Sep 1, 2007

State gives area schools high marks grades

Districts grades above 800 API

By Kristina Peterson / Daily News Staff Writer

First-term grades for returning students may be weeks away, but on Friday local school districts got top marks from the state of California.

The districts did well on the 2007 state Academic Performance Index and the federal Adequate Yearly Progress, two cumulative scores assigned to districts and individual schools based on students' standardized test scores.

Palo Alto, Los Altos Elementary and Mountain View-Los Altos Union High school districts all scored above the state API target of 800. The mark was a first for Los Altos High School.

"We are very happy that Los Altos High School finally exceeded the 800 mark," Associate Superintendent Brigitte Sarraf said. The school earned a score of 802 this year, up from 797 last year.

The API index runs from 200 to 1,000, with this year's state median at 751, according to the state's Department of Education's Web site.

Various test scores are factored in to arrive at one number.

"It's like saying it's a five-star movie," said Palo Alto Unified School District Board Member Mandy Lowell. "It's useful for real estate agents and people who want a ballpark view of a district or school."

In Palo Alto, the school district achieved the same score as last year - 912.

"I think (the scores) are exemplary, some of the best in the state," Palo Alto Superintendent Kevin Skelly said. "When you are where we are, it's harder and harder to see improvement."

Palo Alto did see some growth in the scores of Hispanic students, as well as a drop in the performance of its English language learners.

Conversely, the Mountain View Los-Altos Union High School district experienced improvement among many of its subgroups, including socio-economically disadvantaged students and children with disabilities. The district's overall score was 812.

"We have a much wider spectrum of students who come to us prepared or lagging behind their grade-level performance than Palo Alto," Sarraf said.

However, the small Los Altos Elementary School district outperformed its neighbors with an API score of 956.

"We're very proud of the fact that we're continuing to excel in this area," Assistant Superintendent Jeff Baier said.

All of the local school districts met the federal standards mandated in the AYP reports.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said in a statement Friday that the scores statewide reflect "a general leveling off after steady gains in student achievement."

But PAUSD Member Dana Tom noted Friday that scrutinizing standardized test scores only yields one measure of academic performance.

"We need to dig deeper to understand them in a more comprehensive fashion," he said. "This is only one piece of the puzzle."


E-mail Kristina Peterson at kpeterson@dailynewsgroup.com.