Academic Performance Index scores are up and down, but overall, still very good at local elementary schools. And one district, Las Lomitas, is once again ranked No. 1 in the state.
API scores in the Las Lomitas and Menlo Park elementary school districts improved over last year, while scores in the Portola Valley and Woodside districts dropped. Even so, all four local elementary school districts in The Almanac’s circulation area scored well over 900.
The state target number is a score of 800 or better.
The performance is enough to put the schools in the state rankings of the top 20 elementary school districts, according to the latest API results released Sept. 15 by the California Department of Education.
The API is a single-number indicator, ranging from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000, that reflects the students’ performance level, based on the results of statewide testing.
For the second year in a row, the Las Lomitas Elementary School District ranked first in the state, with a score of 967 — up 11 points from last year’s score of 956.
“It’s pretty amazing,” said Superintendent Eric Hartwig. “It’s really a testimony to the kids and teachers. They’re just bookin’ all year long.”
It’s not that the district emphasizes the API scores so much as it focuses on the content underlying it, he said. In recent years, there have been changes to science and writing curricula, especially in the primary grades, which pushes the rigorousness and standards in the upper grades as the children progress through school, Mr. Hartwig said.
Ups and downs
Of the four local districts, the Menlo Park City School District showed the most improvement, with a 20-point gain over last year. Its API score is 934, ranking it as 15th in the state, up from 20th.
Woodside Elementary School District dropped 18 points over last year, leaving it with a score of 933, down from 951. It now ranks 18th in the state, down from sixth last year.
“Although heartened by students’ progress in some areas, we did see a drop in the API score,” said Superintendent Diana Abbati.
She will present an in-depth analysis of the district’s STAR scores, which are used to calculate API scores, at the Oct. 6 school board meeting, she said. The data will guide the district’s curriculum goals for the school year, Ms. Abbati said.
Portola Valley dropped by two points, for an API score of 947. It’s now ranked 10th, as compared with last year’s seventh-place ranking.
Superintendent Anne Campbell noted that Ormondale school’s API score improved, while Corte Madera went down by four points.
“Because we’re such a small district, our sample size is small, and so several students can have a big impact — in both directions,” Ms. Campbell told The Almanac.
District officials will be looking closely at STAR test data, which is used to generate API scores, in order to discover where more efforts need to be made, she said. “Overall, we’re pleased with the progress our students are making and with the well-rounded education they’re receiving,” she said.
Of course, parsing information from the scores is always a challenge. Menlo Park district officials are working to create an LPI — a local performance index — to better chart students’ progress.
“Just using API scores and the state index is not fully reflective of the values of the school district,” said Superintendent Ken Ranella at the Sept. 9 board meeting, before the API scores were released. “The state just says if students are proficient or advanced. Some of our students are advanced every year, but is there improvement? And the students who are below proficient, they may not reach proficiency in the short term, but we want to make sure they are achieving growth.”
The goal of the LPI is to create a coherent testing and evaluation program that will make it easy to assess student progress and achievement, he said.
