Most Valley school districts post gains in API rankings

While many Valley schools showed at least modest gains in their Academic Performance Index scores, numerous individual district school marked large jumps.

Despite the gains, most administrators expressed the desire to make further improvements next year.

API scores are the state Department of Education's school-byschool rankings.

The scores are based on a school's Standardized testing and Reporting exam scores. Each score ranges from a low of 200 to a high of 1000.

Gov. Gray Davis wants all schools to hit at least 800. The Department of Education released API scores for 1999 in January and those scores were the baseline for measuring growth. Each target growth score was assigned to schools by the Department of Education and a governor's task force.

Schools then were ranked against similar schools across the state on a scale of 1 to 10 - with 1 considered poor, 5 or 6 considered average and 10 considered excellent.

Esmerelda Mondragon, principal at Shadow Hills Intermediate School in the Palmdale School District, was generally pleased with the school's growth.

Her school scored 595 this year, up 21 points from 574 last year. Their growth target was 11, which they exceeded by nearly 50%.

While Mondragon thinks her school's scores were good, she would like to see more growth in one particular group of students.

"We're very pleased," she said. "But there's always room for improvement. Looking at the subgroups, (our) African Americans, our target growth rate was 9 and we only went up by 5."

She said the school is providing inter-session, or school for students who are off track to help them improve their skills.

While the session is not mandatory, it is "highly encouraged," Mondragon said.

Mike Ohren, principal at Palmdale's Buena Vista Elementary, said the growth at his school was especially encouraging since it seemed to fly in the face of some recent trends.

The campus score was 631, up 34 from 597 last year. Their targeted growth was 10, which they more than doubled.

Although about 70% of Buena Vista students qualify for reduced or free breakfasts and lunches, he said, generally, children who fall into lower socio-economic groups don't show as much improvement as children who come from more affluent households.

"What was very exciting is that everybody (in the district) improved," Ohren said. "It was a concerted effort by everybody from the district officials on down to the teachers."

He credits teachers' efforts, which focused on timing and test taking skills with students. They also targeted weak areas at each grade level and worked on improving those.

Margaret Gonder, principal at Meadowlark Elementary and STAR Testing coordinator for the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District, said her school's success in exceeding targeted growth rates was tackled the same way other schools did - by closely aligning their curriculum with the state standard and working to improve test taking skills.

Acton-Agua Dulce's scores improved more at the high school level, but Vasquez High School started out with a lower score than High Desert Middle School and both elementary schools.

However, Gonder also emphasized that the growth rate shows a nationwide trend with scores, showing that elementary schools are making bigger gains than high schools.

Vasquez scored 657, up 37 from 620 last year. Students there greatly exceeded their targeted growth rate of 9.

Ironically, said Gonder, district officials had to work with the high school students in order to instill a more serious attitude about the test.

"I think students at the elementary level tend to take testing more seriously," she said. "(High school students) are only serious when it's a test that may determine if they get into college. This year we did work with our high school students to let them know this does reflect what they have learned."

The middle school weighed in with a 729, up 12 from 717 last year. Acton Elementary scored 750, up 13 from 737 last year. Agua Dulce also improved with a score of 747, up 19 from 728 from last year.

The Antelope Valley Union High School District campuses improved overall, but two schools slipped modestly in growth - Lancaster and Quartz Hill high schools.

Lancaster scored 623 this year, down 4 from 627 last year. The school had a target growth rate of 9.

Quartz Hill High also posted a loss with 665 this year, down 8 from 673 last year. Its target growth rate was 6.

In other AVUHSD scores, Antelope Valley High came in at 556, up 11 from 545 last year.

Highland scored 633, up 18 from 615 last year. Littlerock posted a notable 34-point gain with a score of 563, up from 529 last year.

"We are very pleased," said Littlerock Principal Michael Dutton. "Our goal was to raise and increase student performance, and our scores reflect all the hard work of the students, parents and teachers."

Also improving was HughesElizabeth Lakes Elementary, the only school in the district, with a score of 722, up 28 from 694 last year.

The Wilsona School District, which is made up of two elementary schools and one middle school, also posted modest gains.

Challenger Middle School scored 588, up 15 from 573 last year. Wilsona Elementary scored 688, up 49 from 639 last year, and Vista San Gabriel Elementary scored 613, up 40 from 573 last year.

The Eastside School District posted significant gains at Eastside Elementary, which jumped 65 points to 545, compared to 480 last year.

The district's other two elementary schools posted sizable gains as did the sole middle school in the district.

For the most part, elementary and middle schools in the Westside, Keppel and Lancaster School District scored high on their growth rates.

Lancaster Elementary had a growth target of 9 and grew 36 points - giving the elementary school a score of 647, compared to 661 last year.

Ann Hurd, Lancaster Elementary principal, said they are happy with scores and plan to continue to work with students and parents.

"We've been working really hard with the district and the state standards," Hurd said.

Hurd said the school district is implementing reading programs designed to help students improve their skills, and teachers are helping students by giving them different learning activities to help strengthen their weakness.

Lancaster Elementary School isn't the only school excited about its scores.

Steve Doyle, principal at Lake Los Angeles Elementary, said they, too, are happy.

Lake L.A. school posted a score of 599, up 32 from last year's 567. Their target gain was 12.

"We're very pleased," Doyle said giving the credit to school staff, teachers, parents and students, who all support the effort. "It's nice to be rewarded and recognized for that."

However, not all Valley schools scored well.

In the Keppel School District, Almondale Middle School and Alpine Elementary scored the lowest in their growth targets. Almondale scored 596, down 10 points from last year's 606.

Alpine Elementary scored 599, down 19 from last year's 618.

"We're disappointed that our scores weren't higher," said Randall Jolin, principal of Alpine Elementary.

Jolin said to address the drop, the school will be implementing new programs to prod continuous student improvement.

"Results from these programs won't be seen until the next set of test scores," he said.

In the Westside Union School District, Del Sur Senior Elementary was the only school to drop below its mark. It scored 675, down 12 from last year's 687.

Uploaded October 5, 2000