Data obtained by LA School Report show how each LA Unified high school’s scores on the state standardized tests improved or declined over the past two years.

The district overall showed a 3 percentage point increase in math scores and a 6 percentage point increase in English language arts test scores. The improvements came along with increases statewide in the second year of the new assessments, which are aligned with the Common Core State Standards.

Sylmar Charter High School ranked seventh among high schools in its improvements on math tests, despite a well-publicized lunchtime brawl that fell during testing. On the tests taken this spring, 27 percent of Sylmar students met or exceeded standards. The previous year, 12 percent of Sylmar students met or exceeded standards. Read how data analysis and a new collaborative effort led to success.

Here are the top 10 high schools that showed the highest improvements on the math tests. The data do not include independent charter schools.

• Venice High School improved by 29 percentage points for students who met or exceeded standards.
•  Middle College High School improved by 20 percentage points.
•  Downtown Business Magnet improved by 17 percentage points.
• Chatsworth Charter High School improved by 17 percentage points.
• Academy of Scientific Exploration at Cesar Chavez Learning Academies improved by 17 percentage points.
• Solis Learning Academy improved by 16 percentage points.
• Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets: Health and Sports Medicine improved by 15 percentage points.
• Sylmar Charter High School improved by 15 percentage points.
• Reseda High School improved by 15 percentage points.
• Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy improved by 15 percentage points.

At Venice High School and Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets: Health and Sports Medicine, the data showed that there was a large increase in the number of students who took the test this year compared to the previous year.

At Venice, 77 students took the math test in 2015 compared to 359 students this year. At WESM, 132 students took the math test in 2015 and 288 students took the test this year.

Venice High School Principal Oryla Wiedoeft said about 80 percent of students opted not to take the test last year, but the school had a much higher level of participation this year after an effort by administrators and teachers to get the students to see the value in taking the test and doing their best. 

Of the 112 high schools included in the data, 77 schools improved in math scores by at least 1 percentage point compared to 2015. Thirty-three schools showed no improvement or test scores declined; 2015 test results for two schools were not available.

Habor Teacher Preparation Academy was the top-performing school on the math test this year among all district high schools: 80 percent of the school’s 116 students who took the test met or exceeded standards.

For the second year in a row, LA Unified’s independent charter schools outperformed the district’s traditional schools on California’s standardized math and English language arts (ELA) tests, according to data released Monday by the California Charter Schools Association. The district’s magnets topped both. 

The district’s independent charters saw 46 percent of its students meet or exceed the standard on the ELA test, versus 39 percent for the district’s traditional schools. On the math test, 30 percent of independent charters met or exceeded the standard, versus 28 percent for traditional schools.

LA Unified has more charter students than any other district in the country. Last school year, when the tests were administered, the district had 101,000 charter students in 221 schools, making up 16 percent of the district enrollment.

Independent charters saw growth on the tests over last year, which was the first year the Common-Core aligned California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) was given. Charters were not alone in seeing growth, as both the district and the state also saw improvement over last year. The district’s independent charters had a 7 percentage point improvement on the ELA test and a 4 percentage point improvement on the math test, while traditional schools saw a 6 percentage point improvement on the ELA test and a 3 percentage point improvement on math.

“We are encouraged that charter schools increased the percent of students meeting and exceeding standards in both ELA and math from 2015 to 2016,” according to a CCSA statement.

Charters also demonstrated a high level of performance over traditional schools in some key subgroups. In some instances, charter subgroups outperformed the district’s overall traditional school average. (See graphic. Click the math button to change the numbers from English language arts to math.)

Demographically, independent charter students and traditional students who were tested matched up closely. The tests are given to students in grades 3 through 8 and in 11th grade. Of the students tested, 82 percent of charter students qualified as low-income, compared to 80 percent for traditional schools, according to LA Unified. Charters also match up closely on ethnicity with traditional schools, in particular for Latinos, with 74 percent for charters and 73 percent for traditional schools. Independent charters had 11 percent disabled students, compared to 12 percent for the district, and 19 percent English learners at charters compared to 18 percent at traditional schools.

As it did last year, LA Unified released numbers that showed its magnet schools outperformed the district’s independent charters, although the demographics on the two do not match up closely. Magnets had a lower number of low-income students (69 percent), students with disabilities (6 percent) and English learners (5 percent).

“This is another accomplishment to celebrate as we move closer to our goal of preparing all of our graduates for success,” LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King said in a statement. “We are working hard to identify strategies that support student achievement. We want all of our schools – no matter what model – to continue to make progress in helping students fulfill their potential. But what is great about LA Unified is that we believe in all of our schools and all of our students.”

Statewide, the results were more mixed for independent charters, the CCSA data showed. Although the demographics match up relatively closely, charter students trailed the state in the percentage meeting or exceeding the standard on the math test, 35 percent to 37 percent, but outperformed on the ELA test, 50 percent to 49 percent.

CCSA also presented numbers comparing LA’s independent charters to traditional schools, but removed affiliated charters from the equation. There were 53 affiliated charters in operation last year. The schools are primarily located in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods, and while they have many of the freedoms granted charters in how the schools are run, they adhere to all district collective bargaining agreements and also receive their budgets directly from the district.

When affiliated charters are removed, the scores for the district’s traditional schools drop.

LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King said at a news conference last week that the district’s improvement over last year on the state’s standardized tests was among “the highest gains that were achieved among urban districts in California.”

But was it really?

LA Unified was fourth among the 10 largest districts in the state in overall improvement, but in nearly every individual category it was in the lower half or near the bottom — and at the bottom for English language learners. 

(A note on the math score: There is a discrepancy between what the state website shows and what LA Unified reported. Officially, LA Unified said it was 28.696 percent, which it has rounded up to 29 percent, while the state said it was 28 percent. According to Cynthia Lim, LA Unified’s executive director of Office of Data and Accountability, the difference comes because LA Unified is including all decimal points of each subset category, such as for each grade level, then adding them together, while the state rounds off each subset of data to the nearest round number. A state representative said the department is still looking into the discrepancy but that other school districts had also reported discrepancies of 1 percent in some of the data.)

The entire state and most large districts showed improvement in the second year of the new Common Core-aligned tests, called the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP). Here’s a look at how LA Unified — the largest district in the state — compares with the other large districts.

The district was seventh out of 10 on the English language arts (ELA) test:

LA Unified was seventh out of 10 on the math test:

LA Unified was seventh out of 10 on the performance of disabled students on the ELA test, and eighth on the math test: (click the math button to change the numbers from English language arts to math)

The performance of LA Unified’s English learners was tied for worst on both the English and math tests:

LA Unified did not fare much better on the performance of economically disadvantaged students. Only eight districts are shown, as data are still incomplete for San Francisco and Long Beach:

State Superintendent of Instruction Tom Torlakson, left, LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King and LA Unified school board President Steve Zimmer at Eagle Rock Elementary School to discuss new standardized test results.

LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, LA Unified school board President Steve Zimmer and other leaders called a press conference this morning at Eagle Rock Elementary School to tout the results of the newly released standardized test scores.

Scores in the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) went up both statewide and districtwide in the second year the Common Core-aligned tests were given. King was quick to point out that LA Unified’s gains were among the best of any large district.

“These represent some of the highest gains that were achieved among urban districts in California,” King said.

LA Unified’s score jumped six percentage points in the English test — from 33 percent to 39 percent — and three or four percentage points in the math test, from 25 to 28 or 29 percent. (There is a discrepancy between what the CDE website shows and LA Unified said the score was. Officially, LA Unified said the total was 28.696 percent.)

King also pointed out that nearly every important subgroup like English learners and students from economically challenged households also saw gains.

Statewide, students jumped five percentage points to 49 percent meeting or exceeding the English standard, while jumping four percentage points to 37 percent who met or exceeded the math standard.

Zimmer, who is running for reelection, said he does not put all his faith in test scores but was happy to brag about the results. The board president has received financial support and the endorsement of the LA teachers union, UTLA, which has a policy of downplaying the importance of standardized tests, in particular when they are used to judge the performance of teachers.

“Those of you who know me know that I don’t believe that test scores tell us everything. I don’t even believe that test scores always tell us the most important things. But they are an indicator of progress, and the scores that we are releasing today show that in almost every significant area this district continues to make progress,” Zimmer said.

Zimmer, King and Torlakson stayed away from some of less positive news from the test results, including that the achievement gaps between some minority groups and white students, and between students from economically challenged backgrounds and their wealthier peers, remained close to the same as last year. While minorities and subgroups showed improvements, so did white students and those not from wealthier backgrounds, so the gaps remained at close to the same levels.

“Yes, absolutely, we have a lot of work to do. Yes, unfortunately, we did not see the achievement gap narrow. It’s real and we have to redouble our efforts,” Torlakson said when asked by a reporter about the achievement gap. He then added that he is working to create a team on equity in education to focus on the achievement gap.

Zimmer said the new results should “supercharge our urgency around the achievement gap and take very, very clear steps in terms of our investments.”

When it came to the improvements that have occurred, Torlakson said not all the reasons are known, but he did credit the increased education budgets over the last few years from Gov. Jerry Brown as a key factor.

“Why did this occur? We don’t have all the answers to that question. There is research and further analysis of data to be done, but I believe that it is because we have set new, higher, rigorous standards, relevant standards to our students, and it is because we have had better budgets, so we have had the resources to make a difference,” Torlakson said.

LA Unified students increased their scores this year in the statewide standardized tests, but significant achievement gaps remain for African-American and Latino students, as well as for English learners and students from economically challenged backgrounds.

The improvements came along with increases statewide in the second year of the new assessments, which are aligned with the Common Core State Standards.

Roughly 3.2 million students statewide in the 3rd through 8th grade and the 11th grade took the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) standardized tests this year. The results place students in one of four categories: standard exceeded, standard met, standard nearly met and standard not met. The tests are also referred to as the Smarter Balanced tests after the consortium that developed them.

LA Unified’s overall scores increased in both English language arts (ELA) and math over last year. On the ELA test, 39 percent of district students met or exceeded the ELA standard, compared to 33 percent last year, and 28 percent met or exceeded the math standard, compared to 25 percent last year.

The scores do not include the results of the district’s 221 independent charter schools that were tested last school year. The California Charter School Association said it was analyzing the test scores of the district’s charters and may have results later today.

Statewide, 49 percent of students met or exceeded the ELA standard, which is up from 44 percent last year. In mathematics, 37 percent of students met or exceeded standards, which is up from 33 percent last year.

“The higher test scores show that the dedication, hard work, and patience of California’s teachers, parents, school employees, and administrators are paying off. Together we are making progress towards upgrading our education system to prepare all students for careers and college in the 21st century,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement. “Of course there’s more work to do, but our system has momentum. I am confident that business, political and community leaders will join parents and educators to help continue supporting increased standards and resources for schools.”

The results were made available to the media yesterday in advance of the public being given access to the results on the CAASPP website at 9 a.m. today. LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King is scheduled to hold a press conference along with Torlakson this morning at 9 a.m. to discuss the results.

Torlakson said in a press release that a number of factors may have helped scores rise this year, including an extra year of teaching the California state standards in English and math, more familiarity with taking an online test, continued improvements in technology, and the use of interim tests.

But the achievement gap statewide and at LA Unified by race continues.

Thirty-seven percent of Latinos and 31 percent of African-American students in the state met or exceeded the ELA standards, compared with 64 percent of white students. At the distinct level, 28 percent of African-American students met or exceeded the ELA standard and 17 percent met or exceeded the math standards. Thirty-three percent of Latino students met or exceeded the English standards and 23 percent met or exceeded the math standards. This compared to 67 percent of white students meeting or exceeded the ELA standard and 57 percent meeting or exceeded the math standard.

“The achievement gap is pernicious and persistent and we all need to work together to find solutions that help all groups rise, while narrowing the gap,” said Torlakson in a statement.

LA Unified fared better in the performance of English learners on the ELA test than compared to the state, but did not best the state in two other key subgroups, which are students with disabilities and students from economically challenged families. These three subgroups are tracked by the state and districts are required by state law — the Local Control Funding Formula — to provide extra funding for them.

Nineteen percent of the district’s English learners met or exceeded the ELA standard, compared to only 13 percent for the state, but six percent met or exceeded the math standard, compared to 12 percent for the state. Eight percent of students with disabilities at LA Unified met or exceeded the ELA standard, compared to 14 percent for the state, and six percent met or exceeded the math standard, compared to 11 percent for the state. Thirty-three percent of LA Unified’s economically challenged students met or exceeded the ELA standard, compared to 35 percent for the state, and 24 percent met or exceeded the math standard, while 24 percent from the state also met or exceeded the standard.

LA Unified has the most English learners of any district in the country, at roughly 155,000, and a troubled history of educating them. In 2011 it settled a complaint by the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which found that the district had failed to provide adequate services to English learners. As part of the agreement, the school board passed an overhauled English Learner Master Plan in 2012 meant to increase services for ELLs.

In the English language arts part of the new statewide tests, only 3 percent of LA Unified’s ELLs scored in the top categories — exceeding and meeting standards — and only 5 percent did so in math. That compared with 11 percent in both subject areas statewide for ELLs.

Compared with the state’s 11 other large districts, LA Unified’s ELLs finished second-to-last in English language arts, ahead of Frenso and Oakland by a single percentage point in the number of students meeting or exceeding standards. In math, the district’s ELLs tied for second to last with San Jose and Oakland at 5 percent, with Fresno coming last at 3 percent.

San Francisco led the pack with 21 percent of its ELLs scoring in the top categories. The 11 other districts averaged 8.6 percent in the top categories for English and 9.5 percent in math.

Hilda Maldonado, director of LA Unified’s Multilingual and Multicultural Division, said the district is still analyzing its results and trying to determine how many of the ELLs who took the test are at the beginning of English language acquisition and how many are near the end. A difference in those numbers could explain the district’s relatively poor performance.

But LA Unified also doesn’t provide the same level of services as the top performer, San Francisco, which has roughly 30 percent of its ELLs enrolled in bilingual programs, compared with a five percent average around the state. At LA Unified, Maldonado said, bilingual programs are only offered at about 60 of the district’s 1,000-plus campuses.

“The services that San Francisco offers, we don’t offer at that higher rate, but we are looking to expand the duel language and bilingual language programs. That’s one of the charges that is under our office this year,” she said.

To what extent the district is exploring an expansion, Maldonado said, is still under discussion. She also pointed out progress the district has made since the settlement with the feds: One of the major problems the federal investigation found was the district’s high level of long-term English learners who were not progressing after years of instruction.

“I think we’ve been able to cut [long-term English learners] by about 10,000 to 15,000 students. We started off with about 40,000 long-term,” Maldonado said.

The district’s poor ELL performance could also add fuel to a lawsuit brought earlier this year by Community Coalition South Los Angeles and a parent that accuses LA Unified of improperly calculating and distributing money from the Local Control Funding Formula, a 2013 state law intended to direct extra money to high-need students. The result, they assert, deprives low-income, foster youth and English language learners of $2 billion in funds that should be directed to their education.

Maldonado sidestepped the question of whether the district needs to dedicate more LCFF funds to its English learners.

“Rather than say it costs more money to educate these children, our office thinks of it more from the perspective of, look at his wonderful assets these kids bring by having a second language,” she said.

Following the release of the tests results last week, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said he is seeking funding from the Legislature and the Department of Finance for three positions within the California Department of Education to help insure that English learners are receiving quality instruction. The move arises out of the settlement of a lawsuit involving English learners,

“Serving English learners, who make up nearly one-quarter of our public school students, is one of my top priorities,” he said. “We are eager to carry out the terms of this settlement, including adding staff and providing additional guidance to districts, so together we can make sure English learners get the support they deserve.”

By Joshua Leibner

What do the most recent California Common Core test scores mean?

This is a question that deserves real attention, but the initial response is not encouraging.

My last LAUSD principal told us four years that we are just “going to have to accept the testing pill” and get on with the program that would have our lives dictated by these tests. And, frankly, I couldn’t think of a better metaphor for testing than some Matrix-style fantasy pill.

In a commentary in LA School Report, Michael Janofsky states: “The new test scores illustrate the magnitude of the problem because they are designed to prepare students for a successful life beyond high school.”

A variation of this belief has circulated throughout the very start of standardized testing, starting, of course, with the IQ test. The tests do not prepare students for a successful life. A million other factors contribute to “a successful life,” but I would rank a test at the very bottom.

The meaning of these results is, in reality, political. First, using new and literally inscrutable tests, administered in a new and for many students inscrutable format, school “reformers” hope to use these bad results to create yet another “sense of urgency” for reform solutions. Which, to no one’s surprise at this point, will involve doubling down on the skills needed to do well on these tests: standardized test preparation and computerized pedagogy.

Hence, the second political meaning of these scores: backlash. LAUSD and the state are now engaged in a “Don’t panic” campaign to staunch a massive Opt Out movement from happening here. This spring, half of the juniors opted out of testing at Palos Verdes High School following the lead of students and parents in New York State. This is of great concern to many leaders of both political parties, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who have put tremendous faith in these tests as an accurate measurement of student “knowledge” and “achievement”.

LAUSD does not have the demographics of Palos Verdes. But discontent with testing crosses class and color lines. What LAUSD fears is that black and Latino and Valley parents will look at these figures and see that their child is marked a “failure” by the test and say enough is enough.

There is no hiding the fact that one in 10 days of instructional time in LAUSD is spent taking these tests, and God knows how much more time preparing for and maniacally cheerleading students to take these tests, which have zero consequence or significance to them.

There are so many assumptions one has to make, believing the questions on the tests themselves truly do measure the “critical thinking” imperative that everyone pays lip service to. So little of that thinking gets emphasized in schools because the way these tests measure and credit it. Teachers are forced to teach test “critical thinking” rather than the more interesting and nuanced critical thinking that can’t be measured on a standardized test.

The entire education apparatus has been dishonest in leveling with the public on what constitutes a “good” education and how that is measured.  Much of this kind of education has been class and race based to the great detriment of students in systems like LAUSD.

The tests themselves are more important than education — at least “education” the way I, as a teacher and parent, would want for both my students and children. Janofsky gestures to the “hard” truths undermining educational achievement: poverty, “for a number of reasons” parents with limited ability to help with school, and insecurity: physical and economic.

And lo, these hard truths are, in fact, the only thing that these tests have actually been proven to measure. Standardized educational testing accurately measures a parents’ income.

What type of education would all parents buy for their kids if they could? A safe, clean, well-lit facility. Small class sizes. Well-trained, well-supported, experienced teachers. Respect for the creative, un-standardizable process of learning. No amount of testing will provide this. Worse, the obsession with test results actually distracts from the critical thinking necessary to make real changes.

Here’s hoping these tests get the honest scrutiny and analysis that they falsely claim to provide about our children. And then we can stop lying to ourselves address the real problems that standardized tests mask.

Joshua Leibner is a National Board Certified Teacher and 20 year veteran of LAUSD and a screenwriter.

However, if there is one piece of gold in the rubble, it is that the district’s black and Latino students were basically even in performance with the statewide average of black and Latino students, give or take a few percentage points depending on the category.

Sixty-one percent of the district’s white students met or exceeded the standards in English, and 52 met or exceeded the standard in math. This compares with 24 percent of the black students and 27 percent of Latino students who met or exceeded the standards in English, and 15 percent of black students and 19 percent of Latino students who met or exceeded the standard in math.

Statewide, the average for all students was 44 percent meeting or exceeding English standards and 33 percent meeting or exceeding the math standard. LA Unifed’s racial demographics is 74 percent Latino, 9.8 percent white, 8.4 percent black, and 6 percent Asian.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson pointed to the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) as the main way the state can work at closing the racial achievement gap. The LCFF first went into effect for the 2013-14 school year and is intended to drive extra money toward students who are English learners, eligible to receive a free or reduced-price meals or foster youth.

“Clearly, we must continue working to eliminate these gaps,” Torlakson said in a statement. “Much work needs to be done, but we are moving in the right direction with our efforts to provide extra resources and services for students and schools with the greatest needs.”

The Smarter Balanced test is aligned with the new Common Core standards and its scores are not comparable to the old API scores, officials have stressed, but Cynthia Lim, LA Unified’s executive director of the office of Data and Accountability, conceded that the gaps remain regardless of what test is being administered.

“I think we still see the achievement gaps that we had in the old test,” Lim said in a phone call with reporters. “I don’t think that the achievement gaps went away because we have a new test. I think we see the same patterns that we had in the past.”

They’ve been talking about these new statewide tests in terms of setting a baseline for the years ahead. 

As a redline.

Statewide, more than half of students taking the test (56 percent) failed to meet state standards for English and a full two-thirds, 67 percent, failed to meet the standards for math.

In LA Unified, the state’s largest district, the numbers were worse: 67 percent fell below the line in English and 75 percent in math.

So now what. The easy thing to do is point fingers. But two hands don’t have enough of them, which is to say, there’s no simple solution here, and no one group is more responsible for the dismal results than the next.

Remember that village we’re always talking about that needs to raise a child?

Let’s start taking roll:

Teachers, principals, school counselors, parents, clergy, extended family, tutors, mentors, volunteers. Oh, and let’s not forget the students, themselves. They bear some responsibility for this, especially the older ones who have been in school long enough to understand the lifelong rewards for paying attention.

LA Unified has plans underway to do its part. Superintendent Ramon Cortines’s recent reorganization of area superintendents includes a requirement for each area chief to design learning strategies tailored to each individual student. Subsets of the overall test scores included breakdowns on specific skills in addressing English and math challenges to help educators identify where help is needed most. Interim tests throughout the year are also part of the plan, to use as measuring sticks for progress.

That’s inside the class room, and in most respects, that’s the easy part.

The hard part is what happens from the end of one school day to the beginning of the next.

For too many students, home is a vacuum of scholastic support. For any number of reasons students are left on their own with no supervision, no encouragement, no role models: Parents are working. No one speaks English. Family responsibilities take precedence over homework. Neighborhoods provide an unsafe environment for study. In some cases, there’s little food in the house to stave off hunger.

Need help with that math problem or essay? You’re on your own, kid.

These are well beyond educational challenges. These are entrenched societal issues that are short-changing a generation of young Americans. They are especially urgent in districts like LA Unified, where vast numbers of children are growing up in poverty.

The new test scores illustrate the magnitude of the problem because they are designed to prepare students for a successful life beyond high school. Unlike the statewide tests they replaced, the new tests require more than memorization of multiplication tables. They require critical thinking and deeper levels of comprehension — that’s what college and job markets demand.

As low as the results might be, they at least provide educators a clear pathway forward. As professionals, they are trained to identify areas of academic need and address them. Even with overcrowded classrooms, a shortage of teaching materials and inefficient technologies, they now know how to engage the process, and most will succeed to the extent they can.

It’s the rest of us we should be worried about. 

• * UPDATED

This one is sure to spark some discussion around LA Unified water coolers tomorrow: Independent charter schools in the district scored almost even with traditional and affiliated charters on the new California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance (CAASPP) tests.

The results of the new Common Core-aligned tests, which were released today, show that traditional/affiliated charter schools and independent charter schools are within two and half percentage points in overall performance in both math and English language arts, according to the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA).

The CCSA crunched the numbers on independent charter schools in the district and the state, as the information released by the California Department of Education provided overall scores for school districts but only individual scores for independent charter schools.

The CCSA released a press release touting the results, saying that LAUSD’s independent charter schools are “performing 26 points better on English Language Arts and 25 points higher on Math.” However, considering the scoring scale is between 2,000 and 3,000, the difference is roughly 2.5 percent. Both are still below the state average, with LAUSD schools 28 points below overall and its independent charters three points below.

Statewide, charters scored 4.9 points better than non-charters in English language arts and 2.4 points better in math, according to a press release by CCSA. This equaled a three percent difference in English and within the same percentage point on math.

As the debate about the value of charters is heating up to new levels since the news that billionaire school reform leader Eli Broad and several other powerful players are planning a massive expansion of charter schools in LA Unified, these numbers are likely to be spun in both directions by the opposing sides of the charter debate.

*Updated to show the difference is 2.5 percent, not .025

LAUSD vs. state on CAASPP tests

Three quarters of LA Unified students who took the new statewide Common Core-aligned tests for math and two-thirds of students who took the tests for English failed to meet state standards, according to data released today by the California Department of Education.

The scores on the new California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance (CAASPP) reflect results from more than 267,000 students in traditional district schools and the district’s 53 affiliated charter schools. They do not include scores from students who attend the 221 independent charters within LA Unified — those scores were not immediately available as an overall score, only individually by school.

Overall, 3.2 million students took the tests statewide.

LA Unified officials were quick to downplay the significance of the results, saying the overall performance is comparable to results from the old Standardized Testing and Reporting, or STAR, program, which was last given in 2013. California has been without statewide testing for two years.

“I think we still see the achievement gaps that we had in the old test,” said Cynthia Lim, LA Unified’s executive director of the office of Data and Accountability, in a phone call with reporters. “I don’t think that the achievement gaps went away because we have a new test. I think we see the same patterns that we had in the past.”

The district cited a comparison to 11 other large urban districts in the state, showing that LA Unified scored in the middle of the pack and fared better than on a statewide comparison. Among the other districts, including San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego and Oakland, LA Unified scored ahead of four in English language arts and ahead of five in math.

“How we compare to other districts today and how we compared in the past, I think we see a similar pattern in terms of our performance,” said LA Unified Chief Deputy Superintendent Michelle King.

However, King also sought to downplay any comparison to past tests. When asked what the district will say to a parent angry about their child’s or school’s performance, she said she would tell them that “it is baseline data, that it is not comparable data to tests that they have taken in the past and also showing them the plans for their specific school and how we are going to work with their youngster in the school,” King said.

In a statement, LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines also downplayed any significance that could be attached to the test results.

“This is not a time to be pleased or displeased with the results, as these assessments provide a roadmap for how we can better prepare our students for college or the workforce,” he said. “Each of our local districts will be analyzing these results so that we can strategically provide support to individual school sites.”

The state gave practice tests last year, but the results were not publicly released, making today’s numbers the first temperature-taking of students on a statewide basis that can be used for comparative purposes in the years ahead. The results are available by state, district or direct funded charter school on the Department of Education website, and the state will eventually devise a new accountability system based on the CAASPP.

Test results for independent charters is available school by school, but the district and the California Charters Schools Association both said they were still crunching the numbers to provide an overall score for independent charters.

The new tests — known as Smarter Balanced Assessments —  differed from the previous paper-and-pencil tests in that they were given on desktop computers, laptops and tablets. And in replacing multiple-choice choice questions, Smarter Balanced questions were designed to show how well students could write, analyze and solve real-world problems.

The new tests were also computer adaptive, which means that a correct answer on one question would produce a more challenging question while a wrong answer led to an easier question. As a result, students in the same class often got different questions.

The tests were given to students in grades 3 through 8 and 11, and the results placed them in one of four categories: standard exceeded, standard met, standard nearly met and standard not met.

On English skills, 41 percent of LA Unified students did not meet the standard, 26 nearly met, 23 percent met and 10 percent exceeded the standards. The numbers were well below the statewide average, which saw 31 not meeting the standard, 25 nearly met, 28 met and 16 exceeding the standard.

Results from grades 3 and 4 were the worst, with 71 percent of students in each grade failing to meet the state standard.

On math skills, 47 percent of LA Unified students did not meet the standard, 28 percent nearly met, 16 percent met and 9 percent exceeded the standard. Statewide, 28 percent did not meet the standard, 29 percent nearly met, 19 met and 14 percent exceeded the standard.

Grade 11 students fared the worst in math, with a full 80 percent failing to meet the state standard.

Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Ruth Perez pointed to the district’s large number of poverty and English learners as a top reason for the district’s below average performance.

“I think we find above all our poverty is definitely still an issue for the performance of our students, and the acquiring of a second language, our English language learners… but the gap between our [English language learners] and our non-English language learners is still there,” Perez said.

However, when compared with the statewide average, LA Unified still trailed in those two categories. Eighty-two percent of the district’s English learners did not meet the standards in English and 79 percent did not meet the standard in math, compared with a 65 percent statewide average of English learner students who did not meet the standard in both English and math. The districts’ economically disadvantaged students fared better when compared to the statewide average, but still scored lower.

LA Unified officials, as well as the state Department of Education, have repeatedly used the word “baseline” when referring to this year’s results and stressed that the public should not draw too many conclusions from them. Over the last few months, state and local education leaders stressed that the tests are aligned with the new Common Core standards, which districts and educators are still learning themselves how to teach. They also pointed that the test is new and it was the first time it was administered statewide online, which presented new and unique challenges.

“The results show our starting point as a state, a window into where California students are in meeting tougher academic standards that emphasize critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical writing,” California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, said in a statement. “California’s new standards and tests are challenging for schools to teach and for students to learn, so I am encouraged that many students are at or near achievement standards. However, just as we expected, many students need to make more progress. Our job is to support students, teachers, and schools as they do.”

United Teachers Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl — who has frequently clashed with district leaders over the last year — also downplayed the significance of the new test results in a rare example of agreement with district leaders.

“It’s not unusual when you move from one testing regime to another, it takes a while for the system and the students to get used to that test. I’m not surprised by (low scores),” he said on KABC over the weekend before the results were released but in reference to being asked about the anticipation that the scores will be low.

Aside from data per district and school, parents and guardians of students in the state will be receiving individual reports on their child’s scores. King said the district will use the data to work with individual schools and teachers that need better professional development to improve scores.

“We have already begun that process of messaging and working with families around expectations for the results, what the results mean, helping to inform and and give them information about the assessments,” King said.