Newsroom
More Riverside County students
are passing high school exit exam
Eighty-two percent of Riverside County high school sophomores passed in the English Language Arts and the Mathematics halves of the state’s High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) in 2011. That marked a gain of 2 points in both categories over 2010 performance, and best-ever scoring since exam results were first recorded in 2004.
Riverside County students also registered big gains on the list of the 16 largest counties in California, moving into the upper division of the list for the first time. Riverside’s ranking jumped three spots, from tenth to seventh, in passing rate for mathematics. It improved two spots, from ninth to seventh, in English Language Arts.
Key subgroups of Riverside County’s students also made important gains. The county’s Hispanic, African American and economically disadvantaged students all outperformed the state average on the CAHSEE.
“Riverside County’s students have come a long way since this test was created, and they’re rising up through the ranks of students in comparable counties,” said Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Kenneth M. Young. “That’s a great sign of discipline and determination among our students. They understand the importance of graduating from high school and the CAHSEE is a major milestone in that process. They’re taking it seriously, and working hard to succeed.”
The CAHSEE is designed to ensure that all high school graduates have achieved a solid foundation of knowledge and skills in English Language Arts and mathematics, based on state-adopted content standards. Students first take the test in Grade 10. Those who don’t pass have two more opportunities to take it in Grade 11 and three more in Grade 12.
The new numbers reflect the scores of the more than 33,000 tenth-graders who took the CAHSEE in Riverside County in 2011. The number of Grade 10 students passing the exam since 2004 has increased by 8,444 in the English Language Arts portion, and by 8,890 in mathematics.
Subgroup performance broke along familiar lines for statewide testing, but also reflected the welcome fact that in Riverside County, the achievement gap is closing. White students passed both halves of the exam at a 90 percent rate. Hispanic and African American students passed the English Language Arts portion at a 78 percent rate; on the math portion, the passage rate was 79 percent for Hispanic students and 75 percent for African American students. Economically disadvantaged students likewise passed at a 76 percent rate in English Language Arts and 78 percent in math. But year-over-year gains among those key subgroups -- Hispanic, African American and economically disadvantaged -- were all in the 2-to-4 percent range, accounting for much of the lift in the overall numbers.
Based on the 2011 CAHSEE results, the top five performing school districts in Riverside County are Murrieta Valley USD, Temecula Valley USD, Corona-Norco USD, Riverside USD and Beaumont USD.
For information contact:
Tom Willman, Public Information Officer
Telephone: (951) 826-6180
Fax: (951) 826-6199
twillman@rcoe.us |
