{"id":509,"date":"2025-10-13T04:50:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/509\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T04:50:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:50:22","slug":"black-students-test-scores-continue-to-lag-in-caaspp-results-across-sacramento-districts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/509\/","title":{"rendered":"Black students\u2019 test scores continue to lag in CAASPP results across Sacramento districts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite years of effort to close achievement gaps, Black students in Sacramento\u2019s largest school districts still trail their peers in English and math test scores on California\u2019s statewide exams.<\/p>\n

The results of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress point to persistent inequities in Sacramento schools, where educators and advocates say Black students face systemic barriers that hinder achievement despite district efforts to close the gap.<\/p>\n

San Juan Unified had the lowest pass rate for Black students compared to all other districts with only 19.8% passing English language arts and 9.8% passing math.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Elk Grove Unified had the highest Black students pass with 34.4% passing English language arts and 22.9% passing math, both figures slightly higher than the state\u2019s national average for this demographic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Christopher J. Nellum, executive director of EdTrust-West, said in a press release that the state\u2019s students of color, multilingual learners and low income students deserve more than what they are receiving and that the data shows this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese gaps are not just persistent, they\u2019re unacceptable,\u201d Nellum said. \u201cTo accelerate gains for students of color and our state, we need major policy shifts, not just program tweaks. In the wake of the federal government\u2019s retreat from education, the state\u2019s role in supporting students is more important than ever. California has a responsibility and an opportunity to lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for other area districts, in Sacramento City Unified only 21.9% of Black students passed the English language arts test and 12.3% passed math this year. Natomas Unified had 22.4% pass English language arts and 13% pass math.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Finally, Twin Rivers Unified had 27.7% of Black students pass English language arts and 16.4% pass math.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Carl Pinkston, co-founder of the Black Parallel School Board, said there were small and slow gains to close the achievement gap between Black and white students made after the COVID-19 pandemic set everyone back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose numbers seem to remain about the same for a long period of time, and they\u2019re very stubborn numbers that don\u2019t seem to show that districts are moving much more aggressively to close the opportunity gap,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pinkston said this year\u2019s low scores and minimal gains could be even lower next year if nothing is done and financial resources are cut. \u201cYes, there are more resources in terms of social and emotional support and community schools,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of that has helped, but my greatest fear is that next year there will not be additional resources made available, particularly from the federal government [but] also from the state. We will probably see even greater and much more disastrous numbers that will disproportionately impact Black students.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, the Sacramento County Office of Education issued a report on Black students with the help of Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Channa Pitt and her research.<\/p>\n

The report \u2014 which also included data from prior CAASPP results, suspension rates, graduation rates, and more \u2014 found Black students across all districts continue to face systemic barriers<\/a> that hinder academic success and emotional well-being.<\/p>\n

Countywide, Black students are 10% of the student population, but they account for 28.5% of foster youth, 19.8% of homeless youth and 15.3% of students with disabilities.<\/p>\n

The county education office is working on solutions to give other districts to formulate a plan for addressing some of these systemic issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really sad that we\u2019re just celebrating these small increases, but we should not become sober or sit on our laurels at this particular moment, because we need all students to learn, to graduate and be college and career ready,\u201d Pinkston said.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite years of effort to close achievement gaps, Black students in Sacramento\u2019s largest school districts still trail their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[909,910,911,912,913,914,915,916,917,121,918,919,123,122,920,921,922],"class_list":["post-509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-black-parallel-school-board-bpsb","tag-black-students","tag-carl-pinkston","tag-carousel","tag-christopher-j-nellum","tag-edtrust-west","tag-elk-grove-unified","tag-elk-grove-unified-school-district","tag-natomas-unified-school-district","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-city-unified-school-district","tag-sacramento-county-office-of-education","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sacramento-office-of-education","tag-san-juan-unified","tag-san-juan-unified-board-of-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}