By Hannah Parker
Online News Editor
Manhattan Beach Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews announced at the MBUSD Advisory Committee’s meeting on Oct. 6 that the district lost $23,000 due to 30 percent of 2014-15 juniors opting out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Common Core standardized tests last Spring.
Costa students averaged an 81 percent on the English Language Arts portion and a 71 percent on the math portion. Costa’s scores remain above the state average but rank Costa lower than prior standardized tests.
“The negative part of Costa’s scores is that when people look at results, they’ll know they aren’t accurate because one-third of the class did not take it,” Matthews said.
Due to the low participation, the school will not receive the entirety of the Title One funds, a federal program that supports public schools, that it has in past years because the funds require 95 percent or higher student participation on the exam. Matthews stated that the money will now be spent on state-designated purposes.
In addition to the loss of funding, individual scores were lower than expected, according to Matthews. He stated that the scores will not only reflect on Costa’s abilities as a whole, but will also impact its reputation since colleges compare the difficulty of high schools, and they will take these scores into account.
“It is a disadvantage for Costa that we will overcome by informing parents and students of the [test’s] importance,” Matthews said.
This was the first test administered on computers. Due to students’ limited amount of experience on test-taking devices, they scored lower, Costa Math Department Co-Chair Linda Gesualdi said.
Next year, the administration plans on creating a test-taking schedule that will delegate time for students to take the test as opposed to last year when students had to leave classes to take the test.
“The movement toward Common Core standards is a big change for Costa, and we want to make sure it is done properly,” Gesualdi said.
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