Latest State Reports Show Growth, Declines at San Diego Unified

On Thursday, California released its latest batch of student performance metrics. The data included quite a few bright spots for San Diego Unified — but also some worrying declines.

The district’s graduation rate showed a marked increase, likely helped along by officials’ creation of new graduation pathways . The percentage of graduates who qualified as “prepared” under the state’s career and college indicator metric also increased. In both metrics, San Diego Unified outperforms other large urban districts in the state.

Some negative metrics decreased, like the district’s suspension rate and the number of students who were chronically absent. Post-pandemic, chronic absenteeism reached crisis levels for districts across the country. Despite the declines, the district still hasn’t erased the pandemic-era increase.

And while student math performance continued to inch up, performance declined in two important areas – students’ scores on English standardized tests and the percentage of English language learners who were making progress toward proficiency. The decline in performance on English tests erased nearly all of the district’s progress toward erasing post-pandemic declines.