This is an excerpt of On Assignment, education writer Theresa Harrington's blog on Contra Costa County schools. Read more and post comments at IBABuzz.com/onassignment. Follow her at Twitter.com/tunedtotheresa.

Aug. 24:

The state's release of California High School Exit Exam results this week marked the beginning of test score season.

On Friday, the state expects to release STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) test results, which show whether students in grades 2-11 were proficient in math, English and other subjects last year. In October, the state will release Academic Performance Index and Adequate Yearly Progress reports, which will show whether schools and districts met state academic growth targets, as well as federal targets under No Child Left Behind.

Some schools and districts in Contra Costa County consistently score above state averages on these tests, while others tend to score below.

Based on this data, the Acalanes, Liberty, Martinez, Mt. Diablo and San Ramon Valley districts surpassed the state average this year, along with the Leadership charter. The Antioch, John Swett, Pittsburg and West Contra Costa district results fell below state averages, along with those of students at the West Community charter high school.

The Contra Costa County Board of Education recently

West Contra Costa school Board President Charles Ramsey told me he was happy with improvement students in the district have made over the past six years, since the state began administering the test. However, he said the board was so unhappy with student achievement at Kennedy High in Richmond that it has put in a new administrative team there. Fifty-one percent of Kennedy's sophomores passed the math portion of the high school exit exam and 58 percent passed the English portion.

"Kennedy's got to get better," he said. "It's not working."

You can see how your school and district did at www.contracostatimes.com/data/ci_21366891/2012-cahsee

How do you think districts should help struggling students?