Ceres Unified School District schools are struggling according to the California Department of Education’s Dashboard website, which shows schools’ achievement ratings in several key categories, and develop a plan of action to address those results.
The California School Dashboard (Dashboard) is an online tool that shows how local educational agencies and schools are performing on the state and local indicators included in California’s school accountability system. The Dashboard is a key part of major shifts in California K-12 schools, changes that have raised the bar for student learning, transformed testing and placed the focus on equity for all students. The Dashboard provides information that schools can use to improve.
Amy Peterman, assistant superintendent of the Ceres Unified School District, said that the new accountability system is not only based on the current scores but on whether or not there is improvement from the prior year.
“While we’re certainly not where we want to be as a district or even at each individual school, we are making a lot of forward progress in many different areas,” said Peterman.
The Dashboard site displays statewide data based on status (how each school or district performed) and change (how much they have improved since the last year), with performance levels indicated by color ranging from red as the lowest and blue as the highest.
A snapshot of the dashboard shows that Ceres schools suffer from chronic absenteeism, are average in suspension and graduation rates, English Language arts and math. The one bright spot was the district seems to be doing well in college/career preparation by rating in the green.
“As a district the chronic absenteeism data is probably our biggest area of focus,” said Peterman. “We went backwards from last year. We had a higher rate of absenteeism than we had the previous year and it’s too high to begin with.”
Peterman said the district needs to do a better job of convincing parents that attendance is important and is a factor in success in school.
“One of the things we discovered recently is that our kindergarten absenteeism rate is very high. It’s the highest of any grade level in the district. What we can do from a district perspective is help families understand that what happens in kindergarten is extremely important and it’s the foundation for their learning moving forward. The state doesn’t help because kindergarten is technically not mandated so the state sends this message that if it’s not mandated it must not be important. And yet there’s a lot that happens in kindergarten with literacy and helping students understand numbers, kids learning to get along and be social so they’re ready to go onto the first grade.”
She said in the academic realm, the district is moving forward.
Lucas Elementary did very well in English Arts and La Rosa is a “standout school” on the Dashboard, said Peterman.
“A lot of our schools had good growth. That’s what we’re really focused on – getting better every year.”
The Dashboard reports that of the 13,695 students in CUSD Schools, 85.9 percent are classified as being from socioeconomically disadvantaged households, and 29.3 percent as English learners.
Overall, CUSD reported a chronic absenteeism rate of 9 percent, which was up by 0.6 percent over the prior year. The graduation rate for the district was 85.6 percent, slightly down by 0.5 percent, but better than the statewide average of 83.5 percent. The districtwide rate at which students had been suspended from school at least once was 7.4 percent, which was a decline of 3.3 percent from the year before.
Across the district, Ceres schools fell in the “yellow” band of English Language Arts, falling 25.4 percent below standard but increasing by 6.3 percent. In math, it was also yellow with CUSD at 67.5 points below the state standard (but improving by 4.4 percent).
CUSD is doing a better job at preparing students for college and a career, the Dashboard revealed. The report said 53.5 percent are prepared, an increase of 17.5 percent.
New to the Dashboard site this year was the chronic absenteeism metric, which counts the percent of the schools’ students who missed at least 10 percent of the school year.
To view each school’s report in its entirety, visit https://www.caschooldashboard.org/.
The following information highlights the Dashboard data of all Ceres schools:
Adkison Elementary
English Language Arts — Yellow
29.8 points above standard; increased 4.1 points
Mathematics — Orange
48.2 points below standard; maintained 0.3 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
5.2 percent chronically absent; increased 0.5 percent
Suspension Rate – Yellow
4.6 percent suspended at least once; declined 0.3 percent
Carroll Fowler Elementary
English Language Arts — Yellow
56 points below standard; increased 5.9 points
Mathematics — Yellow
81.7 points below standard; increased 11.4 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Yellow
9.8 percent chronically absent; Maintained 0.4 percent
Suspension Rate – Yellow
6.7 percent suspended at least once; declined by 6 percent
Caswell Elementary
English Language Arts — Orange
67.9 points below standard; declined 19.4 points
Mathematics — Orange
91.5 points below standard; declined 16 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
14.6 percent chronically absent; increased 3 percent
Suspension Rate – Yellow
5.2 percent suspended at least once; declined by .5 percent
Lucas Elementary
English Language Arts — Green
5.2 points above standard; increased 48.39 points
Mathematics — Orange
46.4 points below standard; maintained 2.2 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Green
1.7 percent chronically absent; increased 0.5 percent
Suspension Rate – Green
0.7 percent suspended at least once; declined 0.9 percent
Patricia “Kay”
Beaver Elementary
English Language Arts — Blue
15.9 points above standard; increased 35.2 points
Mathematics — Green
23 points below standard; increased 20.4 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
10.2 percent chronically absent; maintained 0.1 percent
Suspension Rate – Yellow
8.2 percent suspended at least once; declined 1 percent
Don Pedro Elementary
English Language Arts — Orange
53 points below standard; declined 8.6 points
Mathematics — Orange
66.8 points below standard; declined 4.8 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
7.1 percent chronically absent; increased 1.9 percent
Suspension Rate – Red
9.6 percent suspended at least once; increased 3.4 percent
Joel Hidahl Elementary
English Language Arts — Yellow
28.8 points below standard; increased 7.6 points
Mathematics — Orange
70.6 points below standard; declined 25.6 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
11 percent chronically absent; increased 0.7 percent
Suspension Rate – Red
5 percent suspended at least once; increased 2.8 percent
La Rosa Elementary
English Language Arts — Green
5.2 points above standard; increased 26.1 points
Mathematics — Green
2.3 points below standard; increased 24.9 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Green
9.4 percent chronically absent; declined 1 percent
Suspension Rate – Yellow
4 percent suspended at least once; declined 4.7 percent
Sam Vaughn Elementary
English Language Arts — Orange
21.1 points below standard; maintained 0.1 points
Mathematics — Orange
42.8 points below standard; maintained -1.4 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
5.3 percent chronically absent; increased 0.6 percent
Suspension Rate – Orange
3.1 percent suspended at least once; increased 0.4 percent
Sinclear Elementary
English Language Arts — Green
2.1 points above standard; increased 2.1 points
Mathematics — Yellow
36 points below standard; increased 7.8 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
6.6 percent chronically absent; increased 1.9 percent
Suspension Rate – Yellow
1.7 percent suspended at least once; maintained 0.1 percent
Walter White Elementary
English Language Arts — Yellow
49.9 points below standard; increased 13.3 points
Mathematics — Yellow
77.2 points below standard; increased 7.2 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Yellow
13.5 percent chronically absent; declined 1.7 percent
Suspension Rate – Yellow
4.4 percent suspended at least once; declined 1.6 percent
Westport Elementary
English Language Arts — Yellow
25 points below standard; increased 10.4 points
Mathematics — Yellow
45.1 points below standard; increased 17.8 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
7.3 percent chronically absent; increased 0.8percent
Suspension Rate – Green
2.7 percent suspended at least once; declined 1.1 percent
Virginia Parks Elementary
English Language Arts — Yellow
14.7 points below standard; increased 21 points
Mathematics — Yellow
52.8 points below standard; increased 15.7 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Yellow
6.8 percent chronically absent; Maintained 0.4 percent
Suspension Rate – Orange
3.2 percent suspended at least once
Virginia Parks Elementary
English Language Arts — Yellow
14.7 points below standard; increased 21 points
Mathematics — Yellow
52.8 points below standard; increased 15.7 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Yellow
6.8 percent chronically absent; Maintained 0.4 percent
Suspension Rate – Orange
3.2 percent suspended at least once.
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS
Cesar Chavez Jr. High School
English Language Arts — Orange
40.7 points above standard; declined 17.4 points
Mathematics – Red
101.1 points below standard; declined 17.3 point
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
14 percent chronically absent; increased upward by 2.5 percent
Suspension Rate – Orange
14.7 percent suspended at least once; declined by 0.5 percent
Blaker Kinser Jr. High School
English Language Arts — Orange
41.1 points below standard; declined 11.6 points
Mathematics – Yellow
93.2 points below standard; increased 3.4 points
Chronic Absenteeism — Yellow
8.9 percent chronically absent; maintained 0.1 percent
Suspension Rate – Red
14.2 percent suspended at least once; increased 4.8 percent
Mae Hensley Jr. High School
English Language Arts — Orange
28.1 points above standard; maintained 0.5 points
Mathematics – Yellow
77.5 points below standard; increased 6.8 point
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
14.7 percent chronically absent; increased 1.5 percent
Suspension Rate – Orange
10.1 percent suspended at least once; increased 1.3 percent
Whitmore Charter School of Art & Technology
English Language Arts — Blue
35.8 points above standard; increased 18.3 points
Mathematics – Yellow
27.4 points below standard; increased 10 point
Chronic Absenteeism — Orange
2.1 percent chronically absent; declined 1.4 percent
Suspension Rate – Orange
2.5 percent suspended at least once; increased 0.5 percent
HIGH SCHOOLS
Ceres High School
English Language Arts — Green
9.3 points above standard; Increased 11.8 points
Mathematics — Yellow
64.7 points below standard; Increased 12.7 points
Graduation Rate – Green
93.6 percent graduated; maintained 0.7 percent
College/Career – Blue
70.6 percent prepared; increased by 23 percent
Suspension Rate – Yellow
9.3 percent suspended at least once; declined 15.9 percent
Central Valley High School
English Language Arts — Green
18.3 points above standard; increased 5.8 points
Mathematics — Yellow
60.7 points below standard; increased 13.5 points
Graduation Rate – Blue
95.5 percent graduated; maintained 0.6 percent
College/Career – Blue
70.3 percent prepared; increased by 24.5 percent
Suspension Rate – Yellow
9.9 percent suspended at least once; declined 3.6 percent
Whitmore Charter School
English Language Arts — Blue
93.3 points above standard; increased 32.7 points
Mathematics — No performance color
16.7 points below standard; increased 46 points
Graduation Rate – Blue
97.5 percent graduated; increased 2.6 percent
College/Career – Green
45 percent prepared; increased by 24.5 percent
Suspension Rate – Green
0.6 percent suspended at least once; maintained 0 percent
Argus Continuation
High School
English Language Arts — Orange
87.1 points above standard; increased 29.5 points
Mathematics — Orange
179.2 points below standard; increased 36.1 points
Graduation Rate – Green
74.1 percent graduated; increased 7.4 percent
College/Career – Orange
3.7 percent prepared; increased by 3.7 percent
Suspension Rate – Yellow
16 percent suspended at least once; declined 20.5 percent
Endeavor Alternative High School
English Language Arts — No color given
27.5 points below standard; increased 63 points
Mathematics — No color given
145.7 points below standard; increased 43.2 points
Graduation Rate – Red
56.1 percent graduated; declined 2.5 percent
College/Career – Orange
6.4 percent prepared; increased by 2.1 percent
Suspension Rate – Blue
1 percent suspended at least once; declined 2.2 percent
