The Saugus Union School District announced this week that students have continued increasing academically in both Language Arts and Math on the annual 2017-18 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP).

“Our results show that 65 percent of our students in Grades 3 – 6 are meeting or exceeding standards in the areas of reading, writing, listening and speaking. In the area of mathematics our students in these same grade levels meet or exceed grade-level standards at 53%,” said Saugus Union School District Superintendent, Dr. Colleen Hawkins.

“Our positive increases, of approximately 2% in each subject area, are a result of the instructional work done by our teachers and administrators, the vision set by the Governing Board, the support provided to each student by their individual families, but most importantly these increases are the result of the hard work and focus on learning done by each of our students.”

“The State of California uses eight priorities in the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) to ensure that all students are receiving a high quality education,” said Dr. Isa De Armas, Assistant Superintendent of Education Services. “One of those eight measures is academic achievement and clearly our district continues to make consistent growth.”

The Saugus Union School District has been striving to increase its academic achievement by working with teachers and administrators to implement new mathematics curriculum and standards over the last three years, to provide students with regular access to technology through the implementation of Chromebooks at all grade levels (1:1 in grades 5 & 6; 2:1 in grades 3 & 4; 3:1 in grades TK-2), and this year in implementing a new reading/language arts adoption to support instruction of the current California Content Standards in each of its TK-6 grade classrooms.

“I am very proud of the work our teachers and administrators have done. As we celebrate our areas of growth I look forward to supporting the strategies needed to address our challenges,” commented Board Member Judy Egan Umeck about the current results.

Particular attention has been given within district’s LCAP to closing the achievement gap by focusing on programs and strategies to support English Learners, socio-economically disadvantaged youth, and Foster Youth. As a result of that work, SUSD has seen the gap for English Learners close by over 7% this year in the area of Reading Language Arts and by over 3% for students identified as socio-economically disadvantaged.

“The work done, and the results achieved, by both our students and teachers is a direct reflection on this district’s desire to provide the very best education for our community,” added Board President Christopher Trunkey. “We have always provided ‘excellence in education,’ and these results bear that out.”

“The focus on increased academic achievement for all students and closing the Achievement GAP are at the forefront of the work we are doing in Saugus Union,” added Dr. Colleen Hawkins. “We will continue working together, teachers, administrators, families, and students, to achieve more.”

Parents had an opportunity to review the test results during the September Parent /Teacher Goal Setting Conferences. A detailed report of scores can be found here.

Ed. Note: This information was provided to KHTS by The Saugus Union School District. 

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