“Rudolph also pointed out that the district has seen an increase in socioeconomically disadvantaged and homeless students. Last school year 30.6% of Mountain View Whisman students were considered socioeconomically disadvantaged, up from 27.2% the year before. The number of homeless students increased from 4% to 5.7%.”

Almost 1/3 of the children in MV Whisman are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Wow. The number of homeless students increased. And yet ALMOST ALL of the housing being built in MV are market rate units, and we don’t have plans to build the 6,225 affordable units that the state “requires” of us. Why not?

I found this comment from the CA Dept of Education press release kind of weird:

“Given the ongoing drops in achievement appearing on many national tests and the relationship between student advantage and achievement, California’s statewide scores are particularly promising; the proportion of high-need students has also increased in California. Specifically, the proportion of students tested who are socioeconomically disadvantaged increased from 60 percent in 2022 to 63 percent in 2023, as shown in the chart below, and the number and share of students who are experiencing homelessness or who are part of the foster care system has also increased.”

Like MV Whisman, there has also been a statewide increase in the % of socioeconomically disadvantaged children, with the new number being 63%. Again, wow. But the press release calls the “ongoing drops in achievement” ... “particularly promising” ? What am I missing? Because what I hear is something along the lines of “we did a pretty good job based on the fact that we are having to teach a larger number of children from disadvantaged backgrounds”.

It seems to me that a VERY IMPORTANT bit of information is being buried: the number of disadvantaged children is increasing, both at the state level and also right here in Mountain View. I think that’s a factoid that we should all be aware of.

About one-third of California's students passed the math test. I can't believe I'm reading this.

Dear neighbor Leslie / now here is some math I know! The change in SED percentage, is largely due to the drastic drop in Pandemic era monetary supports that really helped all CA poor families - more than they affected middle-income. So some of that SED increase, is just readjustment, back to the old #s and %s in MVWSD. (ed-data.org 10/15 updated demographic data)
Enrollment flat at 4522, #SED 1,283 down from 1,315 in '20-'21 , and up from 1,103 in '21-'22
Percent SED '19-'20 30.8%, '20-'21 27.7%, '21-'22 24.4%, 2022-23 28.4% // repeat CDE 28.4% twenty eight point four percent//

REVIEW: the academic tests are from SY 2022-23 / Rudolph is quoting This School Year's rise to 30.6% SED. (SY 2023-24 Oct Census Day) // repeat California Department of Education SED 28.4% SY 2022-23 //. PLEASE lookitup and checkmywork!

"Rudolph also pointed out that the district has seen an increase in socioeconomically disadvantaged and homeless students. Last school year 30.6% of Mountain View Whisman students were considered socioeconomically disadvantaged, up from 27.2% the year before. The number of homeless students increased from 4% to 5.7%." This administrator may be using data from the wrong year to ...??? I don't even see where his 27.2% comes from (reporting mistake?)

I 'believe' the reporter's description, and discount the PR work of the District and Superintendent.