State, federal targets addle schools

Principal Shana Henry gushed with excitement over the gains her students at Edward Kemble Elementary School made last year.

"Isn't it wonderful?" she said of the school's 70-point jump on its Academic Performance Index, the number that reflects a school's overall student performance as measured by California education officials.

Despite improving by state measures, the school failed to meet the federal benchmark for student achievement known as Adequate Yearly Progress because not enough African American students at Kemble were proficient in math.

With two different yardsticks -- state and federal -- how are parents to know if the school is succeeding or failing? It's a conundrum many parents now face.

Edward Kemble's mixed record puts it in the same boat as the majority of California schools, which are not meeting both state and federal academic targets.

Just 40 percent of California's nearly 10,000 schools are making the mark for student achievement as measured by both the state and federal governments, data released Thursday by the state Department of Education show.

Even though 52 percent of schools are meeting the targets set by California's API system and 65 percent are meeting the federal marker for adequate progress, most schools can't hit both targets.

"Maintaining two distinct accountability systems is clearly confusing and often counterproductive," Superintendent Jack O'Connell said Thursday.

But "both accountability systems have led to a much needed focus on improving the academic achievement for all students in the state of California," he said.

At Edward Kemble in south Sacramento, Principal Henry lengthened the school day by 30 minutes last year and welcomed eight new teachers to the school. Under California's improvement system, the school needed to score only 12 points more than last year's API of 569. Instead it shot up to 639.

But because just 19.4 percent of African American students were proficient in math, the school came up short in the federal measurement.

O'Connell said he continues to work with federal education officials to meld the two systems.

Supporters of the California system say schools should be recognized for improvement, regardless of where they start. Supporters of the federal system say it's a better way to close the achievement gap because it requires the same progress by students of all backgrounds.

The state and federal data offer the public quick snapshots of student performance at every public school. Both measurements are based on student performance on a battery of standardized tests.

The state API is a number between 200 and 1,000. The goal is for all schools to reach 800. About 30 percent of California schools now have an API of 800 or higher.

The highest API score in the Sacramento region this year was 944 at Crocker Riverside Elementary in the Sacramento City Unified School District. The lowest API in the region was 342, at Nova Community Day School, a middle school that serves students with serious behavior problems in the Grant Joint Union High School District.

The federal Adequate Yearly Progress benchmark is a yes or no answer -- a school either is or is not making the progress it's supposed to under federal guidelines set by the No Child Left Behind Act. In order to make AYP this year, schools must test 95 percent of students and show that approximately 25 percent of them are proficient in math and English. A school can make AYP only if the entire school -- as well as all groups of students by race, income and disability -- achieve that level of proficiency.

Statewide, 73 percent of elementary schools made AYP this year, while 56 percent of high schools reached the federal standard for adequate progress.

In the Elk Grove Unified School District, 24 schools hit the statewide target with an API of at least 800. Two schools that were on the verge of federal sanctions last year avoided them by meeting both the state and federal targets for achievement. Charles Mack Elementary improved its API score by 42 points and Florin Elementary went up 34 points. Both schools also met AYP.

District officials credited a new program of midyear testing. Students at the two schools took math and English tests in February.

Teachers used the results to focus their instruction for the remaining months of the school year to prepare students for the standardized tests in May that contribute to their school's API.

The model worked so well, associate superintendent Steve Winlock said, that the district will begin midyear testing at all elementary schools this year.

One district that is typically a high performer slipped this year, in both the federal and state measurements of success. Granite Bay High School in the Roseville Joint Union High School District posted one of the top 10 APIs among high schools in the region.

But API dropped at the district's other three high schools, Oakmont, Roseville and Woodcreek.

"We're committed to excellence in this school district and we're not achieving that at this moment in history," said Ron Severson, the district's executive director of curriculum and instruction. "We're going to make sure we get after this."

The Roseville district entered "program improvement" this year because it didn't test 95 percent of its low-income, English-learner and disabled students.

"We were probably within four or five kids of meeting the target for the number of kids tested," Severson said. "It's a very complex structure they have. You can run awry of it without intending to."

IN THE KNOW

Eleven schools in the Sacramento region are now in the most advanced stage of "program improvement," the five-year series of sanctions laid out by the federal No Child Left Behind law. They are:

Fairbanks Elementary: Del Paso Heights School District

North Avenue Elementary: Del Paso Heights School District

Don Julio Junior High: Grant Joint Union High School District

Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High: Grant Joint Union High School District

Grant Union High: Grant Joint Union High School District

Fruit Ridge Elementary: Sacramento City Unified School District

Kit Carson Middle: Sacramento City Unified School District

Luther Burbank High: Sacramento City Unified School District

Jonas Salk Middle: San Juan Unified School District

Westfield Village Elementary: Washington Unified School District

North Tahoe Middle: Tahoe Truckee Joint Unified School District

About the writer:

• The Bee's Laurel Rosenhall can be reached at (916) 321-1083 or lrosenhall@sacbee.com.