Aware of All Students

A well-off district uses data to shine a spotlight on its segment of struggling learners.

By Rhea R. Borja

Irvine, Calif.

As the pride of this planned city in affluent Orange County, the Irvine public school system regularly sends about 60 percent of its graduates to four-year colleges and garners top marks on statewide accountability reports.

With a record like that, it would be easy to let the successes of the district’s many high-performing students mask the struggles of hundreds of others who underachieve academically.

Yet educators in this 25,000-student district know that they can’t afford to coast. Though the district ranks toward the top on California’s Academic Performance Index, it must keep improving or face possible state sanctions under the federal No...