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| API rankings mixed in school district |
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| Written by Maddy Houk | Patterson Irrigator | |
| Friday, 23 May 2008 | |
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Local API rankings (2006/2007) School Statewide Similar schools Apricot Valley 6 —> 4 9 —> 5 Grayson Charter 1 —> 1 4 —> 5 Las Palmas 3 —> 3 5 —> 4 Northmead 2 —> 3 4 —> 6 Creekside 3 —> 3 6 —> 4 Patterson High 4 —> 3 8 —> 6 Rising Sun (Too few students to rank) Del Puerto High (Too few students to rank) Northmead Elementary School stepped up a notch with Wednesday’s release of the latest Academic Performance Index results, while Apricot Valley Elementary School saw its similar-schools ranking plummet from the previous year and Patterson High School also faltered. API ranks schools using students’ performance on the annual state Standardized Testing and Reporting exams and California Exit Exams, which students take each spring. “Northmead was our big story this year,” said Kathy Pon, assistant superintendent of educational services in the Patterson Unified School District. “While that number may not seem like a lot, it is big to us.” Northmead moved up a rank from last year’s 2 to 3 out of 10 statewide, and from 4 to 6 out of 10 in similar-school rankings. Rankings are based on scores from 200 to 1,000, with schools aiming for 800. Cathy Silva, principal at Northmead, said she was happy about the result. “It validated all the hard work the teachers have put in helping the students learn the standards,” Silva said. By contrast, Apricot Valley’s statewide scores dropped from 6 to 4, and its similar-schools ranking dropped from 9 to 5. The first year students were tested at Apricot Valley, in 2006, the API score was 761. In 2007, the score dropped 23 points to 738. “Honestly, there was a great deal of disappointment here at the school,” Steve Charbonneau, Apricot Valley Principal, said. “We took all our energies and created a plan to address the deficit.” That plan includes 45 minutes focused on improving scores at the beginning of each school day. The first-period curriculum is designed for various groups of students, such as those who are learning English or those who had particularly low scores on tests. Students who do not need extra help use the time on enrichment projects. “We’ve worked hard all year long to meet their needs,” Charbonneau said. Statewide rankings are based on the results from California’s nearly 9,000 public schools, while similar-school rankings compare campuses with similar challenges, strengths and staffs. Scores are broken down into subgroups based on socioeconomics, ethnicity, language ability and disabilities. This year’s API rankings refer to the 2007 testing of third- through 11th-graders in math, science, history and English language arts. At Grayson Charter School, students participate in Dual Language Immersion courses, which provide lessons in English and Spanish, Pon said. The school’s 2007 statewide ranking remained at 1 from the year before, but among similar schools, the ranking improved from 4 to 5. Teachers have increased the amount of time they use English each day, especially in math lessons. Las Palmas Elementary School maintained its state ranking of 3, though it slipped from 5 to 4 among similar schools. Creekside Middle School also remained steady at 3 statewide and dropped from 6 to 4 among similar schools, and Patterson High School slipped from a 4 to a 3 statewide rank and from an 8 to a 6 similar-school rank. “We’re definitely going to improve,” said Dave Stubbs, who took over as principal at Patterson High this year. “I really look at the similar-schools ranking — it definitely needs to be in a higher range.” Both Creekside and Patterson High have developed tougher on-site tests in the past year, and administrators are optimistic that the next state rankings will reflect that. “Creekside is just leading the district in their benchmarks,” Pon said. “Their end-of-level tests have been so wonderful that kids were commenting that their site-level tests were more difficult than their state tests.” “We have every reason to believe (Patterson High) is not going to stay at a 3 and a 6, as they are just doing great over there,” she added. “They’ve worked very hard, and the kids are motivated to do well. We’re expecting great results this year.” Scores are not ranked for Rising Sun Elementary School in Vernalis, where 17 students were tested, or Del Puerto High School, where 47 students took tests, because testing is less reliable with so few test-takers. To reach Maddy Houk at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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