Making grade
SMMUSD HDQTRS The students in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District are a smart bunch of kids.
The state Department of Education released last week the Base Academic Performance Index Results (API) for 2006, measuring student progress over the last year by using standardized tests for grades 2-11 and the high school exit exam.
The results, released on March 27, showed the students in the district improved by 10 points in its Growth API score from 2005-06.
The state requires schools to demonstrate growth in student progress with regards to standardized testing until the school’s API score reaches 800. The SMMUSD, as a whole, appears to be doing well, with an API score of 818, but the results show that a handful of individual schools in the district must continue to demonstrate improvement since their API scores fall below the 800-point threshold.
The index is on a scale of 200 to 1,000. The schools in the district whose scores lie below 800 are Edison Language Academy, Will Rogers Elementary School, John Muir Elementary School, John Adams Middle School, Santa Monica High School and Olympic High School. All of the schools in Malibu and North of Montana received high marks from the state.
Some of the schools that are below 800, like John Adams Middle School, have a more diverse student body with a larger percentage of students that speak English as their second language, noted Maureen Bradford, director of educational services at SMMUSD.
“It shows that we’re not only doing well, but we are also committed to continue this improvement,” Bradford said of the scores. “Even schools above 800 are continuing to improve and we really are very committed to achievement for all students.”
The API score is proof that the district’s format is working and that the teaching strategy implemented in the classroom is having an impact on student progress, according to Oscar de la Torre, vice president of the school board.
Along with the API scores, the Department of Education released schools’ statewide ranking. Schools in the state are ranked academically on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the highest. Each of the district’s schools received a ranking above 5, with six area schools notching a 10 for academics. Though the API scores show the district is doing well, it’s only one indicator of the students’ and schools’ progress, especially considering there are excellent students who don’t perform well on standardized tests, de la Torre said.
“The test does not supplant quality instruction in the classroom,” he said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 3, 2007. Read the original PDF.