San Benito County’s two largest school districts showed
significant improvements on their state Academic Performance Index
scores, but both districts also were nearly 100 points below the
statewide target, according to results released Wednesday by the
California Department of Education.
Hollister – San Benito County’s two largest school districts showed significant improvements on their state Academic Performance Index scores, but both districts also were nearly 100 points below the statewide target, according to results released Wednesday by the California Department of Education.
However, the Hollister School District failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards, which are federal accountability measurement put in place for 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, for the second year in a row. As a result, this will be the first year the district will be slated for Program Improvement under No Child Left Behind.
The San Benito High School District, however, met the AYP standards this year after failing to do so for the last two years. If the high school district meets AYP standards next year, it will shed its current Program Improvement status. Schools that fail to meet the AYP under No Child Left Behind Act are also subject to sanctions which eventually include allowing parents to pull the children from the under-performing schools if the AYP is missed for several consecutive years.
SBHS Superintendent Jean Burns Slater said the API gains show the district is on the right path.
“We’re starting to move forward,” Slater said. “Scores have improved as a result of the hard work of teachers and staff.”
The high school district, which includes both San Benito High and San Andreas Continuation School, also gained 22 points on the state API, jumping from a score of 663 in 2004 to 685 in 2005. San Andreas showed smaller gains and lower scores than San Benito High. San Andreas gained 7 points, moving from a score of 449 last year to 456 this year. San Benito High posted a 30 point gain in API scores this year, moving from 671 to 701, but fell 99 points short of the statewide target score of 800. Only 12 percent of high schools statewide made the target score.
Slater and other district officials will continue work to improve test scores, she said. Officials have already revised and implemented a new schedule designed to provide extra help to struggling students and give other students more opportunities to take electives. The district will also emphasize math skills this year, Slater said.
She credited improvements in both federal and state accountability systems to the dedication and hard work of the entire school community. Specifically, she cited teachers emphasizing state standards and corresponding administrative curriculum changes. She also said students were more serious about the test this year compared to last year.
Meeting AYP standards also was good news for the district, Slater said.
“We were concerned with the way (AYP standards) were interpreted last year,” Slater said. “So we are very pleased this year.”
The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act is to have 100 percent of students nationwide score as proficient or above on standardized tests by 2014.
The county’s largest district, Hollister School District, also showed improvement on state API scores, but failed again to meet federal AYP standards.
The district, which serves more than 6,000 students, gained 21 points rising from 677 to 698 on the Academic Performance Index. However, that number was 53 points below the statewide median score of 751, and 102 points below the state target. However, only 32 percent of California elementary schools met the state API target of 800 this year.
Despite receiving scores below the state median, Interim Superintendent Ron Crates said he was proud of the results.
“The district should be really pleased with the progress it has made on the API,” Crates said. “We’re not pleased with the score, but we are pleased with the improvement.”
Crates will meet with district officials next week to discuss how scores can be improved. The district will take an “in-depth” look at the current English-learners development program and will also track individuals to make sure all students are learning the necessary skills, he said.
“Anytime you get new information, you have to make adjustments,” Crates said.
Crates and others recognize the need for improvement and he guaranteed such improvement would be visible in next year’s API scores.
“The API scores will go up significantly next year,” Crates said.
HSD also failed to meet the federal accountability standards for the second year in a row and has been slated for Program Improvement (PI) for the first time ever. More information about the district’s PI status will be made available Sept. 15 by the California Department of Education.
However, No Child Left Behind requirements are clear. For example, all district’s identified as Program Improvement districts are required to notify all parents of that fact. Additionally, the district must develop or revise a plan for improvement and submit it to the California Department of Education.
Hollister School District failure to meet federal requirements is consistent with statewide trends. The percentage of schools making AYP fell to 56 percent in 2005 from 65 percent in 2004.
Federal and state accountability standards can be confusing, but schools and districts throughout the state must be responsible for meeting the standards of both. California’s accountability requirements are reported in terms of Academic Performance Index (API) criteria to measure the improvement of schools and districts on a year-to-year basis. Each year schools and districts are given a minimum growth target, which varies from school to school and is based on scores from the beginning of the year. API scores range from 200 to 1,000 and the statewide target for all schools is 800.
In similar fashion, federal accountability requirements are reported in terms of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) criteria to measure academic success according to how well it meets common performance targets.
The two standards are very different. For example, a school can meet the state standards for API, but fail to meet federal standards for AYP. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell made the differences between the two accountability systems clear in a press release Wednesday.
“It is important to remember the dramatic escalation in the AYP targets when viewing this year’s results,” O’Connell said in a press release. “The dichotomy in the progress reports released today underscores why we support our state API growth model as a more accurate reflection of trends in our schools.”
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or br******@fr***********.com.
