New Emery School District Test Scores Plummet

 Emery School District Slides Precipitously

Department of Education Shows Emery on Bottom Academically

School Board Election Claims Shown to be False

Board Member Brynnda Collins
She got the endorsement of the
Alameda County Democratic Party
and she told voters to "Keep Emery
on track".

The California Department of Education has released new test score data that tracks an academically plummeting Emery Unified School District, getting worse over last year’s results which already had Emery in the basement.  The plunging test scores reveal Emery to be once again, in last place among all Alameda County school districts, a position the district has inhabited for several years running.  

The district fell from 23% proficiency in math last year to a new low of 14% proficiency, a dreadful nine point slide; making Emery the worst performing district in the county.  English proficiency wasn’t much better.  That plunge from 37% to 34% proficiency, makes Emery now second only to San Lorenzo Unified School District, a district with a much lower number of students with English as their primary language.  When that is factored, Emery performs lower than San Lorenzo in English (as well as math).

The test results show while Emery is taking up last place outright in math and very nearly in last place in English proficiency, the rate of ‘English learners’ at Emery (22%) is much lower than at the second and third worst placing districts, Hayward and San Lorenzo.  Those two districts show a rate of 28% and 30% of students classified as English learners.  Emery is shown to have a ‘Hispanic’ student population of 24% while Hayward and San Lorenzo have 64% and 28% Hispanic population.  Both those two districts show Hispanics as the primary student demographic. 

Board President
Susan Donaldson
During the election campaign
she told voters the district's test score
data was "misinformation being
shared by someone running for
School Board". 
Now what does she say?

When the two primary test scores in math and English, tracked by the State are numerically combined, Emery registers at 48 while Hayward and San Lorenzo total 53 and 62 respectively, making Emery the worst performing school district in Alameda County (even before factoring in the English learners handicap).

Emery is also unique among East Bay school districts with its high administration cost.  Emery has the highest ratio of administration to students of any district in the East Bay.  The data reveals that even though Emery spends by far the most money per student, they spend only 19% on actual instruction, the lowest amount of the money taken in of any district in the East Bay.  The lion’s share of revenue at Emery goes to administration salaries and election consultants.

The disheartening new data from the Department of Education comes after a November School Board election that featured three incumbents gushing over how good they are at their jobs and how the voters must not risk putting in a new person with different ideas about how to run the district.  School Board President Susan Donaldson told voters in October the three incumbents were doing a “great job” and that Emery is a “top rated” school district, never mind the actual data from the State.  Board member Brynnda Collins warned voters not to listen to anybody who brings up test data but instead insisted we must keep Emery “on track”. 

School Board member Regina Chagolla
She insisted voters re-elect her and the 
other incumbents because new ideas 
must not be allowed to take hold at Emery.

The Tattler editor Brian Donahue, who ran a low cost insurgent campaign for the Board countering the three incumbents, told the voters the top down, administration heavy Emery should try a new path by putting teachers in a higher position and paying them more.  It was a stance the three incumbents strongly refuted, stating the teachers were happy with what they have at Emery.  Mr Donahue ran on the three incumbent’s records, reminding voters of the low test scores putting Emery in last place, a charge the three refuted.  Hiding the fact that Emery’s English language learner rate is much lower than San Lorenzo and Hayward, President Donaldson made a case that Emery is only the third worst district in Alameda County and that is part of what makes Emery “great”.  

Notably, the three incumbents refused to answer the Tattler election questionnaire for voters last October, a first in Emeryville electoral politics, and none of the three would comment on the new State of California Department of Education data for this story.

Straight From The State
These numbers are as critical for Emeryville residents to know as they are 
 inconvenient for the three incumbents.