Selma Unified sees growth in math and ELA scores, major improvement in middle school math

SELMA, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Selma Unified School District is celebrating gains in academic performance.

Seventh grade math teacher Eric Garza whips around the classroom from group to group.

He chimes in as he watches his students work a problem and helps out as needed.

"My goal, personally, every day, is just to get a little bit better," Garza said.

That mind set of "a little bit better each day" is what led Selma Unified School District to put big plans in place last school year.

Below the state average in English Language Arts and Math, the district wanted to increase both by five growth points.

They were able to achieve that in ELA.

They were able to exceed that in math with 7.5 growth points district-wide.

But as they took a closer look at the numbers, they found the biggest gains at the middle school level.

Seventh-grade students grew by 20 points, and eighth-grade students grew by 15 points.

After teaching 9th and 10th-grade math for years, Garza says the results were a welcome surprise.

"And so seeing that for my first year teaching seventh grade, it was exciting. It was kind of reassuring," Garza said.

He credits the collaboration between math teachers but also attributes success to every teaching strategy they use. That includes everything, down to how students are grouped together at their desks.

Each group of four has a high-performing student, a low-performing student, a high-medium-performing student and a low-medium-performing student.

"And what this is going to do is it's going to allow for peer feedback and peer assistance, but also where the students are not feeling intimidated by the person that they're sitting next to," Garza said.

Garza says he has seen growth not just academically, but also in behavior.

He hopes each of his students is able to move on with their education confidently.

"I hope that all of our students are developing a better understanding, a deeper understanding, conceptually, of our math topic so that when they do get to the next level, they are fully prepared," Garza said.

While the district hasn't determined a specific number of points they're shooting for this year, they said the goal is always continuous growth.

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