California’s poor students performed worse on a national exam than needy kids from all but one other state, according to results released this week by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Congratulations, folks. We beat Alaska.
These students’ lackluster scores on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress come despite the state’s $31.2 billion investment in their learning under a new school funding method championed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013.
And although the average California fourth-grader from a low-income family scored a few points higher on this most recent test than a decade ago, poor students’ scores on the test have declined since the state’s investment.
CALmatters reported last year that Brown’s school funding policy, known as the Local Control Funding Formula, has largely failed to bridge the academic achievement gap between the state’s poor students and their wealthier peers.