Hollister
– Academic Performance Index results were released for local
schools yesterday, and while Hollister School District improved its
scores substantially from last year, San Benito High School
District saw scores sink.
Hollister – Academic Performance Index results were released for local schools yesterday, and while Hollister School District improved its scores substantially from last year, San Benito High School District saw scores sink.
The Academic Performance Index is a statewide ranking system of all public schools. A school’s rank is determined by student performance on the Standardized Testing and Reporting exams each year and, in some cases, the California High School Exit Exam. Schools can earn a base score anywhere between a low of 200 to a high score of 1,000; currently, the statewide goal is 800.
Later in the spring, the state will use these scores to rank schools on a one-to-10 scale, with 10 being in the best, against the California average and also against schools with similar demographics in regard to race, socioeconomic status and how many students are English learners. This is also when schools learn what their improvement goals for the 2007 batch of STAR tests will be.
HSD was given an “improvement target” of 5 points from the state, meaning that the district was expected to raise its base score from 698 to 703. The district exceeded that goal by 14 points.
Moreover, all of the district’s major subgroups exceeded their individual targets – in this case students were broken down by ethnicity (white and Latino were the only two considered “statistically significant” by the state), whether the students are English learners, have a disability or are considered “socioeconomically disadvantaged,” meaning the student qualifies for a free or reduced-price lunch program. All of these groups improved between 21 and 32 points.
“I’m very pleased with these results, and congratulate our schools, our principals, our teachers and our students,” HSD Superintendent Ron Crates said. “But we still have a long way to go.”
Cerra Vista Elementary School has the highest overall score among the six elementary and two junior high schools in the district at 787, but Gabilan Hills improved the most overall, exceeding its goal of six points with a total improvement of 36.
Both junior high schools improved substantially – Marguerite Maze improved by 30 points over a goal of 6 for a base score of 706, and Rancho San Justo exceeded its goal of five by nine points for a base score of 717. R.O. Hardin missed its goal of eight by two points, and Sunnyslope was the only school to lose points, three, but still had a fairly high base score of 723.
“This is the data we use all year so that we know which areas we need to work on,” Crates said.
For older students, the news isn’t as bright. San Benito High School District dropped from a base score of 681 to 666, losing 15 points as a district overall. SBHS itself actually dropped 17 points; the goal for the school was a five-point improvement.
“Sometimes that happens after you have a a large gain,” Director of Educational Services Cindy Cordova said. SBHS saw an increase of 25 points in 2005. “But this is definitely going to be a focus point for our year. We need to make sure that our classes are aligned with the standards on the test.”
San Andreas Continuation High School, a school designed for students who cannot thrive in a conventional high school setting and the only other school in the district, improved its scores by 32 points, for a total score of 487, which is still relatively low.
The other high school in the county, Anzar High of the Aromas/San Juan School District, exceeded its five-point goal and improved by 22 points, for an overall score of 729.
Each one of SBHS’ subgroups were charged with an improvement goal of four points, and all dropped from their scores in 2005. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students lost the most footing with a drop of 24 points, white students dropped 21 points, Latino students dropped 17 points and disabled students dropped 10 points.
“Those numbers are all pretty close,” Cordova said. “It shows that we need to work on monitoring student progress across the board.”
Subgroup performance information for San Andreas is not available because the school is so small – only 73 students were tested.
While STAR scores determine the rank of a school on the API, they have no bearing on individual students’ grades, though letters are sent home to parents with a printout of each students’ performance in each subject area. As a result, students sometimes tend to blow the tests off.
“That is definitely a challenge,” Cordova said.
Educators stress, however, that the results are important. The federal government determines Adequate Yearly Progress from API scores as part of the No Child Left Behind Act and, should a particular school fail to progress for several years in a row, it could face sanctions and even state takeover. Moreover, colleges have access to the API rankings of all schools they receive applicants from, and use those figures to help determine the quality of the education an applicant has received.
Students begin taking this year’s STAR exams in the first week of May.
For more information on API rankings visit www.cde.
ca.gov
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected].
