O​​verview

On Oct. 21, 2021, the Department released Strive HI Performance System results ​for School Year 2020-21, the ninth year under the state-designed school improvement and accountability system and requirements of federal law. 

The data reflect downward trends in academic performance seen across the nation due to impacts from the pandemic.

For the 2020-21 school year that ended in May, the U.S. Department of Education offered states a waiver from certain accountability requirements, which included the waiving of the 95% participation rate requirement, acknowledging that all states would have difficulty administering tests due to the large proportion of students in blended or full distance learning environments. 

A penalty is typically applied to proficiency results for all tested-grade students and subgroups if the 95% participation rate is not met. For the 2020-21 school year, 85% of students statewide tested in language arts and math, which is within the threshold for allowing decision-making using test-derived results.

• Overall statewide academic proficiency in English language arts, math and science decreased:
• Language arts proficiency decreased 4 percentage points to 50% in 2021 from 54% in 2019.
• Math proficiency decreased 11 percentage points to 32% in 2021 from 43% in 2019.
• Science proficiency decreased 9 percentage points to 35% in 2021 from 44% in 2019.
• Third-grade literacy (reading near/at or above grade level) increased by 1 percentage point to 76% in 2021 from 75% in 2019.
• Eighth-grade literacy (reading near, at or above grade level) increased by 6 percentage points to 77% in 2021 from 71% in 2019.
• Ninth-grade promotions decreased to 85% in 2021 from 93% in 2020.
• Career and Technical Education (CTE) program completion increased to 61% in 2021 from 58% in 2020.
• Graduation rate increased for the third-straight year, to 86% in 2020 from 85% in 2019.
• College-going rate decreased by 5 percentage points, dropping to 50% in 2021 from 55% in 2020.

For the 2019-20 school year, the U.S. Department of Education offered states the option to waive required statewide assessments. As a result, comparisons of 2020-21 proficiency and other test-derived results such as growth, achievement gap and literacy rates are gauged against 2018-19 results.

2020-21 Reports

• The Statewide Snapshot: A one-page summary of statewide student and school performance on metrics across grade spans as well as those that are specific to elementary, middle and high schools. [NOTE: A correction was made for some schools’ “% of students learning English who are on-track to English language proficiency” in March 2022.]
  
• The Strive HI Master Data File: Spreadsheet​​​ with comprehensive data across all measures for each school (some data are suppressed to protect student privacy at schools with small populations). [NOTE: A correction was made for some schools’ “% of students learning English who are on-track to English language proficiency” in March 2022.]
  
• The Strive HI Technical Report: provides detail on how the measures are calculated​.
  
• School Performance Reports: Each school's report provides a snapshot of key indicators. [NOTE: A correction was made for some schools’ “% of students learning English who are on-track to English language proficiency” in March 2022.] You can use the Report Finder​ to search for reports by school and school year, or:
  • Public Schools: Use the School Finder tool to find the school page you're looking for. Each school page has a link to its performance report. (To better understand how to read these reports, please view this sample annotated report.) For a small number of schools, details from these reports are not publicly available because of the small student population; data are suppressed to protect student privacy.
    
  • Charter Schools: Reports are available on the Charter Schools' page.​​​