By Haddon Libby
Last week, we reviewed high school rankings across the Coachella Valley as determined by US News and World Report. Palm Desert High School (HS) and Palm Springs HS ranked as the 14th and 15th best in Riverside County. What made Palm Springs HS ranking so impressive was that 97% of its students are economically disadvantaged. The greatest concern across all schools was the low percentages of students proficient at math and science. Roughly three in four students are not proficient at the basics. With such poor preparedness, do our schools need to approach learning in a new way? Should we not have schools that are for college preparedness and others for entering the workforce? Offering the same education to everyone means we are underserving everyone.
How are our middle schools? These are students in 6th through 8th grade.
For Riverside County, Riverside Stem Academy with 650 students performed better than 99.6% of the 2,319 middle schools in the state. Proficiency in math was 90% with 94% in reading. Minority enrollment makes up 73% of students with 40% Hispanic, 23% Asian and 10% biracial or African American. 44% of students are from economically disadvantaged families. Economically disadvantaged means living at or below poverty level.
For comparison, 47% of middle schoolers across the state are proficient readers with 39% proficient at math.
Across the Palm Springs Unified School District (USD), 40% of middle schoolers (grades 6-8) were proficient at reading with even fewer (23%) proficient at math. For comparison, elementary schools in the district were 43% proficient at reading and 36% at math. By the time students get to high school, half of students are proficient readers while only 17% are proficient at math.
Cielo Vista Charter of the Palm Springs USD was the top ranked Charter middle school in the Coachella Valley. It ranked in the 21st percentile. This means that just one in five middle schools had better results. With 870 students, two-thirds of students were good readers with half proficient at math. What makes these results impressive is that 94% of students come from economically disadvantaged families.
In the Desert Sands USD, proficiency at reading is 43% with 27% at math. The drop-off from elementary school is significant as half are proficient readers and 45% at math. By the time students get to high school, reading proficiency has improved to 47% yet scores in math has dropped to 18%.
Palm Desert Charter Middle School received top ranking in the 21st percentile (19 schools behind Cielo Vista) when compared to middle schools across the state. Two-thirds were proficient readers with 46% proficient at math. 80% of students have a minority background with half of all students coming from economically disadvantaged families.
For the successes of some local middle schools when compared to the rest of the state, fewer than half our Coachella Valley students lack basic proficiencies.
The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) reports that scores in reading and math have been declining nationally since COVID. Lower scores are more pronounced amongst students from economically disadvantaged students.
In a survey of middle school students nationally, just 14% read almost every day for fun. Ten years ago, 27% read for fun.
Half of the students scoring in the top 25% reading proficiency would read for fun most days. Conversely, those in the bottom quartile would only read for fun a few times a year or never.
When it comes to math, students are falling behind. Ten years ago, 28% of middle schoolers were taking regular math, 29% pre-algebra and 34% algebra. As of the end of the last school year, 42% took regular math, 22% pre-algebra and 24% algebra. Not surprisingly, 44% of students in the top quartile and 10% of the bottom quartile were taking algebra.
Is the problem with our teaching methods, student engagement, parental involvement or, economic challenges? It is probably all four and more.
Haddon Libby is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Winslow Drake Investment Management. For more information on our services, please visit www.WinslowDrake.com.
