Schools excel in state tests -- again Schools excel in state tests -- again (September 02, 2005)

Some wonder if API scores that meaningful to Palo Alto

by Alexandria Rocha

As they have for the past five years, Palo Alto's public school students gained ground on last year's statewide assessments, according to reports released this week.

The district also met all of the federal government's requirements that measure annual progress under No Child Left Behind. Last year, the district failed for not testing enough students.

"Fortunately, we've got such a high-achieving population, we're not under the gun for accountability," said Bill Garrison, the district's director of testing and assessment.

With all of the district's 17 campuses soaring well above the state's API target and all the federal benchmarks met, some officials and parents in the district admit the scores don't mean all that much.

"Maybe it gratifies you to know a child goes to a school that is highly ranked, but I don't think it matters to me all that much," said Roxanne Mehta, a district parent.

Other parents say the high, and continuously increasing scores are a relief that all children are making progress.

"These scores and the fact that they're moving up are a manifestation of an explicit goal at Hoover, which is moving every student up to their highest potential," said David Charleson, Hoover Elementary School's PTA president.

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

There was only one year in which one district school scored under 800. Juana Briones Elementary School missed it by 14 points That happened in 1999 -- the state's first year of using the API.

Since then, 100 percent of district schools have met the 800 target every year. Statewide, about 23 percent of schools met the mark in 2004, and about 27 percent did in 2005, according to the state Department of Education.

This year in the Palo Alto Unified School District, Hoover led the pack with an API of 975, just 25 points away from the highest mark a school can reach, 1,000. Addison and Nixon elementary schools followed with a score of 940. At the middle school level, Terman's API landed on 925, with Jordan at 905 and Jane Lathrop Stanford at 896. Gunn and Palo Alto high schools scored 885 and 887, respectively.

"We're not a school district in trouble where parents are looking at this and walking into a school board meeting and saying how do we address this," said Melissa Caswell, president of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs, adding, however, that "it's not that meaningful for (the district) to get scores where everybody is piled on top."

The results released this week are only preliminary data in a complex system of deciding whether schools and districts are doing their jobs. The API is just one element in what is now called the Accountability Progress Report. It is essentially a report card for schools using dozens of benchmarks -- some from the state; others from the federal government.

The entire report will be available in October. Besides the overall API scores, the information released this week includes the first round of data from the Adequate Yearly Progress report, which is the federal government's accountability model that requires schools to annually meet criteria in four main areas.

A school is required to test 95 percent of students overall, as well as 95 percent of each child in an ethnic or special-needs category. Of those students, a certain percentage must score proficient in English language arts and math. The system's benchmarks for proficiency increases each year, so that in 2013-2014, 100 percent of students are required to score proficient.

A district's high school graduation rate is the final annual progress factor. But, with dozens of subcategories under those four main areas, there are 44 ways a district can fail to make its yearly progress.

Combine them with the API and you have the Accountability Progress Report.

"It takes a lawyer and a Ph.D. to figure it all out," Garrison said.

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