| For immediate release May 13, 2010 |
Contact:
Larry Slonaker, SCCOE Phone: (408) 453-6662 |
County schools exceed state API target;
Local schools lead state, but gap persists
SAN JOSE, CA – The California reports released on May 13 for the 2009 Base Academic Performance Index revealed several points of interest to Santa Clara County, according to an analysis of the results by the Santa Clara County Office of Education's Assessment and Accountability staff. See COE staff analysis
- For the first time, Santa Clara County schools achieved a median Base API
that exceeds California's target score of 800. County schools' median
API was 806 (compared to 792 last year). The composite score for schools
statewide was 754.
Fifty-two percent of county schools (193 of 371) have a 2009 Base API at or above 800.
- Continuing their remarkable year-to-year performance on the API, two
schools from the Cupertino Union School District-- Murdock-Portal Elementary
and William Faria Elementary—achieved the top two scores statewide.
Murdock-Portal's score was 998 (out of a possible 1,000) and Faria's score was
996.
A third county school, Millikin Elementary in Santa Clara Unified, was sixth in the state with a score of 989.
- The achievement gap—the disparity in scores among certain subgroups—has narrowed slightly, but continues to persist. For example, Asian-American students in the county recorded a median API score of 930, and white students a score of 899, while Hispanic students recorded a score of 715.
1. County schools exceed target
The State Board of Education has established an API score of 800 as the target to which all schools should aspire to meet or exceed. (The scale for the API ranges from 200 to 1000.)
Santa Clara County students achieved a median Base API score in 2009 that exceeded the target by six points. Also, 18 of the county's 31 districts had district-wide scores exceeding 800; and seven had scores over 900.
"Our schools continue to improve their testing results, year after year," said Dr. Charles Weis, Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools. "And they have done this under often less than favorable conditions, as the state's budget problems have cause major cuts to education funding.
"One hears the phrase, 'Our schools are broken' too often these days. Well, as these scores show, our schools are far from broken. They continue to function and improve under very difficult circumstances."
2. Top statewide scores
Three county schools continued a remarkably high-achieving run in Base API performance.
Murdock-Portal Elementary (998) and Faria Elementary (996) achieved the top two scores statewide for 2009, and Millikin Elementary (989) in Santa Clara Unified ranked sixth.
Last year, Faria ranked first and Murdock-Portal was third. In the 2007 results, Faria was first state-wide; Millikin was second; and Murdock-Portal third.
And on the 2006 results, Faria was first statewide with a perfect score of 1000.
"The scores tell us what we've known all along," Weis said. "Santa Clara County consistently has some of the most high-achieving schools in the entire state."
3. Achievement Gap
The disparity in scores among certain subgroups, which has narrowed somewhat since the inception of API in 2000, continues to pose a challenge to educators.
For example, Hispanic students, both in the county and statewide, are poised to make up the majority of students in our schools. The social costs of failing to enable so many students to be successful—in school and in life—will be enormous to every resident of the state.
"We have to keep a laser focus on finding instructional practices that will eliminate this gap, so that every student, in every school, has an equal opportunity to succeed," Weis said. "We have schools in our county that have taken great strides toward eliminating the gap. We need to find ways to duplicate their strategies."
To read the SCCOE staff analysis of the API report, visit www.sccoe.org.
Date last updated: May 13, 2010
