The state Smarter Balanced test scores for the 2023-24 school year have been released, and while students around the state continued to struggle post-pandemic, Bainbridge Island students on the whole demonstrated consistent college-ready performance.

BI School District scores were on the heels of the Mercer Island School District, with 82.8% of students scoring at or above their grade level in English and language arts and 74.8% in math. BISD students outperformed Mercer Island students in science by a hair — 74.9% to Mercer’s 73.1% — and exceeded Bellevue and Issaquah students in all subjects.

“The key takeaways are that we continue to make progress towards our goal of 80% of our students meeting or exceeding standards, and that we continue to use our multi-tiered systems of support to support students that are not yet meeting those benchmarks, and our commitment to the whole child,” said BISD director of teaching and learning Whitney Skarbeck. “Knowing that these assessments are helpful, they are important because it helps to drive our instruction, but it is not the only part of why we are here.”

Smarter Balanced Assessments, or SBAs, are standardized tests issued to students annually in 3rd-8th and 10th grade to determine whether students are meeting state and federal learning benchmarks, including being on track for college. All students take an English-language arts and a math test, but only 5th, 8th and 10th graders have the option to take a science test.

The tests also collect demographic data, such as race, gender, income level, parental military involvement, disabilities, and so on, and collate data by school.

Tracking the test scores over the years can reveal patterns of performance in individual cohorts of students. School board president Evan Saint Clair noted that student math performance in the eighth grade dipped by almost 13%, which Skarbeck attributed to the particular cohort of students.

Math learning loss is tricky because it’s less common for families to be comfortable assisting students at home with math-related assignments, explained superintendent Amii Thompson.

“One of the things that we are looking forward to offering this year is an elementary-aged math night for families to come and participate in math games and other evening events that are math-focused,” said Thompson.

But not all students are facing the same hurdles. Many BISD students’ scores indicate a strong foundation in math.

Out of the 406 3rd and 4th-grade students on the island who took the test, Blakely students showed the highest overall mastery of all school subjects. Over 60% of Blakely bulldogs showed above-grade-level proficiency in both math and English, and over 70% of 4th graders showed the highest level of performance in math.

Other BISD elementary schools showed that about three-quarters of all students were performing at or above their grade level in math and English.