By Jon Chown
Aptos High School led all schools in the district with an 11.6 percentage-point gain in English language arts on California’s statewide academic tests, the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. Aptos High gained 4.5 points in mathematics.
PVUSD Superintendent Heather Contreras announced the preliminary 2025-26 results at the recent Board of Trustees meeting.
“When we see double-digit growth, that is significant,” Contreras said.
Pajaro Valley High School also notched big improvements, gaining 11 points in English and 5.6 points in math. Combined, it was the largest increase of any school in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District.
Contreras said she was particularly proud of PV High’s improvement. When she arrived, she heard a lot of comments about the high school being overlooked. Since then, she said the district started an early college program at the school, giving students an opportunity to earn an AA degree while getting their diploma. More Advanced Placement classes have been added and other improvements have been made.
“We have put a significant investment into Pajaro Valley High School … and we’re looking at how that is paying off,” she said.
Contreras also pointed to big improvements at Cesar Chavez Middle School and Lakeview Middle School. In English, Cesar Chavez Middle School improved 5.4 points and Lakeview Middle School gained 5.1 points. In math, Cesar Chavez Middle improved 5.7 points and Lakeview Middle gained 5.3 points.
Contreras said the big gains at the two high schools and two middle schools showed that there is a significant push to change instructional practices in order to help students achieve.
“We’re really impressed with what teachers are doing there and what leadership is doing over there,” she said.
Contreras also reported some big gains at elementary schools. Starlight Elementary led the elementary schools with an 8.4-point increase in ELA, followed by Hyde Elementary at 5.5 points, Calabasas Elementary at 5.4 points and T.S. MacQuiddy Elementary at 5.1 points.
In math, Hyde Elementary led with a 5.7-point gain. Freedom Elementary gained 1.9 points, Starlight and Calabasas each improved 1.7 points, and T.S. MacQuiddy gained 1.5 points.
Contreras presented the results on a large chart she called her “leaderboard.”
Districtwide, however, PVUSD reported just a 2.4-point improvement in English language arts and a 0.9-point gain in mathematics on the CAASPP. “It’s not great, but it’s still growth,” Contreras said of the district’s math score.
CAASPP is California’s statewide testing system. Students in grades three through eight and grade 11 take the Smarter Balanced assessments in English language arts and mathematics. The tests are designed to measure students’ progress toward meeting California academic standards.
California is scheduled to release official 2025-26 statewide results on Oct. 15. In 2024-25, the state reported a 1.8% improvement in both English and math.