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Murrieta Valley Unified reports modest assessment gains, highlights subgroup gaps and plans math interventions
Summary
District staff told the board the district saw modest year-to-year assessment gains in ELA and science and a 97.7% graduation rate, but identified persistent achievement gaps for some student groups and flat or declining math cohort results. The district said it will continue PLCs, MTSS work and a math pilot to address disparities.
District staff presented a detailed review of 2023–24 state assessment results to the Murrieta Valley Unified School District Board on the evening of the regular meeting, reporting modest gains in English language arts and science while flagging continuing gaps among several student groups and ongoing math challenges.
Bob McGonagle, the district coordinator who oversees assessment and data, said elementary ELA and science generally improved by roughly 3–5 percentage points year to year and noted cohort growth in elementary ELA (a cohort moved from 47% to 55% proficiency across grades). But he and other presenters said cohort math outcomes were weaker, with an example showing a cohort drop from 53% to 45% proficiency as students advanced grades.
The presenters told trustees the district uses multiple measures — state tests, local benchmark assessments (i-Ready/STAR) and newly implemented common assessments — to inform instruction. Staff emphasized two primary, sustained strategies: building teacher collaboration through professional learning communities (PLCs) to align standards and local checks for learning, and strengthening tiered supports through MTSS (multi-tiered systems of support).
Trustee Nicholas Pardue pressed staff on subgroup performance and test validity, asking why some groups trail district averages. The presentation acknowledged persistent gaps: American Indian students scored roughly 23 percentage points below the district average in ELA, Black/African American students trailed by about 10 points in ELA and by roughly 18 points in math, and Hispanic/Latino and Pacific Islander groups also scored below the overall average by smaller margins. Staff said targeted interventions and tiered supports are in place and that two years of consecutive growth have been recorded for student groups that previously lagged.
McGonagle reported that district graduation rates improved by another percentage point to 97.7%, a metric staff highlighted as evidence of overall system strength even as targeted work continues in math and subgroup achievement. Presenters also described a math pilot underway to give more students access to higher-level math pathways; they noted that students enrolled in Math 3 by 11th grade historically have far higher pass rates on the state high school assessment than peers not in that course.
Board members asked follow-up questions about how well the state assessments measure intended content and requested deeper local analysis; staff replied they will continue to examine multiple measures and bring additional data to future workshops. The district said the state accountability dashboard will be released in December and that staff will present the district’s position and more granular data at a February board workshop.
The board did not take formal action as part of the presentation; trustees directed staff to continue PLC, MTSS and math-pilot work and to provide additional breakdowns of local measures and intervention impacts at a later date.
