Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010 • Lassen County schools gain on state testing results
Publisher’s note: These stories originally appeared in the Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010 edition of the Lassen County Times.
Overall, most of the schools in Lassen County have achieved a growth rate on the California Academic Performance Index.
The California Department of Education released the API scores Tuesday, Sept. 14. The API is a numeric index ranging from 200 to 1,000 with a statewide target of 800 and based on Standardized Testing and Reporting results and the California High School Exit Exam.
Schools API scores are measured by a base score, which is different than the previous year’s original API because the state adjusts the schools original API number if the tests have been changed.
Meadow View, a school in the Susanville School District that served students in the fourth through fifth grades last year, scored 802 and Johnstonville School scored 800.
Janesville and Richmond Schools reached the 800 mark in 2007 and continue to increase on the API. When a school has reached 800, it has a target growth rate of one point each year.
Janesville increased its score by 11 points from its base score of 829 to 840. Richmond scored 863 from a base of 870.
Janesville School Superintendent Zach Thurman attributes the school’s success to staff working together and providing quick intervention for students who might be struggling so they don’t fall farther and farther behind.
“Working together as a team is something Janesville does real well and it has high expectations of the students,” Thurman said.
Richmond School Superintendent Cindy Nellums said, “We’re thrilled to death.”
However, she also said, “It’s getting harder. Seven points of growth is wonderful, but we had to work really hard for that.”
She said staff had to put in quite a bit of intervention in the last three years and it’s paying off.
Richmond hired a part-time math teacher and has been re-screening students and trying to place them more effectively in math.
According to Nellums, 100 percent of the seventh and eighth-grade students placed advanced or proficient in algebra and 100 percent of the students taking geometry also scored proficient and advanced.
She said the school will continue tracking students and working on writing and additional intervention.
Last year, she said many of the staff took the county-wide What Really Matters Most Workshop.
The results for the other county schools are
Ft. Sage Unified School District
Sierra Primary School had a significant growth rate, increasing its API by 130 points. It scored 683 from its base score of 553.
Ft. Sage Middle School increased its score from 544 to 568.
Herlong High School increased its API from 658 to 688.
Superintendent Bryan Young said even if the school is working on other things like character, API is the number one thing schools are judged on.
He said staff has put in effort, added a lot of intervention and support and has implemented new testing and meeting the needs of where students are and building from there.
Lassen Union High School District
Lassen High School gained points on this year’s API scoring 758 over last year’s 747.
In alternative education, Diamond Mountain Charter High School lost 44 points dropping from a base score of 650 to 606.
Credence High School gained 13 points, scoring 654 on the API over last year’s base score of 641.
Long Valley Charter School
Long Valley Charter School increased its base API score from 739 to 750. LVCS director Michael Yancey attributes the school’s success to community support.
“We did really well due to our dedicated parents. Our staff provides instruction and parents provide support. You can really grow if you have good instruction from staff and good community support.”
To continue increasing the school’s API, Yancey said LVCS will be looking at implementing new academic programs and expanding opportunities for parent involvement.
Shaffer School
Shaffer School increased its API score from a base of 731 to 753.
Susanville School District
McKinley School increased its score from 763 to 767.
Diamond View School, which tested students in the sixth through eighth-grades increased its score from 711 to 722.
Two more schools reach 800 on state Academic Performance Index
Johnstonville and Meadow View schools have hit the 800 mark on the state Academic Performance Index joining Janesville and Richmond schools, who scored above 800 in 2007.
Meadow View scored 802 on the API, 52 more points than last year’s 750. It had lost 31 points the prior year. Johnstonville increased its score from 785 to 800.
On Tuesday, Sept. 14, the California Department of Education released the API scores, which are based on Standardized Testing and Reporting results and the California High School Exit Exam from the previous school year. The API is a numeric index ranging from 200 to 1000 with a statewide target of 800.
According to a press release from the California State Department of Education, the API is an index model that measures year-to-year improvement and provides incentives to educators to focus on students at all performance levels.
Meadow View School principal Vicky Leitaker said, “We’re really ecstatic right now, the teachers worked really hard on this.”
When the test scores are released, Leitaker said staff reviews the results and is provided with information regarding school wide and grade level results as well as where each student is doing well or where they are struggling.
For the school’s success on the API, Leitaker said staff really came together in finding ways to help students and working on specific content areas. She also said staff provided more focused differentiated instruction to the students.
In addition, Meadow View met all of the federal Adequate Yearly Progress requirements and has to meet the AYP for one more year before getting out of program improvement.
Each year, Leitaker said a school has to meet its annual measurable objectives. In 2008-2009, Leitaker said Meadow View did not meet the AYP because the socio-economically disadvantaged subgroup, the only subgroup at Meadow View School, did not meet the requirements for English Language Arts.
She said it takes two years to get into program improvement and then two years to get out of PI.
According to Leitaker, the AYP is based on numerous factors including subgroups and participation rates and just one thing can send a school into program improvement.
However, she said of the school’s success this year, “We’re going to keep it up now.”
In addition to maintaining more focused learning, Leitaker said Meadow View will also be using Gateway Intervention, which she said is an intensive intervention program.
Johnstonville School
Johnstonville Superintendent Sally Clark said she spent time focusing on the essential standards the state feels are really important. At the beginning of last year, Clark said the teachers collaborated together on those standards that were most important as far as state criteria and made sure students were achieving that set of standards.
Teachers also held conferences with students encouraging them as they learned the material, attended in-services and focused on quality instruction.
Clark said she also utilized the California Technology Assistance Project where she entered the STAR results and teachers can access the data and analyze the information.
Once a school has reached 800 on the API, the school has to keep increasing it score by one point each year.
As a way to continue increasing the API score, Clark said Johnstonville has purchased a computer program called Study Island, which provides services for math and language arts for kindergarten through eighth-grade students, fifth and eighth grade sciences and eighth-grade social studies.
For the STAR test, Clark said fifth-graders take a science test covering third-fourth and fifth-grade science and the eighth-graders take a social science test covering the sixth-seventh and eighth-grades.
She said parents will also have access to the program and can work with their children at home.
Clark said Johnstonville did not meet its AYP, because its socio-economically disadvantaged subgroup did not meet all of the requirements and it is an issue the school will be working on.
