AV schools perform poorly in state rankings

The Antelope Valley Union High School District's rankings were part of the state's first-ever school-by-school rankings, released Tuesday by the Education Department. The scores are based on the standardized basic skills test, the Stanford Achievement Test (STAR), 9th Edition, given in the spring of 1999 to 4.4 million public school students in second through 11th grades.

The API results only include results for sophomores and juniors who were at district schools during the 1998-99 school year.

The scores and rankings - called the Academic Performance Index - rate student performance at individual schools compared with other schools statewide.

The API is a numeric index that scores schools in a range from 200 to 1,000, with 200 being the lowest. The index was calculated by the state Department of Education and scored 7,000 public elementary, middle and high schools in the state.

Then the schools were ranked against schools across the state, from one to 10. A rating of 1 is considered poor, while a 5 or 6 is considered average.

The index, released Tuesday, shows 668 schools rated at 1, while 685 schools drew the highest mark, 10.

Quartz Hill led the way with a score of 673 and a 7 ranking; scores and rankings of the other AVUHSD schools dropped off from there.

Antelope Valley and Littlerock highs ranked the lowest at 3, with scores of 545 and 564, respectively. Palmdale High ranked at 4, with 564; Highland ranked at 5 with 615; and Lancaster ranked at 6 with 627. The statewide median for high schools is 620.

The median means that one-half of the schools are performing at or above that number, and the other half are performing below it.

At the Valley elementary and middle-school level, performance scores ranged from poor to high. Westside Union School District's 10 schools fared the best in the Valley - with all ranking 7s and 8s.

The statewide median for middle schools was 633; and for elementary schools, 629.

AVUHSD Superintendent Robert Girolamo noted, "Testing is one method to measure student performance; however, other indicators need to be taken into consideration to form a more complete picture of student progress."

Palmdale High School Principal Tim Azevedo was not pleased with his school's results, which were below the state average.

"These results make it clear that the needs of all of our students are not being met," Azevedo said, meaning students need to focus more on reading, writing and math skills.

Having recently partnered with UCLA's School of Management to boost student achievement, Azevedo said, they have been "addressing the need to improve test scores for all students" since school started this year.

To help boost student scores at Lancaster High, Principal Bill Appleton said the school will focus more on reading activities and testing students to measure progress.

Teachers, he added, also will receive more inservice training.

While AVUHSD officials aren't particularly pleased with their scores and rankings, the results will help them set goals and establish improvement plans - in hopes of improving student achievement when students are tested again this spring, in which new API index will again score and rank schools.

That second-year results will indicate how well schools achieved newly set goals geared to improve student achievement and their API scores and state rankings.

Since the API is the cornerstone of the Public Schools Accountability Act, a Gov. Gray Davis-sponsored measure, Davis not only set a benchmark achievement score of 800, but linked financial incentives for schools to the results.

Of that benchmark, 5,951 schools fell below 800, while 779 schools met or exceeded it.

If schools' 1999-2000 API results exceed the previous scores, schools can apply for up to $150 per student from a $96 million state fund starting in the fall.

The 430 lowest-scoring schools also are eligible for funds to create intervention programs to help improve scores and student achievement. Schools that fail to improve could face severe sanctions from the state Department of Education - including being closed down.

According to an Associated Press computer-assisted analysis, the schools with high numbers of minority and low-income children drew the lowest marks across the state.

The state also broke down student performance on achievement tests by certain demographic factors. Black, Hispanic and poor students scored well below the median ranking, while white and Asian students were above it, according to the analysis.

A demographic breakdown of the Valley's schools was not available Tuesday to compare with its scores and rankings.

Six of the 10 lowest scorers in the state are elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The lowest-scoring schools had high percentages of students on free lunches, of minority children, of English learners and of teachers working on emergency credentials.

The highest-scoring schools were in affluent suburbs or catered to gifted students.

The top score of 966 went to Gretchen Whitney High School in the ABC Unified School District in Cerritos in Los Angeles County, about 20 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

All of its graduates go to college, 65% of them to University of California branches and others to private universities such as Harvard and Stanford.

The lowest score was 302 for Saul Martinez Elementary School in Mecca, a small farming community south of Indio.

Parents can find the school scores on the Internet (www.cde.ca.gov/psaa).

The Web site gives parents an unprecedented look at schools' performance and academic breakdown - everything from the demographics of their students to the average education level of children's parents.

In addition to showing how schools did overall, the index also shows how schools did compared to others with similar makeups.

The state calculated separate APIs for various demographic groups in each school if they sizable enough to be statistically significant. California is among 26 states that publicly rank public schools, according to the Education Commission for the States, a Denver-based organization that helps states identify how to improve education.

California's ratings were prompted by years of below-average scores on standardized tests. In the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress scores, only 20% of the state's fourth-graders scored at or above the proficient level.

Uploaded January 26, 2000