7 Responses for "API Scores for Local Schools"

1. Princess Leia October 28th, 2005 at 4:45 pm 1

   Fammatre School (in Cambrian) this year had higher scores than Bagby. Their score increased by 40 points.

2. Samantha Dardick Mier October 31st, 2005 at 2:47 pm 2

   How does WGMS rank as far as academic achievement and test scores compared to other middle schools?

   By Samantha Dardick Mier

   Reprinted from our first newsletter (Vol 1 - No 1 in PDF) from the Parents for a Great Willow Glen Education.

   There are six middle schools in San Jose Unified School District. Of those six schools, Willow Glen Middle School ranks third in terms of real test scores, just above Peter Burnett Academy and Herbert Hoover Middle School. The actual test scores are not encouraging.

   More hopeful is WGMS?s similar schools rank. California looks at test scores not only as absolute values, but also how they compare to the scores of other schools with similar demographics. The school is ranked five (5) overall, but six (6) when compared to similar schools. This means that it is performing better than 60% of the 100 schools with its similar demographic characteristics. John Muir, on the other hand, has a rank of three compared to similar schools. That means that of the 100 schools with similar demographics to John Muir, 70% are outperforming it.

   It does not make sense to compare WGMS to a Bret Harte, but instead to look at its similar schools and determine why these schools are out performing WGMS. With similar demographic characteristics, Hill Middle School in Long Beach Unified scored an API of 736 in 2004 giving it a statewide rank of seven (7), but a similar schools rank of ten (10).

   WGMS may never provide test results like Bret Harte. But, if we can continue to create an education climate where every child is learning to his/her full potential, where we are ranked nine or ten against comparable school, we will have made meaningful strides.

   Data Source: GreatSchools.net

3. PAGE » 2006 API Growth Targets March 21st, 2006 at 4:53 pm 3

   [...] Official 2005-06 growth targets for API scores of local schools were released by the California Department of Education on Tuesday, March 21. These numbers were predictable based on required mathematical formulas, unless a school submitted a waiver request. 2005 API scores were originally released last October. [...]

4. Chris March 23rd, 2006 at 7:42 am 4

   I wonder why RIVER GLEN was left off of this list?

5. WGx March 24th, 2006 at 12:05 pm 5

   Oops.

   River Glen: 770 Full Report

6. Chris March 25th, 2006 at 8:32 am 6

   Looks like River Glen’s scores at 777 are on track and improving, it is unfortunate that they are often overlooked by the WG community….

7. Cynthia Berger March 1st, 2008 at 4:47 pm 7

   So, demographics do not tell the story of low teacher expectations that contribute to low scoring….When comparing schools to others with similar demographics, and then adjusting expectations downward for all schools in that classification, that is just what Latino parents do NOT want schools and people to do. After all, the demographic categories have zero relation to the intellectual abilities of each individual. This is an essence of the main problem with US public education philosophies and accepted inferences. It seems too easy to draw a conclusion that because a particular school performs lower amongst its other similar schools that all the kids in that particular demographic range must have lower levels expected of them on certain measurements. I think this measurement system is faulty to begin with. Parents I worked with told me that in Mexico, if their kids didn’t know their times tables by the end of second or third grade, they would not be passed on to the next grade. They liked that because they believed it was quite possible for nearly all children to learn these basics. The teachers at a school where I worked in Santa Cruz had five years of retraining in order to raise their academic expectations of Latino students who made up 70% of the school. Because it took a long time for them to truly see that the kids are just as intellectually capable - just culturally different and from a different socio-economic class than most of the teachers. Some of the brightest kids had moms who could not read in English OR Spanish.