State API Results Released: SRVUSD sees 3 point increase
San Ramon Valley schools once again showed gains in the 2010 Academic Performance Index Growth Report according to data released Monday by the California Department of Education, with all scores averaging well above the state target. The API measures and compares the academic performance and growth of schools on a variety of academic measures.
The overall 2010 API growth score for the district was 916, up 3 points from the 2009 API Base score of 913. The state goal for all schools is 800 on the API. These results place SRVUSD as the 7th highest unified school district in the state and the highest among unified districts with more than 9,000 students.
The 2010 Growth API measures the amount of growth a school or district makes since the release of the previous Base API. Bollinger Canyon and Twin Creeks Elementary Schools showed the most growth at the elementary level, 21 and 16 points respectively over the previous year. At the middle school level, Los Cerros increased by 29 points. Windemere Ranch Middle School’s API score of 965 places the school as the 15th highest among the 1,353 middle schools in California. Hidden Hills Elementary, with an API of 979, is the 24th highest among all 5,739 elementary schools in the state. The district’s comprehensive high schools are in the top 4% of all high schools statewide.
In addition, scores for specific subgroups in the district also improved. SRVUSD students classified as “English Learners” (as a group) received the highest API score in the state. The subgroups entitled “Socioeconomically Disadvantaged” and “Students with Disabilities” ranked #5 and #6 in the state respectively.
“One of our goals is to completely eliminate our achievement gap, and we continue to make progress toward this goal” said Superintendent Steven Enoch. “What this data does is provide us with valuable information about how to address this gap so that each of our students is better prepared for the world that awaits them.”
Statewide, thirty-seven percent of all California schools are now at or above the overall statewide target API of 800.
The API is the cornerstone of the state’s academic accountability requirements. The API is a numerical index (or scale) ranging from a low score of 200 to a high score of 1000. It reflects a school’s or district’s academic performance based on annual results of statewide testing at grades two through eleven. Each year, schools receive two API reports, the API Base (reported in March) and the API Growth (reported in September).