared to 78.94% of non-socioeconomically disadvantaged students. For math, 20.58% of socioeconomically disadvantaged students were proficient or advanced, compared to 75.82% of non-socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
The share of socioeconomically disadvantaged students who scored proficient or advanced in English is 15.74 percentage points lower than it was before the pandemic, compared to a 7.33 point decline for non-socioeconomically disadvantaged students. In math, there has been an 11.2 point decrease for socioeconomically disadvantaged students, compared to a 5.94 point decline for non-socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
Roughly one-third of Mountain View Whisman students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, a classification the state determines based on a student’s family income, whether or not their parents graduated high school, their migration status and whether they are a foster youth.Â
Comparing Mountain View Whisman results to the county and state
Mountain View Whisman students continue to outperform their peers across the county and state, with 62.98% of district students scoring advanced or proficient in English, compared to 59.82% across Santa Clara County and 48.82% statewide. In math, 58.28% of Mountain View Whisman students scored advanced or proficient, compared to 53.15% of Santa Clara County students and 37.3% statewide.
The district has seen a sharper drop in its English scores since the pandemic than the county and state – and it’s recovering slower. Mountain View Whisman remains 8.02 percentage points behind where it was before the pandemic, whereas the state is now just 2.43 points down, and the county is 3.44 points down.
When it comes to math, the district has also seen slower progress coming out of the pandemic than the county and state. Mountain View Whisman is 5.38 percentage points lower than it was in 2019, while the state is 2.43 points lower, and the county is 3.41 points down.
Nguyen emphasized that the state’s standardized test score data is simply a snapshot of a student’s performance on one specific day.
