September 01, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Test scores fall short by federal standards

Alexandria Rocha

XAlthough the local school district made significant gains on this year's statewide assessments, it failed to meet the goals of the federal government.

The Palo Alto Unified School District this week boasted a 2004 Academic Performance Index (API) score of 900, which is 100 points above where the state expects schools and districts to be.

However, the district did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as required by the federal "No Child Left Behind" Act, because it didn't test enough special-needs or African American students overall or enough Hispanic students at Escondido Elementary School.

"I have some real problems with this," said John Barton, a member of the district's Board of Education. "Under the federal government, (Escondido) is failing. That's just stupid."

The API is the state's way of tracking year-to-year growth at all public schools. API scores range from 200 to 1,000, with the state's performance target resting on a score of 800.

The AYP is the federal government's accountability model. To make AYP, schools are required to annually meet criteria in four areas. A school is required to test 95 percent of students overall and 95 percent of each child in an ethnic or special-needs category. A certain percentage of students tested are required to score proficient in math and English language arts. The API score is an additional indicator, as well as a district's high school graduation rate.

A school that didn't meet AYP may have fallen far short in every category, or miss the mark narrowly by failing just one of many criteria measured, (as in the case of Palo Alto's public schools), according to the state Department of Education. In both cases, the school or district receives a "no," plain and simple.

The district easily met the AYP's other criteria with a graduation rate of 99 percent and more than 80 percent of its students testing proficient in math and English language arts.

"We meet the proficient part easily, but the participation rate is not quite where it needs to be," said Bill Garrison, the district's director of testing and assessment.

However, Garrison said the district may be off the hook for failing to test enough special-needs students because a computer glitch failed to identify two-thirds of that category before testing last spring. He said the district will be sending the state an addendum with the proper information, which could change the participation rate in that subgroup.

According to the data released Tuesday, the district only tested 93 percent of its 242 African American students in math, 94 percent of its 504 special-needs students in English language arts and only 91 percent of those students in math.

Barton said students could have missed the tests for a variety of reasons, including being absent or in the nurse's office with a headache.

Palo Alto is not alone in its struggle to make the federally-mandated AYP criteria because of the participation rate component. In some cases, failing to test 95 percent of students in a small subgroup can come down to two or three students.

In fact, out of Santa Clara County's 32 school districts, about a dozen -- including the Cupertino Union, Saratoga Union and Los Altos Elementary school districts, did not make the overall AYP.

The participation component may seem a bit harsh, considering its effect on such otherwise high-performing school districts. However, Garrison said he can see the logic behind it.

"Both at the federal and state level, they want to make sure we're testing all of our kids," he said.

The participation component essentially holds high-performing schools and districts accountable for those high scores.

Subgroups broken down by school and how they scored were not released Tuesday. Those scores will be released in a more comprehensive report on Oct. 21.

The progress report released Tuesday included the AYP alongside the API scores to provide a better idea of how districts are performing on the high-stakes standardized tests.

Fifteen of the Palo Alto Unified School District's 17 schools saw increases in the API scores, which the state uses to track year-to-year progress. However, all of the district's sites have already met and exceeded the state's target score of 800. In fact, the districtwide API score increased from 893 in 2003 to 900 this year.

While Palo Verde Elementary School gained 35 points, moving up from an API score of 865 to 900, three other schools, Duveneck and Walter Hays elementary schools and Palo Alto High School lost a few points.

Alexandria Rocha can be reached at arocha@paweekly.com

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