Cold Spring Elementary in Santa Barbara County topped the rankings, with 100% of tested students meeting or exceeding the state standard in English language arts and 98.97% doing so in math.
asserted
% → top → math
At the other end of the list, just 3.57% of students tested at San Mateo Park Elementary — located between San Francisco and San Jose — met the English standard, while 5.56% met the bar in math.
asserted
% → test → math
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Thirty-eight schools averaged 90% or higher, while 201 schools averaged below 10%.
asserted
schools → sign → %
The typical school averaged about 40%, according to a data analysis of the newly released results by the California Post.
uncertain
school → average → Post
Statewide, 49.3% of students met or exceeded the English standard, compared with 38.4% in math, highlighting the challenges facing California schools as educators work to improve academic performance.
asserted
educators → meet → performance
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But the dramatic differences between individual schools also reflect the unequal circumstances students face outside the classroom, according to Morgan Polikoff, a professor of education at the University of Southern California.
uncertain
students → download → California
“On average, that’s absolutely true,” Polikoff said when asked whether schools in affluent neighborhoods tend to outperform those in disadvantaged communities.
asserted
schools → ’ → communities
“It’s true in California, and it’s true everywhere.”
asserted
it → ’ → California
Cold Spring Elementary, the only school in its Santa Barbara County district, posted the highest scores in the state.
asserted
Elementary → post → state
All 97 students who took the English test met or exceeded the state standard, and 96 of 97 did so in math.
asserted
who → take → math
Because the school is small, each student’s result moves its percentage by about one point.
asserted
result → move → point
Two Los Angeles County schools followed.
asserted
schools → follow → ?
At Science Academy STEM Magnet in Los Angeles Unified, 98.8% of students met the English standard and 99.4% met the math standard.
asserted
% → meet → standard
At Gretchen Whitney High in ABC Unified, 489 of 494 students met the standard in both subjects, or 99%.
asserted
students → meet → subjects
Oxford Academy in Orange County’s Anaheim Union High School District ranked fourth.
asserted
Academy → rank → District
There, 98.9% of students met the English standard and 96.7% met the math standard.
asserted
% → meet → standard
Buckeye Union Mandarin Immersion Charter in El Dorado County, a charter school run by its local district, rounded out the top five.
asserted
Charter → run → five
Of its 108 students tested, 105 met the standard in each subject, or 97.2%.
asserted
105 → test → subject
Like Cold Spring, it’s a small school, with about 100 students tested.
asserted
students → ’ → Spring
At the other end of the rankings, San Mateo Park Elementary had the lowest scores of any regular school in California with at least 50 students tested.
asserted
students → have → California
Just 5 of the 140 students who took the English test met the standard, or 3.6%.
asserted
who → take → standard
In math, 8 of 144 did, or 5.6%.
asserted
144 → do → math
The school stands out within its own district: Across the San Mateo-Foster City School District, about half of students met the standard in each subject.
asserted
half → stand → subject
The next four schools were separated by less than two-tenths of a point.
asserted
schools → separate → point
At Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary in Oakland Unified, 4.3% of students met the English standard and 5% met the math standard.
asserted
% → meet → standard
Barstow Unified in San Bernardino County had two schools in the bottom five.
asserted
Unified → have → bottom
At Barstow Junior High, 7.3% of 520 students met the English standard.
asserted
% → meet → standard
In math, 11 of 516 students did, or 2.1%.
asserted
students → do → math
At Crestline Elementary, 5.2% met the English standard and 4.4% met the math standard.
asserted
% → meet → standard
A third Barstow school, Barstow Intermediate, ranked sixth from the bottom.
asserted
school → rank → bottom
In Humboldt County, 8.3% of students at Hoopa Valley Elementary in the Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District met the English standard.
asserted
% → meet → standard
In math, 2 of 141 students did, or 1.4%, the lowest math result among the five schools.
asserted
students → do → schools
Polikoff said schools serving disadvantaged communities face challenges beyond the classroom, such as poverty, homelessness and foster care.
asserted
schools → say → poverty
They also struggle to keep experienced teachers.
asserted
They → struggle → teachers
“The most experienced and the best teachers will often choose to work in more advantaged schools,” Polikoff said.
asserted
Polikoff → choose → schools
The Aporia
