Amador County Unified reviews 2024 California Dashboard: ELA and math below standard; district outlines interventions

Amador County Unified School District staff presented the 2024 California School Dashboard results at the board meeting, highlighting performance gaps in English language arts and mathematics and outlining a set of interventions to address them.

District presenter (Miss Horn) opened by asking the board to view the data as a tool, saying, “data can be a hammer or a compass,” and then reviewed the district’s CAASPP, CAST and ELPI indicators released by the California Department of Education.

Key metrics presented by staff included: - English language arts: district distance from standard 38 points below; a year‑over‑year decrease of about 9.8 points (California average 13.2 below standard). Staff noted the ELA indicator would have been yellow if the district had been 12.8 points closer to standard. - Math: district 76.6 points below standard, a decline of 5.7 points (California 47.6 below standard). - Science (CAST): 14.5 points below standard; this was the first year the science test was represented on the dashboard in this matrix and did not receive a color change for year‑over‑year movement. - Graduation rate: 93.2 percent, up 1.9 percentage points and above the state average of 86.7 percent. - College and career readiness: 31.2 percent prepared, down 2.4 points (state 45.3 percent); staff said the indicator’s criteria can undercount career and technical education (CTE) pathway readiness. - Chronic absenteeism: 21.1 percent, a decrease of 4.5 percentage points; staff said lowering that number is a current focus. - Suspension rate: 6.8 percent, slightly higher than the state average of 3.2 percent.

Miss Horn and other staff framed the dashboard colors as both an accountability tool and a conversation starter for targeted supports. She listed district actions already underway and planned to address the indicators, including: - A districtwide “power half‑hour” schedule at six elementary schools to provide targeted, short‑cycle interventions during the school day. - Strengthened MTSS (multi‑tiered systems of support) structures and site‑level COST (Coordination of Services Team) meetings so teacher teams can identify students who need tiered interventions. - A digital attendance campaign launching Jan. 28 that will send texts and emails to families when students near chronic‑absence thresholds and provide comparative attendance data by grade. - Universal Design for Learning (UDL) professional learning for principals and teacher leaders, with trainers to cascade instruction to site staff. - Implementation of state‑recommended kindergarten‑through‑second‑grade reading screeners to identify early reading difficulties. - Continued development of CTE programs and a review of graduation requirements to align rigor and pathways.

Board members pressed staff for clarifications: how close the district is to shifting an indicator color, how the college/career measure counts CTE students, and whether differentiated assistance (DA) from a geo lead such as the Sacramento County Office of Education would provide additional support or funds. Staff said differentiated assistance is available and that the district’s GOE lead historically has been Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), but the state is discussing whether small single‑district counties can manage their own DA. Staff said funds, when provided, typically flow to the geo lead.

Several board members noted the tension between a high graduation rate and lower college‑and‑career indicators and asked staff to continue to reconcile how graduation requirements and alternative pathways (CTE) are factored into the readiness metric.

The board asked staff to return with the LCAP midyear review and with outcome measures that tie the dashboard to district goals. Staff said those goal metrics are part of the LCAP and will be presented at the midyear review.

Votes or formal actions were not required for this informational presentation. Board members largely welcomed the contextual explanations and requested follow‑up reporting tying dashboard indicators to specific LCAP targets and timelines for measurable change.