San Francisco students’ standardized test scores have improved in language arts and math, reflecting a five-year upward trend in proficiency, according to school district officials.
District scores — based on nearly 38,000 student tests taken this past spring — increased 3.1 percent in language arts and 1.6 percent in math.
Proficiency rates in both language arts and math are higher in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) than statewide, according to school district officials. More than three-fifths of students now score “proficient or above” in language arts; more than two-thirds achieve that score in lower-level math, and more than half do in higher-level math.
African American and Latino students displayed the most significant increase in proficiency, showing double-digit growth in the two subjects over five years.
Schools in the Mission and Bayview neighborhoods — with historically low performance rates — had double the rate of growth for language arts and three times the rate of growth for math compared to the district as a whole. City officials associate the increase in large part to a boost in federal funding for the lowest-performing schools.
“The rate of accelerated growth in the Zone demonstrates what is possible when you combine a clear vision and strategy,” Guadalupe Guerrero, deputy superintendent for instruction, innovation and social justice, said in an SFUSD press release.