All but one San Benito County school saw a jump in achievement
growth from last year according to the statewide Academic
Performance Index (API) report released Tuesday, however the
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report, a federal assessment also
released yesterday, showed mixed results.
Hollister – All but one San Benito County school saw a jump in achievement growth from last year according to the statewide Academic Performance Index (API) report released Tuesday, however the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report, a federal assessment also released yesterday, showed mixed results.
“We’re pleased that this is an accurate demonstration of where our curriculum is, but we’ve still got room to grow,” San Benito County Superintendent Tim Foley said about the API results.
Every school in San Benito County, except for San Andreas Continuation High School, reached the goal of raising their growth rate by one point or scoring higher than 560, and more than 60 percent of California schools also reached this goal, according to the Department of Education. Growth rates can range between 200 and 1,000 points.
The API is a statewide report which tells individual schools whether they’ve grown academically. The AYP, on the other hand, is compiled by the federal government and assess a school’s progress by setting different benchmarks. AYP results determine standards for the No Child Left Behind Act – a federal law requiring schools to have all students proficient in math, English and reading by 2014. API results are a part of the AYP.
In order to comply with the No Child Left Behind requirements, schools must have 95 percent participation during testing, between 9 percent and 16 percent of students must be proficient in English and Language Arts and 16 percent in Math, along with meeting the API growth target.
Even though some schools saw a drop in their scores, like Tres Piños School, Foley said the important thing is the trend of higher scores.
“When we look at the scores from a few years back, we see incredible improvement,” he said. “This is a marathon, not a sprint. We’re looking at maintaining and sustaining the direction we’re going.”
Lou Medeiros, principal of Tres Piños School, was disappointed when he saw that his schools’ API growth rate dropped by 20 points to 776, but he says that’s one downside of being a rural school.
“We test between 105 and 111 kids,” he said. “So when you think about it, we have nine second-graders and three of them did poorly. When your school is this small, three or four kids’ scores can really skew your results.”
Another rural school, Willow Grove Elementary, saw its growth rate jump by 51 points. Principal Carole Brummet agrees with Medeiros, and said test results from rural schools can change drastically each year.
“We’re so small, from one year to the next our students change, so it’s impossible to compare,” she said.
While API growth rates provide a lot of information about academic growth in California schools, it is only one part of the AYP.
Foley, along with California Superintendent of School Jack O’Connell, is upset with what the federal government asks of the schools and students. Unlike the API, which reflects growth in student achievement from one year to the next, the AYP measurement reflects simply whether a school and all of its significant subgroups of students met a single benchmark, according to the Department of Education. A school not meeting AYP may have fallen short in every category, or missed the mark narrowly by failing one of the many criteria measured.
“The fact that 317 schools grew 30 points or more (on the API), yet failed to make the federal benchmark, illustrates why I believe a growth model for accountability such as we have here in California more accurately reflects actual student learning,” O’Connell said.
Hollister School District is a good example of the difference in test scores. Six of the eight schools saw growth on their API scores, but only one of the eight passed the AYP proficiency rate in math and English. This can become problematic when the schools score poorly on the AYP a few years in a row. If a school doesn’t demonstrate that a certain percentage of its student are proficient two years in a row, the school can be labeled “under performing” and parents have the right to take their children out of the school and place them somewhere else, according to the Department of Education.
Calaveras Elementary and R.O. Hardin have failed to pass the AYP standards in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003, but Foley said parents chose to keep their children in the schools.
“There is a big vote of confidence in the school communities here,” he said. “I think parents have a lot of confidence in the principals and teachers.”
The final AYP results determining which school didn’t meet the No Child Left Behind requirements will be released at the end of September. An updated report is released a month later because schools are allowed to dispute scores, according to the Department of Education. In order to help these schools pull their scores up, Foley said the County Office of Education will continue to focus on finding what is causing the drop in scores in the first place.
The difference in assessments between the API and AYP has motivated Foley and many other California educators to head to Washington D.C. over the past few years. Their goal has been to talk with the federal government and try to find a way to align the AYP curriculum with the California state standards.
“We have worked so hard to set up our curriculum to the state standards, and we’ve seen so much improvement over the years, that it would be more accurate if the AYP reflected that,” Foley said.
For a complete report of each schools scores, log onto www.cde.ca.gov, and click on “Tests and Accountability.”
API Scores
School 2004 Score 03-04 Growth
Aromas School 692 +11
San Juan School 713 -13
Anzar High School 699 +53
Bitterwater-Tully 815 +26
Cienega 868 -5
Calaveras Elementary 602 -21
Cerra Vista Elementary 738 +5
Gabilan Hills Elementary 653 +15
Ladd Lane Elementary 728 +10
R.O. Hardin Elementary 620 +17
Sunnyslope Elementary 675 -8
Maze Middle School 678 +12
Rancho San Justo 683 +10
Jefferson Elementary 647 N/A
Spring Grove School 691 -4
Panoche Elementary N/A N/A
Alternative Opport. 388 +21
Juvenile Hall 435 +4
San Benito High School 670 -2
San Andreas Cont. 447 N/A
Southside Elementary 832 +38
Tres Piños School 776 -20
Willow Grove Elementary 749 +51
Source: California Department of Education
