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There were 42 Teach for America (TFA) members who had student schedules in both the October 2022 and February 2023 periods. Of those, 33 teachers instructed grades and subjects where students participated in the statewide assessment. The goal of this Research Brief is to estimate the instructional effectiveness of the TFA members in 2022-2023 as compared to that of other teachers in the District by examining how well students who were taught by TFA members performed academically compared to other Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) students.

When a student enrolls in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) for the first time, the student's parents/guardians complete a Home Language Survey. This survey inquires whether a student's first language is a language other than English, whether a student's primary language is one other than English, and whether a language other than English is used at home. If at least one of the answers is yes, the student is tested to determine his/her English proficiency. Based on the results of this assessment, the student is either classified as an English Language Learner (ELL) or deemed proficient in English. Depending on the English proficiency levels, ELL students are enrolled in specific ESOL courses tailored to meet students' language needs. English proficiency levels for ELL students in M-DCPS range from ESOL 1 (lowest) to ESOL 4 (highest). The English proficiency levels of students are reassessed annually, and the appropriate ESOL placement is determined based on the testing results. ACCESS for ELLs is currently used as the State-mandated English Language Proficiency test. ACCESS for ELLs stands for Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners. Once it is ascertained that a student has acquired English proficiency and satisfied the State requirements for exit from the ESOL program, the student exits the program and is re-classified as formerly ELL (ESOL level 5). In this report, students' achievement in the ESOL program is disaggregated by grade and ESOL level. The academic achievement results of former ELL students disaggregated by the number of years since ESOL exit are included in this report. For comparison purposes, the performance of students who have never been classified as ELL is also included in the report.

When a student enrolls in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) for the first time, a Home Language Survey is completed by the student's parents/guardians. This survey inquires whether a student's first language was a language other than English, whether a student's primary language is a language other than English, and whether a language other than English is used at home. If at least one of the answers is Yes, the student is tested to determine his/her English proficiency. Based on the results of this assessment, the student is either classified as an English Language Learner (ELL) or deemed proficient in English. Depending on the English proficiency levels, ELL students are enrolled in specific ESOL courses tailored to meet students' language needs. English proficiency levels for ELL students in M-DCPS range from ESOL 1 (lowest) to ESOL 4 (highest). Students' English proficiency levels are reassessed annually, and the appropriate ESOL placement is determined based on the results of that testing. Currently, ACCESS for ELLs is used as the State-mandated English Language Proficiency test. ACCESS for ELLs stands for Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners. Once it is ascertained that a student has acquired English proficiency and satisfied the State requirements for exit from the ESOL program, the student exits the program and is re-classified as formerly ELL (ESOL level 5). In this report, the achievement of students in the ESOL program is disaggregated by grade and ESOL level. The academic achievement results of former ELL students disaggregated by the number of years since ESOL exit are included in this report. For comparison purposes, the performance of students who have never been classified as ELL is included in the report as well.

This is the 2020-2021 annual report on the academic progress of English language learners in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This report addresses the following three areas: (1) Demographic characteristics of students classified as English Language Learners (ELL); (2) English language acquisition results of ELL students on the State's English Language Proficiency assessment known as ACCESS for ELLs; and (3) Academic achievement results of students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program and those who exited the ESOL program on the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) and End-of-Course (EOC) assessments. [For the 2019-2020 report, see ED618087.]

This Information Capsule utilized National Student Clearinghouse and Senior Exit Survey data to report on the post-secondary plans and college enrollment of Miami-Dade Public Schools' graduates who were part of the 2015-2016 cohort. M-DCPS' four-year graduation rate for students enrolled for the first time in the Fall of 2016 was 47%. This rate was almost two percentage points higher than the national rate in 2014, as reported in the latest publication from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

This is the 2019-2020 annual report on the academic progress of English language learners in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This report addresses the following two areas: (1) Demographic characteristics of students classified as English Language Learners (ELL); and (2) English language acquisition results of ELL students on the English Language Proficiency assessments known as ACCESS for ELLs. Each of these two areas is described in a separate section of the report. In previous years, annual ELL reports also included a section on academic achievement results of students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program and those who exited the ESOL program on the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA), and End-of-Course (EOC) assessments. However, the Spring 2020 State assessment has been cancelled because of the closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [For the 2018-2019 report, see ED618088.]

The AlphaFold computer program predicted protein structures for the whole human genome, which has been considered as a remarkable breakthrough both in artificial intelligence (AI) application and structural biology. Despite the varying confidence level, these predicted structures still could significantly contribute to structure-based drug design of novel targets, especially the ones with no or limited structural information. In this work, we successfully applied AlphaFold in our end-to-end AI-powered drug discovery engines constituted of a biocomputational platform PandaOmics and a generative chemistry platform Chemistry42, to identify a first-in-class hit molecule of a novel target without an experimental structure starting from target selection towards hit identification in a cost- and time-efficient manner. PandaOmics provided the targets of interest and Chemistry42 generated the molecules based on the AlphaFold predicted structure, and the selected molecules were synthesized and tested in biological assays. Through this approach, we identified a small molecule hit compound for CDK20 with a Kd value of 8.9 +/- 1.6 uM (n = 4) within 30 days from target selection and after only synthesizing 7 compounds. Based on the available data, the second round of AI-powered compound generation was conducted and through which, a more potent hit molecule, ISM042-2 048, was discovered with a Kd value of 210.0 +/- 42.4 nM (n = 2), within 30 days and after synthesizing 6 compounds from the discovery of the first hit ISM042-2-001. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported small molecule targeting CDK20 and more importantly, this work is the first demonstration of AlphaFold application in the hit identification process in early drug discovery., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

As the state and city begin to reopen following the COVID-19 pandemic, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) conducted an online Districtwide survey of parents of students who currently attend and who plan to attend M-DCPS during the 2020-2021 school year. The Reopening of Schools Parent Survey gathered information from parents regarding their preferences and attitudes toward the reopening of schools. Over 100,000 respondents completed the survey, representing over 155,000 students who will be attending M-DCPS in 2020-2021. Results from the survey indicate a nearly equal preference for the three attendance options presented to the parents (physical, distance learning, or combination). The strongest contributor to attendance preference was anticipated parental work arrangement. Moreover, parents indicated a clear preference for their children attending school all days of the week in shifts or on alternate days. These results continue to hold even when considering grade level and other students characteristics such as ESE, ELL, and gifted. Most parents agreed with a series of preventative measures M-DCPS is considering for physical attendance including temperature checks, washing hands, wearing face masks, eating meals in classrooms, and one-way movement in school buildings; less support was found for the elimination of outdoor recess. While attitudes and preferences might change as more sectors of the country begin to reopen and other developments with COVID-19 occur, the overwhelming response to this survey provided a large representative sample that is similar to the District as a whole. Survey results revealed an understanding of parent choices, including their desire to have the same option for all children in the household regardless of grade level and having their options closely tied to their work arrangement.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) began the development and planning of various models for the reopening of schools in 2020-2021 following school closures and distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Reopening of Schools Teacher Survey was developed and distributed to MDCPS instructional personnel. The survey asked various questions regarding the respondents' preferences and attitudes toward the reopening of schools. A total of 18,622 respondents completed the survey out of the 19,250 instructional personnel who were sent the invitation to participate. Results from the survey indicate that the majority of respondents have no impediments for returning to work either virtually or physically. Overall, the survey showed teachers' willingness to get back to work and their inclination toward a physical or combination of physical and virtual delivery of instruction. Differences in preference for returning to work were found when examining this preference by grade level grouping. Survey respondents in the Elementary, K-8, and Other grade level groupings believe students would benefit the most from attending school all days of the week in shifts should the school buildings reopen. On the other hand, those in Middle and Senior High school grade level grouping believe students would benefit the most from attending on alternate days. Most teachers agreed with a series of preventative measures M-DCPS is considering for physical attendance including temperature checks, washing hands, wearing face masks, and one-way movement in school buildings; less support was found for eating meals in classrooms. The Reopening of Schools Teacher Survey gathered valuable input needed by M-DCPS leadership. It provides a better understanding of the teachers' opinions and feedback regarding the reopening of the schools that can be utilized in the planning for the 2020-2021 school year.

This Research Brief describes a model developed as an alternative method for making ESOL exit decisions in 2019-2020. Given the cancellation of the 2019-2020 Statewide student assessment, FSA ELA results which are used as one of the two major components for making ESOL exit decisions will not be available, and an alternative method is needed. This Research Brief describes the development of such a method and assesses its potential effect. The results show that the model can be used for making ESOL exit decisions in 2019-2020 and that these decisions would be conservative: it is unlikely that a student would be exited from ESOL prematurely by using the proposed model.

This report examines one component of the current school accountability system--learning gains. We find that learning gain percentages are affected by a variety of factors including starting achievement level, socioeconomic status, and English language learner status when the current definition of learning gains is used. Hence, we propose a new methodology for defining learning gains in terms of scale score increase targets. Under this new definition, students who are behind their peers in academic achievement will be required to demonstrate higher scale increases to meet the target for learning gains. We find that the proposed definition of learning gains reduces the variability in percentages of students making such gains depending on their initial achievement results. In addition, it reduces the gap between the learning gain percentages for certain accountability subgroups.

Delaying school start times may help in alleviating some of the negative effects of the lack of sleep among adolescents. There appears to be a consensus among various researchers that later school start times are associated with an increase in total sleep time in adolescents, although some researchers find that such an effect might be fleeting. In addition, later school start times are associated with better behavioral health, decreased tardiness, and a decreased rate of vehicle crashes for school-aged drivers. Findings on the effects of delayed school start times on student academic performance appear to be inconsistent.

This study found that as early as the beginning of kindergarten and before any formal schooling began for most students, the achievement gap already existed. It was mostly related to students' poverty, ELL status, and SWD status, as well as to schools' having larger proportions of economically disadvantaged students. Students from poor families (as measured by the FRL eligibility), English language learners, and students with disabilities were academically substantially behind their demographically similar peers in both reading and mathematics. Students enrolling in schools with a higher concentration of FRL students were also behind their demographically similar students attending schools with smaller poverty rates; that was true for both academic subjects. Minority students were behind their demographically similar peers in mathematics, but not in reading. During the first four academic years reading and mathematics learning occurred at equitable rates across all Elementary and K-8 schools. On the other hand, learning rates were related to student characteristics. ELL and Formerly ELL students showed substantially greater learning rates in both reading and mathematics than their demographically similar peers leading to a reduction in an achievement gap between ELL and non-ELL students. On the other hand, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities demonstrated substantially smaller annual learning rates in both academic disciplines than their peers leading to an increase in achievement gaps. Minority students demonstrated smaller annual rates of academic growth: Black/African American students -- in both reading and mathematics, while Hispanic students -- in reading but not in mathematics. Again, these smaller rates of academic growth only exacerbated achievement gaps.

Curriculum Associates' i-Ready is an adaptive diagnostic and individualized instructional tool that has been used in M-DCPS in the last few years. In addition, Curriculum Associates provides the District with results of their predictive model, which uses the students' outcomes on the Fall and Winter i-Ready diagnostic testing as well as the schoolwide percentages of students scoring proficient on the previous year's Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics to estimate the individual student probabilities scoring at every achievement level on the subsequent FSA ELA and Mathematics grades 3-8. Predictive Capability of i-Ready was first examined in June 2017 and described in the corresponding Research Brief. This Research Brief examines 2018-2019 i-Ready prediction data and their relationship with the 2018-2019 FSA outcomes in ELA and Mathematics. [For the corresponding Research Brief, "Exploring the i-Ready Predictive Capability," see ED598679.]

This is the 2018-2019 annual report on the academic progress of English language learners in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This report addresses the following three areas: (1) Demographic characteristics of students classified as English Language Learners (ELL); (2) English language acquisition results of ELL students on the English Language Proficiency assessments known as ACCESS for ELLs; and (3) Academic achievement results of students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program and those who exited the ESOL program on the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) and End-of-Course (EOC) assessments. [For the 2017-2018 report, see ED618086.]

This is the 2017-2018 annual report on the academic progress of English language learners in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This report is the first annual report designed to satisfy the requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that was signed into law in 2015. School year 2017-2018 was the first year in which state and local educational agencies were required to implement the provisions of that law. This report addresses the following three areas: (1) Demographic characteristics of students classified as English Language Learners (ELL); (2) English language acquisition results of ELL students on the English Language Proficiency assessments known as ACCESS for ELLs 2.0; and (3) Academic achievement results of students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program and those who exited the ESOL program on the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA), and End-of-Course (EOC) assessments. [For the 2016-2017 report, see ED618085.]

This Research Brief investigated differences among schools in the initial student achievement and annual rates of ELA growth in middle grades using a variety of student and school demographic characteristics. It found a statistically significant difference in the initial ELA achievement but not in the annual rates of ELA growth between students in K-8 Centers vs. those in traditional middle schools and between students in traditional vs. charter schools. In addition, the Brief identified schools with relatively high rates of annual ELA growth. These schools may have found some pedagogical approaches that resulted in higher rates of ELA learning. These approaches may deserve a deeper look by the District curriculum staff.

This Research Brief describes a possible method of operationally defining what constitutes English proficiency for English language learners. In addition, it describes specific results on the English Language Proficiency test that correspond to English proficiency defined in that way. Furthermore, it suggests practical uses for such information.

The Extended Foreign Language (EFL) program is a "school within a school" dual language program in which students are instructed in both English and a language other than English (Spanish or French) with one hour of daily instruction in that language. Most of the schools participating in the program implement the English/Spanish version of dual language instruction. The implementation of the EFL program began in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) in 1997. In 2012-2013, the District initiated an expansion of the EFL program that began with grade K students and expanded by one grade level per academic year. In 2016-2017, many elementary schools had implemented the EFL program in their entire grade K-5 span. Generally, students are placed into the EFL program in Grade K at the request of their parents and depending on the number of seats available. The goal of this Research Brief is to compare the achievement of students in the EFL program with that of their peers and to determine whether learning the second language distracts students from mastering core academic subjects. Because the selection and placement of students into the program are not random, one needs to employ a suitable analytic methodology to enable proper comparisons.

The goal of this Research Brief is to identify schools in which English Language Learners (ELLs) exhibit high growth in English language acquisition. In 2015-2016, a new English Language Proficiency test, known as Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-toState for English Language Learners (ACCESS for ELLs) was used for the first time in Florida. In prior years, the Comprehensive English Language Learning Assessment (CELLA) was used in the State. Because these two instruments use different scales, student results are not directly comparable.

This is the 2015-2016 annual report on the academic progress of English language learners in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The purpose of the report is to: (1) Describe the demographic characteristics of students classified as English Language Learners (ELL); (2) Compare and contrast the academic achievement of students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program on the 2015 and 2016 End-of-Course (EOC) and Advanced Academics assessments; and (3) Describe the baseline results of ELL students on the new English Language Proficiency assessment knows as ACCESS for ELLs 2.0. [For the 2014-2015 report, see ED618083.]

Imagine Learning is a computer-based instructional program used with English Language Learners (ELLs) in the District. It is designed to provide instruction specifically to ELLs. During the 2014-2015 school year, the Imagine Learning (IL) program was implemented across the District, mostly for students at the initial level of participation in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. Students who started participating in the program no later than November of 2014 and accumulated at least 20 hours of program participation were selected for potential inclusion in the Program Sample. Not all schools started participating in it at the beginning of the school year. This fact and the almost universal implementation of the program presented a challenge in selecting acceptable samples of students participating and not participating in the program. The results of the statistical analyses indicate that program students did not outperform comparison students (in the sense of statistically significant differences) in any of the comparisons.

This is the 2014-2015 annual report on the academic progress of English language learners in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The purpose of the report is to: (1) Describe the demographic characteristics of students classified as English Language Learners (ELL); (2) Compare and contrast the academic achievement of students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program on the 2014 and 2015 End-of-Course (EOC) assessments; and (3) Describe the progress made by ELL students in the area of English proficiency based on the results of the Comprehensive English Language Learning Assessment (CELLA) during the 2014-2015 period. [For the 2013-2014 report, see ED618082.]

In accordance with the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law of 2001, 100% of students were expected to become proficient on state assessments of reading and mathematics by the end of 2013-2014 academic year. Schools that consistently failed to meet the NCLB's Adequate Yearly Progress requirements were subject to penalties. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education invited each State educational agency (SEA) to request flexibility regarding specific requirements of the NCLB in exchange for "rigorous and comprehensive State-developed plans designed to improve educational outcomes for all students, close achievement gaps, increase equity, and improve the quality of instruction." In order to receive flexibility from the NCLB Adequate Yearly Progress requirements, states had to develop and implement "high-quality teacher and leader evaluation and support systems that are based on multiple measures, including student growth as a significant factor and other measures of professional practice." At the time of the publication of this brief, most states received flexibility waivers. Currently, these states are at different stages in the process of implementing their teacher evaluation and support systems. Many of them use Value-Added Models (VAM) similar to those used in Florida, while others use the Student Growth Percentile (SGP) approach. In this brief the authors compare three methods of teacher evaluation: (1) the State system employing value-added models; (2) a district-level procedure using single-level regression; and (3) a common alternative approach utilizing student growth percentiles. All three methods start by constructing predictions of student test performance based on prior achievement data and student characteristics. At this basic building block level, all three approaches produce virtually identical results. As the methodologies diverge in techniques of aggregation, teacher-level and school-level summary indices begin to separate, but remain remarkably comparable.

Curriculum Associates' i-Ready is an adaptive diagnostic and individualized instructional tool that has been used in M-DCPS in the last few years. In addition, in 2016-2017, Curriculum Associates provided the District with results of their predictive model, which used the outcomes of the Fall and Winter i-Ready diagnostic testing to estimate the probabilities of a student scoring at every achievement level on the 2017 FSA ELA and Mathematics for students in grades 3-8. In this Brief, the results of the 2017 FSA are used to investigate the quality of the i-Ready's predictive results.

This is the 2013-2014 annual report on the academic progress of English language learners in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The purpose of the report is to: (1) Describe the demographic characteristics of students classified as English Language Learners (ELL) in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS); (2) Provide data regarding ELL students' academic performance on the 2013 and 2014 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test 2.0 (FCAT 2.0) and End-Of-Course (EOC) Assessments; and (3) Describe the progress made by ELL students in English language acquisition based on the results of the 2013 and 2014 Comprehensive English Language Learning Assessment (CELLA). [For the 2012-2013 report, see ED618081.]

This is the 2012-2013 annual report on the academic progress of English language learners in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The purpose of the report is to: (1) Describe the demographic characteristics of students classified as English Language Learners (ELL) in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS); (2) Provide data regarding ELL students' academic performance on the 2012 and 2013 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test 2.0 (FCAT 2.0) and End-Of-Course (EOC) Assessments; and (3) Describe the progress made by ELL students in English language acquisition based on the results of the 2012 and 2013 Comprehensive English Language Learning Assessment (CELLA). [For "English Language Learners and Their Academic Progress: 2011-2012," see ED618080.]

The time it takes for an English Language Learner (ELL) to reach reading proficiency in English depends on the grade level of entry into the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program and on the student's initial English proficiency level. The summary table below presents the average years to English proficiency across different grade levels for students entering the ESOL program at beginning Level 1 versus the more advanced Levels 2-4. For the majority of students who enter as ELLs in 9th grade or higher, the time in high school is not sufficient to reach reading proficiency in English. For no student group defined by the initial grade and ESOL level combination is one year of learning adequate to reach levels of English proficiency sufficient for students' FCAT results to be interpreted as valid indicators of what students know and are able to do in the content areas of reading and mathematics. In fact, students who enter the ESOL program at the lowest level of English proficiency in grade 3 or later (the majority of students) do not reach levels of FCAT reading achievement comparable to those of non-ELL students even after four academic years of learning English. Thus, the inclusion of the FCAT results of ELL students into the state accountability system after only one year of English learning puts the schools and school districts with large numbers of ELL students at a distinct disadvantage. (Contains 1 table.)

The survey results indicate that school administrators are familiar with the Instructional Performance Evaluation and Growth System (IPEGS); most rate themselves as proficient in conducting teacher observations. In addition, a majority of school administrators report a high degree of familiarity with both the IPEGS standards and the four-point rating rubric. A large majority of school administrators consider the 2011-2012 IPEGS training as helpful or very helpful in preparing school administrators to rate instructional personnel on achieving both observable and non-observable standards.

Due to budgetary concerns, the FDOE restructured the Writing portion of the FCAT assessment program for 2010. Among the changes was a difference in how the writing essays were scored. In the past, two people independently judged each essay and each assigned a score from 1 to 6. In the event of a disagreement between judges, the average of the scores was assigned. Thus, "half-value" final scores like 2.5 and 3.5 were possible results. When it came to grading schools, the convention was to have the percent of students scoring 3.5 or higher constitute the writing component of the overall point total. However, in 2010 only a single judge would score each essay. Scores between integer values (2.5, 3.5, etc.) would no longer be possible. Since a score of 3.5 could not occur, it would not be possible to summarize a school's performance in an equivalent manner comparable to the "percent scoring 3.5 or higher" standard of the past. To keep the school summary scores as alike in meaning as possible, some accommodation to the school grading methodology would have to be introduced. Since a numerical school summary defined by the "percent scoring 3.5 or higher" would not be strictly possible, the initial solution considered was to simply substitute the average of the "percent scoring 4 or higher" and the "percent scoring 3 or higher." On the surface, this seems to make sense; after all, the average of 3 and 4 is 3.5. However, while this proposal superficially seems straightforward and fair, there is a subtle source of systematic bias hidden in that kind of computation. The purpose of this paper is to explain the nature of the calculation error and suggest an alternative procedure that would provide a more accurate estimate consistent with the "3.5 or higher" traditional approach.

Since the inception of the FCAT, the scaled scores students receive have been summarized by categorizing them into levels of performance. For every single test (in one subject area, at one grade level, for one year) the State of Florida has carefully determined cutoff scores that classify performance into 5 different levels of proficiency. It seems quite natural to refer to the percentage of students beyond a particular cutoff, as when one says a certain percentage of students scored at Level 3 or above. However, this seemingly straightforward "percent-above-cutoff" type of summary statistic when used to describe improvement in performance has subtle built-in difficulties that can lead to grossly inaccurate inferences. There are alternative ways of summarizing FCAT performance that are just as simple and easy to interpret as percent-above-cutoff type descriptions but do not carry with them the inherent dangers. It is the purpose of this paper to show exactly when and how the commonly used FCAT reports can go wrong and suggest alternative statistics that keep one on the right track.

The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) is the primary measure of student achievement applied to the grading of the Florida public schools. School grades utilize a point system in which schools are awarded one point for every percent of students: (1) scoring in achievement levels 3-5 in Reading; (2) demonstrating learning gains in Reading; (3) in the lowest 25% of Reading making gains; (4) scoring in achievement levels 3-5 in Mathematics; (5) demonstrating learning gains in Mathematics; and (6) scoring 3.5 or above in Writing. Each school gets points toward their school grade in direct proportion to the number of students meeting the standards in six different component areas. This paper depicts the changes in FCAT points earned toward school grades in both the District and the State over the last three years. In all component (except Writing, where standards were raised in 2005) the District has demonstrated greater gains than the State and, in some components, exceeded the State's performance. It is important to exercise caution in attributing changes in student achievement to specific causes. There are a great many of potential influences on achievement and, in many cases, trends in the district seem to be paralleled by similar trends across the state. However, the improvements observed over the past three years in achievement scores and school grades are hard to interpret as anything but substantial improvement for the district.