API Scores Surge at Revere, Elementaries

Performance at Paul Revere Charter Middle School and the three Palisades elementary schools surged last school year, according to state education data released August 31. The schools defied districtwide trends and exceeded state requirements. Canyon Charter Elementary, Marquez Charter Elementary and Paul Revere had double-digit increases in their respective Academic Performance Indexes, or API. And Palisades Charter Elementary became the second local school after Canyon to reach an API greater than 900. All California public schools are ranked using the API, which ranges from 200 to 1,000. The state Board of Education has set 800 as a target for all public schools. With Paul Revere’s recent climb above 800, all non-secondary schools in Palisades now exceed the statewide target. (Palisades Charter High School had an API of 775, up from 766 a year ago. This compares to 737 at El Camino High, 767 at Santa Monica High, and 809 at Grenada Hills, a fiscally independent charter like PaliHi.) The API for elementary and middle schools is based on the results of the California Standards Test, or CST. Students are tested for proficiency in math and English beginning in the second grade. And fifth-grade students are tested for proficiency in science. According to the results of CST, proficiency in math, English and science increased at all local non-secondary schools. Proficiency levels in math and English were roughly equal (unlike PaliHi, where proficiency in math and science significantly trailed English proficiency). Canyon Elementary showed the highest growth rate last school year, with an API score that jumped 19 points to 926. Principal Carol Henderson attributed her school’s performance to extensive teacher collaboration across grades and subjects. She also said that teacher development has helped teachers learn newer and better ways of teaching. Three days of staff meetings concluded last week at Canyon, and teachers met to discuss recent test scores and strategies for improvement. Math was identified as an area of relative weakness at the school, and teachers will work this year to raise performance. Marquez Elementary’s API grew by 11 points to 891. New principal Phillip Hollis said that the testing data will allow him to personally identify students who perform below basic levels. He said he will work with those students’ parents and teachers to raise their proficiency. ‘We’re on the right track,’ Hollis said. ‘We’re far and above what the state expects. But we’re looking for approaches that will continue to improve performance.’ Despite high scores in all subjects at Marquez, Hollis said that writing skills are in need of the most improvement. In order to increase literacy and writing abilities, Marquez has enlisted the help of the UCLA Writing Project, a development workshop that provides teachers with skills to increase writing proficiency. The API score at Palisades Charter Elementary increased by eight points to 902. Principal Tami Weiser credited low class sizes with raising performance. California state law mandates that student-teacher ratios for kindergarden through third grade not exceed 20. Student-teacher ratios for the fourth and fifth grades can be as high as 36, but parent fundraising allowed Palisades to lower the teacher-student ratio to 24 in these grades, Weiser said. She also attributed the school’s performance to teachers’ ability to tailor school curriculum to individual students’ strengths and weaknesses. ‘It’s very easy when you’re a high-performing school to get complacent,’ Weiser said. ‘The challenge is to get the school to continue excelling.’ Palisades Charter was the only local elementary school with a numerically significant nonwhite subgroup. While Hispanic students trailed white students at that school, they showed the most dramatic proficiency gains. Their subgroup score rose 28 points to 833. Paul Revere’s API increased by 13 points to 810, the first time it has exceeded the statewide API target of 800. Principal Art Copper said that the school’s excellent teaching staff and strong parental support helped account for this gain. Paul Revere draws students from a large area within Los Angeles and has much greater socioeconomic diversity than the three local elementary schools. Virtually all subgroups at Paul Revere showed gains, including socioeconomically disadvantaged students, English learners and students with disabilities. African American students were the only subgroup not to show performance growth, reflecting a statewide trend. Copper said that weakness in math accounted for that subgroup’s decline. In order to continue raising achivement at Revere, Copper said that he wants to continue to build parents’ involvement in their children’s education.