AUSD's New API Score: Better Than State Average and Target Score

Alameda Unified School District received a districtwide Academic Performance Index (API) score of 847 for 2012, up six points from last year and well above the state's target score of 800, results released this morning by the California Department of Education show. The district also outperformed Alameda County as a whole (see attached chart).

Districtwide, almost all all groups of students (including ethnic groups, English learners and students with disabilities) were at or above last year's score. (See table below.)

Complete results are available on the CDE Accountability Progress Reporting Web page. Individual school pages also include a link to API scores for 100 demographically similar schools.

With two exceptions, AUSD schools scored above, at or very close to last year's levels (see table below). The exceptions are Washington Elementary School — now Maya Lin School — with a drop of 55 points, and Island High School, the district's continuation school, with a drop of 114 points.

The API is a numeric index that ranges from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000. The API scores for 2012 are based on student performance in STAR testing and results of the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) during the 2011-2012 academic year.

An AUSD press release offered this snapshot of the results:

"Overall, AUSD schools received scores from 761 to 961 (excluding our continuation high school, which is subject to different requirements than our other schools), with 12 out of 15 schools (80%) exceeding the state’s overall API target score of 800 and six of those 12 exceeding 900. In addition, 13 out of 15 schools (87%) increased their API scores compared to last year. The new results also confirm that five of ten elementary schools in AUSD have met the specific “Annual Yearly Progress” (AYP) growth targets required by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

"As with the California Standards Test (CST) scores released in August, today’s scores show substantial improvement for many subgroups of students in ELA and Math. In ELA, Black/African American students had the greatest increase, improving proficiency by 5.7%, rising from 46.1% to 51.8%. Hispanic/Latino students had the second greatest increase in ELA, improving proficiency by 4.8%, rising from 54% to 58.8%. In Math, Black/African American students again had the greatest increase, improving proficiency by 6.7%, from 42.4% to 49.1%. In Math, Hispanic/Latino students again had the second greatest increase, improving proficiency by 5.9%, from 49.1% to 55%.

"Many individual schools made substantial gains in API, including a growth of 24 points at Ruby Bridges, 22 points at Paden, 13 points at Bay Farm and 12 points at Wood Middle School.

"Despite the many gains, the API scores also confirm that overall achievement gaps persist in Alameda as they do across California and the nation.  Not all subgroups and schools in AUSD met their AYP goals in 2012.  The English Learner subgroup decreased slightly in ELA (from 60.2% to 59.5%) and in Math (from 67.8 to 67.3%). In addition, three AUSD schools are in Program Improvement status.  One of those three schools, Paden, did meet its AYP school-wide and for every one of its significant subgroups, so it will not advance further into Program Improvement for the year.  Like other schools across the state and country in Program Improvement, these three schools in Program Improvement must make improvement in coming years or face a variety of sanctions.

"District staff will present detailed analysis of recent test results at forthcoming meetings of the Board of Education."

STATEWIDE API RESULTS

State Superintendent Tom Torlakson announced in a press release this morning that for the first time a majority of California’s public schools met or surpassed the statewide target for academic achievement on the 2012 API.

Some 53 percent of schools scored at or above the state target of 800, an increase of 4 percentage points over last year, marking a decade of steady growth, the release said.

Results released by Torlakson show that 59 percent of elementary schools, 49 percent of middle schools, and 30 percent of high schools are now meeting the state benchmark.

The overall API score for all students increased by 10 points for 2012, to 788, with substantial gains among all student groups. 

African American students and students with disabilities realized the largest gains with an increase of 14 points for each student group, to 710 and 607, respectively. Latino students and English Learners also posted strong gains, with Latinos adding 11 points to 740 and English Learners adding 10 points to 716. Asian and white students made smaller gains of 7 and 8 points respectively, but still have the highest API totals among student groups of 905 and 853 respectively. 

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