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Schools in South Bay Improve on State Index

Posted on: Thursday, 1 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

Nearly 68 percent of local schools charted double-digit gains on a state performance index in 2005, and an additional 16 percent inched up the scale, according to figures released Wednesday by the state Department of Education.

Far fewer, however, managed to clear math and English proficiency hurdles set by the federal government's No Child Left Behind law. The bar went up by nearly double this year, and just 66 percent of local schools were deemed to be making adequate yearly progress toward the law's goal of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

Statewide, the discrepancy was even more striking: 81 percent of California schools made significant gains on the Academic Performance Index, a 17-point increase over 2004. But on the federal report card, just 56 percent of schools met targets, down 9 percent from last year.

The conflicting reports left many schools unsure whether to cheer or frown at the results and education leaders struggling to explain the difference between the measures, which are based on student scores from the same battery of standardized tests taken last spring.

The state API, which assigns each school a triple-digit number on a scale of 200 to 1,000, rewards growth, while the federal measure requires all ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups within a school to meet the same standards, which increase over time. If one group fails, the whole school fails.

Federal benchmarks increased significantly this year. Elementary and middle schools are now expected to chart student proficiency levels of at least 24.4 percent in English and 26.5 percent in math, compared to last year's goals of 13.6 percent and 16 percent, respectively. High schools now must post student proficiency levels of 22.3 percent in English and 20.9 percent in math, up from 11.2 percent and 9.6 percent.

In addition, graduation rate requirements are written into the federal assessment, and the state's performance index is also factored in.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said this year's results underscore why he and many other education leaders prefer the state's method of charting growth as "a more accurate reflection of trends in our schools."

"With data showing six years of improved student achievement, we know that California schools are headed in the right direction," O'Connell said. "We now need to maintain the focus on high standards to keep up the momentum for improved student achievement at all schools."

In the Torrance Unified School District, API scores were up at 24 of the 29 traditional elementary, middle and high school campuses, and all but seven have reached the state's ultimate performance target of 800 since the API began seven years ago.

Moreover, every site easily sailed over the achievement bar set by the federal government. But Laurie Love, TUSD's assistant superintendent of educational services, said that will get more difficult as the bar continues to rise in the years ahead, leading to a day when all schools will be expected to produce 100 percent proficiency rates.

"What is expected is great," she said, "and wouldn't it be wonderful? Whether it can be achieved, I don't know."

In the meantime, Love said all districts can do is continue to offer good instruction that's aligned to California's specific curriculum standards.

"You really cannot teach to the test," she said. "The test changes every year. I think what you have to do is teach the standards and make sure that your instruction is at a high level so that you're doing a lot of applications and synthesis and having students really learn to think critically, because the tests are really written that way."

Statewide and across the South Bay, elementary schools continued to outperform secondary schools on the state index. Across the Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, the average elementary school's API score was 719 -- nearly a 200-point gain since testing began in 1999. The average middle school score was 636, up 129 points since 1999, and 632 at high schools, a six-year gain of 90 points.

"It is clear that we must still implement programs to move up our API scores at all levels, but we are encouraged with the trend," Superintendent Roy Romer said.

Cimarron Avenue Elementary, an LAUSD school in Hawthorne, was one of the district's fastest gainers on the API, with a 104-point improvement over last year.

"We just really got down to good teaching," Principal Carlen Powell said. "We made sure to constantly refer to the state standards, we did quarterly assessments in math, and we did a lot of differentiated intervention programs after school."

Powell said she and other administrators even joined in as tutors -- but it wasn't all drills and boot camp.

"We moved away from the textbook type of math, to more hands-on learning," she said. "We really hit the algebra fundamentals, more logical and critical thinking."

Wilmington Park Elementary Principal Debra Bina-O'Brien said she felt similarly proud of her teachers, who helped the school boost its API score by 37 points this year to 714. Still, the school missed making adequate yearly progress because one subgroup -- English language learners, which make up about 60 percent of the school -- lagged in English proficiency by 0.3 percentage points.

"That's nine students. You say, 'My goodness, the whole school went up so many points and we still didn't make it,' " Bina-O'Brien said. "We are certainly going to focus on the kids who haven't advanced. But we also need to celebrate our successes."

Similarly, in places like the Hawthorne School District, the federal and state reports seemed to mix like oil and water.

All 12 Hawthorne campuses increased their state API scores, and all but one posted healthy double-digit gains. Four schools had increases of 48 points or higher.

And yet seven of the sites failed to make adequate strides under federal guidelines, meaning Hawthorne and several of its schools will remain on state watch lists for at least another year.

In most cases, one subgroup prevented campuses from clearing the hurdles set by the feds, according to Hawthorne Superintendent Don Carrington.

Hawthorne Middle School, for example, jumped 26 points on the API and met all schoolwide proficiency targets.

But its population of black students just barely missed the mark in English, hinging on the performance of one student. So the school that met 20 of 21 benchmarks has been labeled subpar under the federal accountability system.

Then there's the Hawthorne Mathematics and Science Academy, a 2- year-old charter high school that posted an eye-popping 141-point gain that buoyed its overall API score to 836. It also boasted proficiency rates of nearly 77 percent in English and 70 percent in math.

But because the school served only freshmen and sophomores last year, it had no graduation data. So the state simply filled in that blank with a county graduation-rate average, which was low enough to sink the academy on the federal evaluation.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for a campus that shattered academic expectations this year.

"My question to the state has been, 'This school has been in existence for two years. What else do you want?' " said Deborah Case, the charter academy's director of instruction and assessment.

District officials may have grounds for appealing the status of the charter academy and Hawthorne Middle School. As for other schools that missed the mark, Carrington said his staff will use the latest scores to devise intervention plans for specific students.

"We have a real good database and we work with our teachers," the superintendent said. "They get the results just like we do. They know the children who are less than proficient, and those children receive intensive support in that area that is identified as an academic weakness.

"And we just remediate, remediate, remediate to bring those kids up to grade level."

Elsewhere in the area:

* All traditional elementary, middle and high school sites in the El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Wiseburn school systems hit their federal targets.

Manhattan Beach Unified's API scores were all well into the 900s with the exception of Mira Costa High School (846), while Redondo Beach posted gains across the board and had just two sites below the state's ideal target of 800.

* All 10 elementary schools and two out of three intermediate school campuses in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District charted API scores over 900. Every single PVPUSD campus also cleared the new adequate yearly progress hurdles.

* Every campus in the Lawndale School District posted gains on the state index, yet only three met all federal criteria. All three sites in the Lawndale-based Centinela Valley Union High School District made impressive API gains but did not make adequate progress under No Child Left Behind.

* In the Lennox School District, every school increased its API score except Huerta Elementary, yet only the charter high school could say it met all federal benchmarks. Buford Avenue Elementary and Lennox Middle School produced gains of 44 points and 48 points, respectively.

Source: Daily Breeze

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