“Despite Declining Test Scores, Lincoln High Witnesses an Increase in Graduation Rate”
On a warm October afternoon, community Lincoln High members and parents crowded into a room at a county building in southeastern San Diego for a monthly meeting on schools linked to Lincoln High. School staff, including co-principal Melissa Agudelo, extensively discussed Lincoln’s new community school designation and its college and career pathways. However, at the end of the meeting, the presentation of the school’s state standardized test scores by Stephanie Brown, one of Lincoln’s principals, left attendees struggling to decipher an illegible graphic.
Lincoln High
Even in the front row, where Francine Maxwell, a former president of the San Diego branch of the NAACP and a dedicated community advocate, sat, the data on the slide was unreadable. If visible, community members would have discovered that the majority of Lincoln’s eleventh graders were not meeting California’s educational standards, with only 11 juniors meeting state standards in math.
Despite San Diego Unified’s persistent efforts to eliminate achievement gaps in lower-income, predominantly Latino, and Black schools like Lincoln High, the school’s test scores have remained at the bottom of the district’s high schools for years. Notably, Lincoln’s graduation rate has increased even as its test scores dipped to new lows.
During the 2022-23 school year, about 23 percent of Lincoln’s eleventh graders met state English standards, an improvement from the previous year but still significantly lower than the district’s average. In math, only three percent of eleventh graders met state standards, with a consistent 40 percentage point difference from the district average. However, the school’s graduation rate has risen, reaching 89 percent in the 2020-21 school year, its highest in seven years.
While Lincoln’s current graduation rate is comparable to other City Heights high schools like Crawford and Hoover, its test scores remain significantly lower. The complexity of equating standardized test scores with graduation rates arises from variations in scores among eleventh graders from year to year, and the imperfect match between scores and graduating students.
Some education officials, like San Diego Unified board member Richard Barrera, dismiss the significance of test scores, citing biases and their limited insight. Barrera believes other datasets, such as students’ grades, college eligibility, college performance, and graduation rates, offer more valuable indicators of a school’s performance.
For community members, Lincoln’s test scores are not surprising, considering its long-standing struggle with student performance. A decade ago, former Superintendent Cindy Marten highlighted Lincoln’s challenges as central to America’s struggle in education. The school’s difficulties have led to administrative shakeups, including the recent implementation of co-principals and a Small Schools Pathway approach.
The co-principals, Agudelo and Brown, emphasize post-pandemic recovery efforts, including extended credit recovery programs and connections with local industries. While they acknowledge the significance of test scores, they assert that test scores are only one metric to understand students’ performance.
LaShae Sharp-Collins, a professor at San Diego State University and a Lincoln High School graduate, challenges the flatness of test scores as a metric, emphasizing the intangibles and support that schools like Lincoln provide. She praises the dedication of adults at Lincoln, from the administration to sports coaches, who genuinely care about students’ well-being, contributing to the wide gap between junior year test scores and subsequent graduation rates.
In summary, Lincoln High School grapples with persistently low test scores while experiencing an increase in graduation rates. The debate over the significance of test scores and alternative indicators continues among education officials, community members, and Lincoln graduates who take pride in the school’s unique offerings and supportive environment.
