We Need Transparency to Fix Our Schools
California's student assessment portal leaves parents in the dark about their schools' performance over time.
Have you ever hopped on our California school data portal and attempted to see how your local school has been doing on state testing over time? What about comparing several schools to make an informed decision about where to enroll?
Well, I can report from personal experience that California’s “D” grade in school data transparency is well earned! California’s state testing website does not allow year over year or comparative data analysis. Instead, we are on our own to compile the yearly data and make the comparisons ourselves.
With reports of an end-of-year staff shakeup at Newport-Mesa’s Eastbluff Elementary, I was curious what the data would say about the school’s performance relative to other similarly situated elementary schools. Although parents have reported recent struggles at the school, so far the reports have been anecdotal.
The data I found was simultaneously alarming and a call to action:
Over the last six years, Newport-Mesa’s Eastbluff Elementary has taken a major plunge relative to other comparable Newport Beach elementary schools. Eastbluff fifth graders’ English Language Arts proficiency has dropped from 82.36% in 2018-2019 to 60.10% in 2023-2024 (latest data available). Meanwhile, fifth graders’ Mathematics proficiency has declined from 68% to 54.54% over the same time period. Greatschools, a school rating system real estate sales services like Zillow and Redfin rely on, now gives Eastbluff an average 6/10 rating, down from 9/10 several years ago.
Transparency identifies the problem
As a lifelong sailor, I’ve learned that when disaster strikes at sea, there are generally two types of people. First, there are the rescuers who run to the threat—whether its fire, a leak, a broken rudder, a vicious orca attack—to save the ship. The other folks are the escapers who run to the lifeboats to set up Plan B. While every ship needs both types (not every problem can be solved, and not every problem merits abandoning ship), one thing is certain:
To solve (or escape) the problem, we have to be aware of the problem!
Below are the types of charts that California evidently does not want us to see: year-over-year comparisons between Eastbluff and other similarly situated schools from 2018-2019 to 2023-2024 school years.
Note: there was no data for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years due to COVID.
5th Grade English Language Arts Proficiency Dropped Over 24% from Peak.
5th Grade Mathematics Proficiency Is Down Nearly 19% from Peak.
The numbers can’t simply be explained by COVID, since other similarly situated schools have bounced back or remained relatively constant.
Although some have blamed the declines on a sudden influx of Russian-speaking students after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022, the test score declines predate their arrival and persist even among fluent English speaking students:
English-Fluent Eastbluff 5th Graders’ Proficiency Also Declined.
It should not take parents (like me) half of a Sunday on Excel to figure out how their school has been doing. If this data was readily available online, more communities would have the transparency necessary to identify and fix problems. To go back to the nautical analogy, our state’s opaque data reporting means that we find about the leak after the ship has already started going down.
It’s Never Good to Hide Bad News
Overall, the good outweighs the bad when it comes to dealing with unfavorable data. Transparency builds trust with the community and demonstrates confident leadership. Most parents love the teachers at local schools and would step up to support them if aware of the problem. Parents want our schools to succeed, and we need accurate information to contribute our part.
Although this type of data could scare off some families from local schools, it would also spur rescuers in the community to take action. Additionally, the inverse is also true: good numbers would encourage more families to enroll and create positive momentum.
In contrast, hiding the data or simply not talking about it foments distrust among the community. With a lack of transparency from district leadership, rumors take hold, as they have among Eastbluff parents. And, the problems grow.
Accordingly, our state must upgrade its shoddy data reporting portal. Further, at the district and school site level, our leaders should never run from the type of bad news we’ve seen at Eastbluff. To solve the issues facing our schools, parents and the community at large are the solution, not the problem.
Thanks for the feedback! My hope is to empower families with this info so we can support our schools and make informed decisions.
Absolutely spot on.