The Saugus Union School District (SUSD) is proud to announce its 2022–2023 official California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) results. Students in grades 3–6 participated in the annual state assessment to measure their English language arts (ELA) and mathematics grade level proficiency in the spring of 2023. The overall grade level proficiency for English language arts (ELA) in SUSD was 63.75% of students meeting or exceeding grade level standards. In the area of mathematics, SUSD students meeting or exceeding grade level standards was 59.24%. Both of these scores are above the state averages (ELA – 46.66% and math – 34.62%).

In 2022, SUSD saw an increase of proficiency in the area of mathematics (1.22%) over its pre-pandemic (2019) achievement. While this was a small amount the district celebrated being one of a handful of districts across the state to see an increase in 2022. The new proficiency rates released on October 18 indicate that the district continues to see increases in its mathematics achievement (1.96%). We contribute this progress to our staff development program that is focused on California state mathematics standards instruction, the foundation skills needed for students to think and reason mathematically, and the supplemental electronic resources used that address student’s individual learning needs.

The district has put a great deal of effort into improving its ELA results and addressing the learning loss experienced during the pandemic through its on-going science of reading training and instructional strategies. Unfortunately, we saw a slight dip (-0.94%) in the ELA proficiency rate for the 2023 school year. As a result, we continue to refine our reading and writing instruction to address students’ abilities to reason with a variety of text (informational and literature) and create written responses for that reason. We use a multi-tiered system of support to address students’ individual learning needs and are aligning our instruction to the rigor required by the state standards through our professional learning communities (PLC) process. In PLCs, our teachers plan common units of instruction and use common assessment data to address student needs if they have not mastered the content or address how to extend learning if they already know the content.

Preliminary data was presented to the SUSD Governing Board during their regular meeting on August 29, 2023 (please visit our Governing Board page for agenda information). During that meeting, the education services team presented the past and current data related to ELA and math for various grade levels and student groups as well as ways the district would address student needs in the coming year. Governing Board President Katherine Cooper has stated about the achievement of our students that “We are seeing the necessary systematic work being done in our classrooms to help our students overcome the learning loss that happened because of the pandemic. While we know that we have additional steps to take to see the achievement levels grow, we know that our teachers, school staff, and administrators are doing the hard work to ensure our students rise.”