CARLSBAD - The Carlsbad superintendent of schools will give a "state of the district" presentation Wednesday night when the board convenes for a regularly scheduled meeting at Carlsbad City Hall.

"We'll look at district goals and successes and report back to the board in how we're doing," Superintendent John Roach said of the 6 p.m. meeting.

The presentation will focus on measures of student success, with data derived from standardized state tests that show continued academic growth throughout the district, Roach said. The first half of the presentation will be "numbers-heavy" with data from the Standardized Testing and Reporting, the California Standards Test and the California High School Exit Exam.

Roach noted that the district met all 34 criteria required by federal No Child Left Behind legislation, and that more students are graduating from high school according to the exit exam data.

Roach said district officials will continue to work toward raising test scores for testing subgroups such as Latinos, blacks and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds who have historically scored lower on the tests than white and Asian students.

"We should work on that," he said, noting that Carlsbad's scores reflect the national trend called the "achievement gap."

"A high achieving school district like ours has the same responsibility to make sure we're doing whatever it takes to provide learning (for students in all subgroups)," he said. "It's a challenge for education nationally."

Roach said the second half of the presentation will feature a video called "Carlsbad on the Move" created by students in teacher Doug Green's high school broadcasting class. The district hired a parent to oversee the video project that highlights the good things happening around the district. Roach said the district contracted for the video to use as a marketing and recruitment tool.

- Contact Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or online at pireland@nctimes.com.