School Board Reveals Tests Scores, Acknowledges Issues at Controversial Elementary School

As the Pasadena Unified School District released state testing figures yesterday revealing that 42% of Pasadena Unified students exceeded or met standards in English Language Arts/Literacy, up six percent from last year, and 31% of students exceeded or met standards in mathematics, an improvement of two percent over last year, the School Board also released new test results for Madison Elementary School.

The school has been embroiled in controversy since last year’s appointment of principal Juan Ruelas, a move which has resulted in the transfers of at least eleven teachers since his arrival.

Releasing test scores for Madison is significant, in that much of PUSD’s reported reasoning for hiring Ruelas was to increase the testing scores for Madison, a feat he had accomplished at his former school, Roosevelt Elementary.

According to the figures released Thursday by the school district based on California Assessment of Student performance and Progress (CAASPP), 67% of Madison third grade students in 2015 failed to meet CAASPP standards in math. That number dropped in 2016 as those students moved on to the fourth grade. Fifty-one percent of fourth graders in 2015 failed to meet CAASPP standards in math, and the number increased to 54% in 2016, as they moved on to fifth grade.

There was a six percent decrease in the number of number of third and fourth grade students who did not meet standards in English language skills, from 2015 to 2016.

According to the presentation by Chief Academic Officer Shawn Bird, “The overall improvement in ELA was 1% of all students and the math results decreased by 3% in all students.” In addition, the achievement of the cohort improved significantly (from Did Not Meet to Nearly Met) in all groups except for 5th grade math, it was reported.

Dr. Bird added, “A cornerstone of implementation for the CCSS is that we expect to see growth in our students year over year, and new metrics being created for accountability are being designed with this belief so while students may not yet be proficient, it is important to note improvement.”

Attorney Dale Gronemeier, a longtime critic of Ruelas and a legal representative of a number of Madison Elementary teacher, said in an e-mail response distributed at the meeting, “The bottom lines are that Madison has suffered a material setback from 11% of its students being proficient in math pre-Ruelas to only eight percent after his first year.”

Gronemeier added, “Madison superficially made a significant gain in reading from 14% being proficient pre-Ruelas to 22% being proficient after his first year,” but claimed that the 22% increase is almost completely attributable to a 21% increase in fifth grade scores, while third and fourth grade classes showed below-average improvement. Gronemeier also claimed that the school district provided “greater resources from the central office” aimed at improving 5th grade reading scores.

“Overall, Gronemeier concluded, “we see no evidence that Ruelas has delivered anything except below-average improvement other than as a result of greater resourcing from the central office.”

Following yet another complaint from a parent regarding Ruelas, PUSD President Kimberly Kenne, unlike previous school board leaders, then actually encouraged the board to discuss the ongoing situation at Madison.

“The intent of putting this on the agenda, in case it wasn’t clear,” said Kenne, “is that we have heard an enormous amount of public and parents and teachers’ voices about Madison, so this is an opportunity for us, rather than sitting stone-faced and not replying, we can have a conversation amongst ourselves about what’s going on there. And this is not just about test scores.”

“Have we fixed any of the problems there?” Kenne continued. “Are we taking care of some of the issues that these people have been raising?”

While no specific answers were given by board members, most agreed that the problems at Madison, a “Focus” school, were significant, and bore watching.

“It’s only been one year, and change takes time,” said School Board Vice-President Roy Boulghourjian, as other members nodded in agreement.

Though the problems at Madison continue and no specific answers were offered, the acknowledgment of problems at the school seems to be a significant change from previous School Board administration.

 

[Editor’s Note:  The original version of the story contained an error which has been corrected. Originally, the story reported that PUSD Associate Superintendent Mercy Santoro delivered the report in regards to the Madison Elementary Test scores, when in fact the report was delivered by Dr. Shawn Bird.]