Pajaro Valley Unified School District students are showing improvement in several key academic areas, including college and career readiness, science and English language arts, according to the latest data from the California School Dashboard.
The district also saw a nearly 4% decrease in chronic absenteeism, while suspension rates dropped to 0.3%, according to a press release issued Friday.
Superintendent Heather Contreras said the improvements reflect the district’s focus on specific academic goals, along with teachers’ willingness to adopt new instructional practices.
“I think one thing that speaks to us is where we’ve set our sights on improvement, that’s where we see improvement,” Contreras said. “So we know the strategies that we’re engaging in are the strategies that are showing us that we’ve picked the right strategies.”
Among the biggest gains was a 7.4% increase in the district’s College and Career Readiness Indicator, which moved PVUSD into the dashboard’s green performance category.
The indicator measures whether students graduate prepared for college or employment, including completion of college-preparatory courses and career technical education pathways.
Contreras said improving that measure has been a priority since she became superintendent in May 2024.
“That’s a big increase,” she said. “And that’s one of the things that we’ve been focused on since I got here. So we’re really excited to see our efforts pay off there.”
Part of that work has involved ensuring students complete the sequence of courses required for admission to California’s public universities, known as A-G requirements.
Contreras said district officials identified ninth-grade English and math as common points where students fall behind in completing those requirements.
PVUSD has been working with California Education Partners and using a process called GRIT to identify those gaps and develop strategies to address them.
The district has also expanded career technical education offerings.
Contreras said PVUSD previously offered numerous career technical education classes, but students could not always complete an entire pathway, which requires both intermediate and advanced coursework.
District officials have since worked to ensure those courses are available.
Another focus has been students with disabilities, who historically have had lower rates of college and career readiness.
Contreras said the district saw significant improvement among those students.
The district’s press release also attributed part of the overall increase to improved reporting of transition services for students with disabilities.
In other areas, science performance moved into the green category, while graduation rates remained steady.
Contreras said the graduation rate is also in the green category, the second-highest performance level on the dashboard.
Chronic absenteeism, which measures students who miss at least 10% of the school year, decreased by approximately 4%.
Contreras said improving attendance and graduation rates have been priorities since she arrived, with goals of reaching 98% in both categories.
Mathematics remains an area of concern, however.
While districtwide math scores held steady, Contreras said several schools showed significant gains after implementing new instructional programs and teacher training.
She pointed to Calabasas, H.A. Hyde and Ann Soldo McQuitty elementary schools, where the district introduced a math program formerly known as Swun Math and now called Paradigm.
PVUSD plans to expand successful teaching strategies to other schools while continuing to focus on foundational math and literacy skills.
Contreras credited teachers for the improvements, saying their willingness to participate in professional development and bring new practices into classrooms has been essential.
“The board sets the vision and then the people in the system carry out the vision,” she said.
“And so it’s really teachers in the classroom, their hard work, their willingness to engage in professional learning and then implement it at the classroom level. And then the real winners are the students.”
