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Desert Sands reports increase in college-and-career readiness, driven by A–G completion and CTE
Summary
District presenters said Desert Sands Unified’s college-and-career indicator rose 3.9 percentage points year-over-year, with gains concentrated in A–G completion, college credit courses and CTE pathways; administrators highlighted growth among Hispanic and low-income students.
Desert Sands Unified School District officials presented the 2024 College and Career Indicator (CCI) to the board on Feb. 4, reporting a 3.9 percentage-point increase in the share of students considered “prepared” compared with the prior year and noting specific gains among Hispanic and low-income students.
“Desert Sands is 3.4% above the state of California in terms of students who are considered prepared,” Kevin Bebo, director of college and career readiness, told the board, and the district recorded a 3.9% increase over its performance last year.
Bebo said the district had 1,127 students in the prepared category from the class of 2024 and that 86.1% of those (about 970 students) were considered prepared based on A–G course completion plus at least one additional criterion. He said college-credit course participation and completion of career-technical-education (CTE) pathways accounted for large shares of the improvement: 521 students took at least one college-credit course and CTE-pathway completion qualified 23% of prepared students, up from 20.2%.
Bebo highlighted subgroup progress: he said the district saw increases for nearly every student group, with no group declining into the “very low” category. He reported 53 additional Hispanic students and 50 more low-income students qualifying based on CTE pathways, and 87 more Hispanic students qualifying via college-credit coursework relative to the prior year.
The presentation also covered new statewide criteria added to the CCI this year. The state expanded the indicator from eight to 11 measures; among the additions Bebo discussed were registered pre-apprenticeships (implemented this year in automotive, building trades and culinary programs), state and federal job programs (applicable to alternative sites such as Summit and Amistad), and an IEP-specific measure for students who complete 100 hours of work-based learning plus the equivalent of four semester courses in college-and-career exploration. Bebo reported one student qualified under the new IEP work-based-learning measure in the first year and said he expects those numbers to rise.
Board trustees praised the presentation and asked technical questions about unduplicated counts and subgroup reporting; Bebo said the charts used unduplicated numbers and that some students may appear in multiple subgroup boxes but the data reporting accounted for that. Trustees also noted the district’s list of CTE programs that offer certifications and college credit.
The presentation included followup work already under way: a sample-matching exercise that tracks a subset of 55% of graduates to postsecondary placements, with a goal to increase that match rate to about two-thirds. Bebo credited principals, teachers and CTE staff for the progress and said the district will continue expanding certifications and college-credit opportunities.
The board did not take any vote on the presentation; the session was informational.
