The state of California has announced all schools identified as “Program Improvement Status” under the federal “No Child Left Behind” legislation. In all, 1,641 California schools have this label attached to them for the current school year. The No Child Left Behind Act sets numerous criteria for every school and every district in the country.
The criteria fall into four categories: Percentage of students participating on tests; percentage of students scoring “proficient” levels on these tests; graduation rates (for districts and for secondary schools); and a final indicator, to be determined by each state. In California, the fourth indicator is the API score.
The Act also identifies “numerically significant subgroups” and requires each subgroup within each school to perform at the same level that it requires of each school. Hence, a school with a rich array of ethnically diverse students will have more criteria to meet than a school with fewer ethnicities represented.
In the joint Santa Monica-Malibu district, one school — McKinley Elementary School — was designated as a program improvement school. McKinley was identified as a PI school based on participation rates, not based on achievement levels or overall API score.
“The designation of McKinley as a Program Improvement school is unfortunate, because it could easily misrepresent McKinley’s history of success,” said John Deasy, superintendent of schools. “It is important for parents and the community to BRIEFS, from page 3
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 20, 2004. Read the original PDF.