By Richard Bammer
At Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy, the test numbers arguably speak for themselves and they might say a new math curriculum introduced to fifth-graders last year helped to yield astounding scores on the 2017 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, or CAASPP.
Slightly more than 71 percent of fifth-graders at the Elm Street independent charter school, nearly 60 students, met or exceeded state standards on the statewide test given last spring. Of those, nearly 53 percent exceeded the standards in the third year of the assessment for students in grades three to eight and 11, measuring their understanding of mathematical rules and ideas, their ability to apply problem-solving skills, and their ability to express how they reached an answer. Of nearly 350 students tested schoolwide, Kairos’ math scores, with nearly 51 percent meeting or exceeding state standards, were among the highest in Solano County, well above state, county and surrounding-district averages.