Valley Schools’ Standardized Test Scores Show Improvement

By Lea Blevins and Michelle Maitre, STAFF WRITERS

All Valley school districts are seeing student improvement when it comes to standardized test scores, according to results released Wednesday by the state.

Districtwide, scores on the Academic Performance Index for Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin and San Ramon Valley school districts rose by 12 points or more from last year.

Regular staff development, using standards-based textbooks, working closely with struggling students and rigorous curriculum are some of the main reasons for the rise in performance, district officials said.

The Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District saw the biggest jump — from 760 to 785, on a scale of 1,000, with 800 or above considered exemplary.

Pleasanton went from 861 to 877, San Ramon Valley rose from 868 to 883 and Dublin increased from 804 to 816.

All four districts also met the federal Adequate Yearly Progress criteria required by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Although the Valley is doing well compared to other schools throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties, as well as the state, California in general isn’t doing quite as well.

Last year, 64 percent of the state’s schools met their API target, which is raised a little every year as part of California’s 6-year-old effort to improve school performance.

By federal standards, however, California schools are falling behind. Only 56 percent of the state’s public schools showed adequate yearly progress, which is measured by standardized test scores that gauge the number of students who are proficient in math and Eng-lish.

Last year, 65 percent of California schools met the federal benchmark.

The discrepancy — which means that some of the Californias best schools are judged to be failing by the federal government — is a source of constant frustration to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack OConnell.

California bases its measurement on how much individual school test scores improve from year to year, while the federal system sets a static benchmark for all schools.

That benchmark nearly doubled this year.

A handful of individual schools in the Valley were unable to fulfill the federal criteria, either because certain subgroups of students did not test proficient or did not have high enough participation rates.

Subgroups that frequently struggle with proficiency include socioeconomically disadvantaged students, English learners and Hispanic/Latino students.

This was exactly the case for some Livermore schools: Marylin Avenue and Portola elementary schools and Junction Middle School.

Subgroups at these schools failed to score proficient in math, English language arts or both.

Kelly Bowers, director of curriculum for Livermore, said these schools arent immediately headed for federal improvement programs, but could be if the scores dont improve for more than two years in a row. To boost scores at those schools, Bowers said the district plans to increase targeted support for students and reduce the student-teacher ratio of our neediest students.

Both Pleasantons Lydiksen Elementary School and Danvilles Vista Grande Elementary School did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress, but for different reasons. Not enough members of the schools special education population participated in the test. Opting out is completely legal by California standards but still counted against a school using federal standards.

James Gulek, Pleasantons director of assessment and evaluation, said the district hopes to reach out to those families and encourage them to take the tests, not only for the schools benefit, but for their own.

Its good information for us, he said. We like to know what are the weaknesses of our students to target intervention.

All of Dublins schools managed to tackle all Adequate Yearly Progress criteria, something that brought great satisfaction to Superintendent John Sugiyama.

Im actually really pleased with that particular result, Sugiyama said. API, it can fluctuate from year to year. AYP is tough.

More information is available from the California Department of Education at http://www.cde.ca.gov.