Test Scores: All PVUSD High Schools Improve

The California Academic Performance Index base report was released Thursday morning and overall, Pajaro Valley Unified School District schools did well.

The API is a tool that the state uses in order to rate a school's performance on scale of 200 to 1,000. California's benchmark, or expected average is 800.

Highlights include:

• Approximately 63 percent of the district’s schools met or exceeded their target while 49 percent of the schools attained an API score of 700 or greater.
• Thirty-eight percent of our schools demonstrated double-digit growth in their AYP scores for English-Language Arts over a five-year span. In mathematics, 41 percent of the schools demonstrated double-digit growth in Mathematics across the same five-year period.
• The PVUSD graduation rate of 81.99  percent for the 2012 graduating class exceeded the state by approximately 4 percent.

Statewide, 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. Ten years ago, only 20 percent of schools met or surpassed the API target.

"We’ve set a high bar for schools and they have more than met the challenge, despite the enormous obstacles that years of budget cuts have put in their way,” Torlakson said. “The incredible efforts of teachers, administrators, school employees, parents, and students should serve as an inspiration to us all. While there’s still more work to do, California’s schools have earned a vote of confidence.”

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

All four PVUSD's high schools made gains in their API scores. (And without giving away the embargoed results, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Murry Schekman congratulated the student representatives of each school during the Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday evening.)

Pacific Coast Charter School saw the biggest boost to test scores. The home school support program increased 61 points from 2011 to 2012. Aptos High recorded the best test scores for secondary education in the district with a mark of 809.

Middle schools had a mixed bag of results. Four of seven met their growth targets, including Cesar E. Chavez, which had the biggest improvement among PVUSD middle schools—27 points.

Twelve of 19 elementary schools met their growth targets. Alianza Charter School saw the biggest success with a 23-point API score improvement.

However, some of the schools that didn't experience growth had significant drops in API scores. Starlight fell by 41 points, Amesti by 39 and Radliff by 38.

Alianza

Two of Watsonville's three continuation high schools also had marked improvements in API scores, but the third saw its test scores drop dramaticall to the lowest in all of PVUSD. The continuation schools all have fewer than 100 students. Due to the smaller student population, their test scores should be carefully interpreted.

*All API score information gathered from the California Department of Education's website.