Results released today from the California High School Exit
Examination show 79 percent of Gilroy’s sophomores passed both math
and English. The results are on par with last year’s performance
and state results, but below county results.
Results released today from the California High School Exit Examination show 79 percent of Gilroy’s sophomores passed both math and English. The results are on par with last year’s performance and state results, but below county results.
For the Gilroy Unified School District, the state considers results from TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, Gilroy Community Day, Gilroy High School, MACSA El Portal Leadership Academy and Mt. Madonna High. All 67 tenth graders at TJ Owens – a Gilroy Unified School District accelerated high school at Gavilan College – who took both tests last year passed compared. At Gilroy High School, 81 percent of the 600 students who took the test passed math and 80 percent passed English. MACSA had the worst results, with less than 45 percent of its tested students passing both math and English. About 50 percent of 10th graders at Mt. Madonna High passed math while 69 percent passed English, up from 59 percent the year prior.
Gilroy’s 10th grade students performed about the same as in 2007-08 school year, with 80 percent passing math and 78 percent passing English.
As for Gilroy students looking to graduate in 2009, 85 percent passed the English portion of the exam and 86 percent passed the math portion, according to district data. Seniors have five chances to take the exam and can take it multiple times, and the district data reflects the results of all these tests. However, the district did not have data available on the percentage of students in the class of 2008 that passed the exam.
So far this year, 83 percent of the class of 2010 passed English, while 85 percent passed math, according to the district. Students who have not passed the exam have several more chances to pass, so these percentages are likely to go up.
Statewide results showed 90.6 percent, or 432,900 students, in the Class of 2009 passed both English and math. That rate is slightly higher than the 90.4 percent the year prior.
About 80 percent and 79 percent of the 475,000 10th grade students tested across California during the 2008-09 school year passed the math and English portions of the state exam, respectively. About 86 percent of the 16,000 or so students tested across the county passed math while 83 percent passed English, according to the state’s latest data.
These results were about the same as last year, in which 85 percent of county sophomores passed math and 84 percent passed English. Statewide for the 2007-08 academic year, 78 percent of 10th graders passed math and 79 percent passed English.
“I am pleased to see that these results show that California’s high school students are continuing to meet the challenge of higher expectations,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell in a press release. “It is vitally important that young people know and understand the subject matter tested on the high school exit exam whether they are heading to college or directly into the workforce. The CAHSEE helps us ensure that each student is prepared with the critical basic skills needed for future success.”
Despite improvements, the results show an achievement gap still persists across California. Statewide, African-American and Hispanic students continue to pass the exam at lower rates than Asian and white students. By the end of their senior year, the cumulative passing rate was 81.4 percent for African-American students and 86.6 percent for Hispanic or Latino students compared to 95.3 percent for Asian students and 95.9 percent for white students.
School, district, county, and state results for the CAHSEE have been posted on the CDE Web site at http://cahsee.cde.ca.gov.
