GGUSD Outperforms County and State on California Standardized Testing

• Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Last week, the California Department of Education released statewide results of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) exams, which show that Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD) students continue to outperform the county and state in both English Language Arts and mathematics.

In English Language Arts, 60.9% of GGUSD students met or exceeded standards compared to 50.8% across California and 59.4% across Orange County. In mathematics, 52.2% of GGUSD students met or exceeded state standards compared to 39.7% across California and 50.4% across Orange County.

GGUSD is also the highest performing district among comparable large urban school districts in the CORE group, which includes Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Santa Ana.  GGUSD students perform 12% higher than comparable large urban districts in English Language Arts and more than 18% higher in math.

“GGUSD’s record of academic excellence is due to its high-quality teaching staff, instructional strategies, and professional development,” said Lan Nguyen, Board of Education president. “We are laser-focused on ensuring our students have every opportunity for academic success.

Recently, GGUSD was referred to as an “island of progress” in an EdSource article titled, “Slow growth, big disparities after 5 years of Smarter Balanced tests,” which examined slow growth of success on California SBAC results, and “wide disparities among ethnic, and racial, and other student groups.” According to the article, “It’s all the more important to find champions in this work. The exceptions can be highlighted and learned from,” said Neal Finkelstein, co-director of the Innovation Studies program at WestEd, the San Francisco-based research and policy organization. He cited Garden Grove, a district often praised for its stable leadership and collaboration among teachers, where 3 out of 4 students are low-income and English learners. In the latest results, 61 percent of students were at or above standards in English language arts and 52 percent in math – twice that of “similar districts”.

GGUSD high school students also excel on rigorous Advanced Placement exams with a pass rate of 65.5% compared to the state average of 60.8%, the national average of 58.5%, and the global average of 60.3%. 

GGUSD continues to soar as a leader in college readiness across Orange County and throughout California. During the 2018-2019 school year, 60.5% of students met rigorous a-g requirements qualifying them to attend a UC or CSU school In 2017-2018, 59.7% of GGUSD students met a-g requirements compared to 54.5% in Orange County and 49.6% statewide.

For more information about test results for California assessments, visit https://caaspp-elpac.cde.ca.gov/caaspp.  To view Garden Grove Unified School District’s SBAC results, click here.

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