Results of the California Standards Test released by the Department of Education on Friday show students at both and are making gains.
Students at Burbank, which saw an 80-percent staff turnover in the 2011/2012 school year due to district-mandated restructuring brought on by years of flagging student achievement on standardized tests, showed gains almost across the board.
In English-Language Arts, 50-percent of students in the eighth grade scored in the advanced or proficient range in 2012, compared to 38-percent in 2011. Scores were up from 38-percent to 58-percent in the seventh grade and 55-percent to 60-percent in the sixth grade.
In Math, 44-percent of seventh grade students scored advanced or proficient in 2012, compared to 35-percent in 2011. Scores were down for sixth graders though, dropping from 72-percent to 68-percent.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Burbank showed the greatest academic gains of the four LAUSD schools that underwent academic reconstitution in 2012, but also pointed out that Burbank had also seen gains in the previous two years.
From the Times:
... after one year, the trend is upward, with each school improving in English and math. Burbank Middle School in Highland Park is the apparent star of the group, with one-year gains of 14 percentage points in English and 11 percentage points in math.
That doesn’t, however, settle the controversy. Burbank also has the best three-year track record of improvement and two of those three years were with the prior staff—80% of whom are gone.
It was a year of growth for Franklin, as well. In English-Language Arts, scores were up dramatically in grades 9 through 11, from 35-percent to 46-percent in ninth, 40-percent to 45-percent in 10th and 39-percent to 56-percent in 11th.
Overall, Burbank's and Franklin's scores were on par with their LAUSD peers, who scored 51-percent and 45-percent advanced or proficient in English-Language Arts and Math, respectively.
