The 2009 academic performance scores were released to the public today—- with scoring by school, district….plus all kinds of other fun stuff like demographics and scoring by sub group.  Interested to hear all of your thoughts on the results of your favorite school.

2009 California API Scores

I’m very proud of my son’s school, El Sol Academy. The demographics are primarily low income Hispanics. Their API is now 843 (granted, nowhere near an Irvine school), students are bilingual and bi-literate, their math scores are excellent and they also made their AYP, which is really the tough one, this means that their low income, English Language Learners made huge leaps, most schools just can’t make progress (or enough progress to meet the much tougher AYP) with this group. After 3 weeks of Kindergarten and 45 minutes a day of homework Tues.-Sun., I’m kind of understanding why they are having such success. It’s nice to see a different model that is working. If you guys are really interested, check out your school’s AYP (annual yearly progress), this one is ridiculous and will eventually catch just about every school in the state in this crazy web unless something is changed in regards to No Child Left Behind, it is designed to make all schools labeled “failures” eventually. Progress in each subgroup is not enough under these rules, 100% proficiency for all is the only thing that is acceptable.

I don’t have much experience with these test scores—but the Irvine growth numbers are pretty amazing…..  15 pts?, 30 pts?, etc.  I had heard that once a school is over 900-  the grow slows down, apparently this is not the case.  TR at 980?  Wow!  Quickly scanning the numbers— looks like TR is top in OC. 

We’ve been impressed with all of my daughters teachers in the IUSD-  they really seem to care and connect with the kids (at least the ones we have met).  If there are any teachers reading this blog-  I send you all a BIG thank you (regardless of the school district you teach in).  I appreciate all that you do.

Does anyone know how the sample size is selected? I noticed quite a great deal of discrepancy in the number of students included in the API score. Some schools have a good percentage of their student body included while others have tiny sample sizes.

Mcdonna1980 - 16 September 2009 12:23 PM

Does anyone know how the sample size is selected? I noticed quite a great deal of discrepancy in the number of students included in the API score. Some schools have a good percentage of their student body included while others have tiny sample sizes.

I truly don’t know what is up with that, but I’m going to find out tomorrow.

tmare - 16 September 2009 05:07 PM

Mcdonna1980 - 16 September 2009 12:23 PM

Does anyone know how the sample size is selected? I noticed quite a great deal of discrepancy in the number of students included in the API score. Some schools have a good percentage of their student body included while others have tiny sample sizes.

I truly don’t know what is up with that, but I’m going to find out tomorrow.

Partial answer here. More info to come later. It’s really interesting because this seems fairly mysterious to even the most knowledgeable person that I’ve found. She says that there are 77 pages of “inclusion/exclusion” rules that the state follows to decide which tests will be used in the “sample”. This seems to be a sample in some cases, but not in all. For example, my own school site (where I teach) had 100% of tests that were taken included in the API. My sons school seems to have about 60% included in the sample for the API score. This still doesn’t make any sense to me as to why it would be this way, but this is the answer I received. Our testing person is going to check it out a bit more and get back to me.

tmare - 17 September 2009 01:12 PM

Partial answer here. More info to come later. It’s really interesting because this seems fairly mysterious to even the most knowledgeable person that I’ve found. She says that there are 77 pages of “inclusion/exclusion” rules that the state follows to decide which tests will be used in the “sample”. This seems to be a sample in some cases, but not in all. For example, my own school site (where I teach) had 100% of tests that were taken included in the API. My sons school seems to have about 60% included in the sample for the API score. This still doesn’t make any sense to me as to why it would be this way, but this is the answer I received. Our testing person is going to check it out a bit more and get back to me.

The simplest answer is they are cherry-picking results to manipulate the data they publish. I’m sure there is another convoluted explanation that sounds better than my version, but in the end they are not comparing apples to apples.

Ok, I have the answer and it thankfully makes sense. While I guess there are some complicated reasons why a few (very small number) of tests won’t be included, overall all tests are counted. The reason for the different sample sizes is that K-2 students are not tested at all so they are not included in the sample size. This is why you will find that 100% of the tests are counted at intermediate schools where all students are tested, yet at my son’s school, for example, only 60% were included, this is because students in grades 3-8 makeup 60% of the school’s population and K-2 students are 40% of the population. Ok, I feel better now.

Tmare, but I found the smaller sample sizes in High Schools too. Interesting enough the High Schools with big gains in the API had real small sample sizes.

Mcdonna1980 - 17 September 2009 02:51 PM

Tmare, but I found the smaller sample sizes in High Schools too. Interesting enough the High Schools with big gains in the API had real small sample sizes.

Our testing coordinator is still checking up on this, could you give me the names of a few of these schools? I’ll look them up and then I can be more specific with my questions.

tmare - 17 September 2009 02:54 PM

Mcdonna1980 - 17 September 2009 02:51 PM

Tmare, but I found the smaller sample sizes in High Schools too. Interesting enough the High Schools with big gains in the API had real small sample sizes.

Our testing coordinator is still checking up on this, could you give me the names of a few of these schools? I’ll look them up and then I can be more specific with my questions.

All of Irvine’s High Schools only included 67 to 74% of the student body in the API scores. Fullerton High is really weird as they only included 11 students and had a 177 point gain in their API.

May be Skipper works at the California School API department. I do not understand the motive behind submitting only a handful of high score samples and dropping the less desirable low scores.

If this is the case then the API score is not an accurate representation of the student body.

Mcdonna1980 - 17 September 2009 03:19 PM

tmare - 17 September 2009 02:54 PM

Mcdonna1980 - 17 September 2009 02:51 PM

Tmare, but I found the smaller sample sizes in High Schools too. Interesting enough the High Schools with big gains in the API had real small sample sizes.

Our testing coordinator is still checking up on this, could you give me the names of a few of these schools? I’ll look them up and then I can be more specific with my questions.

All of Irvine’s High Schools only included 67 to 74% of the student body in the API scores. Fullerton High is really weird as they only included 11 students and had a 177 point gain in their API.

I don’t know much about high school testing. I think I remember the test being 9th-11th grade though. If that’s the case, then it would make sense for approximately 25% of the population to not have scores. I don’t understand the Fullerton scores, I’ll ask. What percentage of the population is that for Fullerton High?

The test scores for students who were not continuously enrolled in a school since October of the school year are not counted in the school’s API. Special Education students who are exempted and students whose parents requested that they not be tested are also not counted. Small schools with 11 to 99 students have an API score; however, a score calculated from such a low number of students is considered statistically less reliable.

tmare - 17 September 2009 03:28 PM

Mcdonna1980 - 17 September 2009 03:19 PM

tmare - 17 September 2009 02:54 PM

Mcdonna1980 - 17 September 2009 02:51 PM

Tmare, but I found the smaller sample sizes in High Schools too. Interesting enough the High Schools with big gains in the API had real small sample sizes.

Our testing coordinator is still checking up on this, could you give me the names of a few of these schools? I’ll look them up and then I can be more specific with my questions.

All of Irvine’s High Schools only included 67 to 74% of the student body in the API scores. Fullerton High is really weird as they only included 11 students and had a 177 point gain in their API.

I don’t know much about high school testing. I think I remember the test being 9th-11th grade though. If that’s the case, then it would make sense for approximately 25% of the population to not have scores. I don’t understand the Fullerton scores, I’ll ask. What percentage of the population is that for Fullerton High?

Fullerton High has 2071 students so less than 1% were included in the API.

Is it possible that administrators “encourage” the less than academically gifted children to miss test day?

It is basically a beauty contest among schools. Obviously the under achievers schools selected the best scores to submit. Since the API testing is not a mandatory test for all students then the results are artificially higher than the reality. The school board or sponsor congratulates themselves for doing a good job that they have not left any child behind.

bkshopr - 17 September 2009 06:19 PM

It is basically a beauty contest among schools. Obviously the under achievers schools selected the best scores to submit. Since the API testing is not a mandatory test for all students then the results are artificially higher than the reality. The school board or sponsor congratulates themselves for doing a good job that they have not left any child behind.

I know for a fact that this is not occurring at the lowest performing schools. It’s really hard for me to believe it’s happening at all, there’s no way we could get away with it at my school. We’re banging our heads against the wall with our low income, English Language Learners trying to get them to make some gains. They do make gains, but it is never enough.

tmare - 17 September 2009 06:36 PM

bkshopr - 17 September 2009 06:19 PM

It is basically a beauty contest among schools. Obviously the under achievers schools selected the best scores to submit. Since the API testing is not a mandatory test for all students then the results are artificially higher than the reality. The school board or sponsor congratulates themselves for doing a good job that they have not left any child behind.

I know for a fact that this is not occurring at the lowest performing schools. It’s really hard for me to believe it’s happening at all, there’s no way we could get away with it at my school. We’re banging our heads against the wall with our low income, English Language Learners trying to get them to make some gains. They do make gains, but it is never enough.

tmare, are the ELL kids financially benefiting the school or district in any way?

Tmare, try this visual for the students:

Option A:

Option B:

Nude - 17 September 2009 06:55 PM

tmare - 17 September 2009 06:36 PM

bkshopr - 17 September 2009 06:19 PM

It is basically a beauty contest among schools. Obviously the under achievers schools selected the best scores to submit. Since the API testing is not a mandatory test for all students then the results are artificially higher than the reality. The school board or sponsor congratulates themselves for doing a good job that they have not left any child behind.

I know for a fact that this is not occurring at the lowest performing schools. It’s really hard for me to believe it’s happening at all, there’s no way we could get away with it at my school. We’re banging our heads against the wall with our low income, English Language Learners trying to get them to make some gains. They do make gains, but it is never enough.

tmare, are the ELL kids financially benefiting the school or district in any way?

We are receiving Title 1 money because just over 50% of the population receives a free lunch. We don’t receive anywhere near the amount of money that most of the schools in our district receive (most are over 75% free lunch). However, this money is really going to the district because of new rules instituted during this “time of crisis” which allow districts to use the money received in other ways due to the budget cuts. The money is no longer coming directly to the school, it’s being used for the general fund. I really wouldn’t say these students are benefiting the school financially or in any other way, they are essentially the reason we are struggling to find ways to provide extra tutoring with no budget to do so. The ELL student numbers are actually comparatively small compared to other schools, but according to the state they are a statistically significant group. I know this sounds sad, especially because I truly do love working with these kids, unfortunately those who do are consistently being harassed and the staff at schools like mine are a wit’s end having so many rules and regulations crammed down their throats. In my opinion it’s all a scam designed to label all public schools a failure so that we can usher in the era of using public funds to pay for private schools. The private schools are not under any of this scrutiny, so no one can really label them a success or a failure. Beware Irvine schools, it will be about two years before nearly all of your schools will be labeled “Program Improvement” schools. We all figure that by that time enough Irvine parents will be pissed off enough to make a difference at the state and federal levels since they overpaid for their houses and now their kids are going to schools that are labeled failures. This is NCLB. We could trade the teachers at my school for any school in the state and I really don’t think any other group could do any better than we are doing. The other schools in our district were labeled “PI” schools a few years ago, we were caught in the web last year, so now we are “PI 1”. My school is one of only 2 OC schools to receive California Distinguished School 4 times in our history, we have always been a model for other schools in our demographic and have up until now always had a score of 10 when compared to similar schools. Now, because one small group of ELL students (who are still ELL because they score so low on tests, go figure), only made a 7 point gain last year instead of the 15 point gain the NCLB standards said they should, the whole school is a failure. Sorry for the rant, I could go on all night.

Of course, some will figure out ways to cheat the system, I truly don’t know of any real stories from real teachers at real schools who are doing it though.

Mcdonna1980 - 17 September 2009 05:38 PM

tmare - 17 September 2009 03:28 PM

Mcdonna1980 - 17 September 2009 03:19 PM

tmare - 17 September 2009 02:54 PM

Mcdonna1980 - 17 September 2009 02:51 PM

Tmare, but I found the smaller sample sizes in High Schools too. Interesting enough the High Schools with big gains in the API had real small sample sizes.

Our testing coordinator is still checking up on this, could you give me the names of a few of these schools? I’ll look them up and then I can be more specific with my questions.

All of Irvine’s High Schools only included 67 to 74% of the student body in the API scores. Fullerton High is really weird as they only included 11 students and had a 177 point gain in their API.

I don’t know much about high school testing. I think I remember the test being 9th-11th grade though. If that’s the case, then it would make sense for approximately 25% of the population to not have scores. I don’t understand the Fullerton scores, I’ll ask. What percentage of the population is that for Fullerton High?

Fullerton High has 2071 students so less than 1% were included in the API.

I’m hot on the trail of this one but I’m extremely confused about the school itself. The API report lists it as a small school (2071 is in no way a small school), the district lists “Fullerton” as one of the high schools but any search for the high school only gives you the district’s webpage (Fullerton Union High School District, including many high schools). Do you have any website to actually prove the existence of a school called “Fullerton High School” because this “school” report is for a school called “Fullerton Joint Union High” and listed as a “Small High” next to school type. I’m thinking that this isn’t the actual high school, but if it isn’t, I can’t find a Fullerton High. I just went through a list of all of the reasons a student’s score would not be included in the API, I will receive a copy of it today. Your question turns out to be a good one because our testing coordinator called the district testing coordinator who actually had to call the state because he was unable to answer this. I will give you the state testing office’s response later today.

Thanks Tmare for looking into this. IHBers are taking over the job of investigative reporting for OC Register. Here is the website to Fullerton Union High School. Fullerton Union High is the exact match of the name on the site CK linked. Also if you look in the school demographics page it shows:
Enrollment on first day of STAR testing 1506 students
Students Exempt from STAR testing per parent request 8
Number of students tested 1485

This is kind of fun anyway, something is definitely wacky here.

I have gone as far as I can to investigate this. The top testing and evaluation person in my district has looked at this Fullerton info and cannot figure out what in the world could have happened to exclude almost the entire population. Because he is not from this district, he is unable to find out the reasons. He cannot under any circumstances understand how this many students could have been excluded. Not only that, but the information on the AYP for this school is showing that they did not meet their AYP due to low ELL scores. In February, the state adjusts and reports all data that has errors and corrects them. At this point, if you are really interested I would call the principal and tell him that you are interested in moving to the area so you have been looking at scores, you noticed that they only tested 11 students in the entire school (feign a little ignorance) and ask him to explain. Please do this McDonna, because I am so curious (and so are some others now).

Reasons for exclusion (this usually excludes a handful of tests)

-K-1st aren’t tested, grade 12 not tested (although CAHSEE scores are somehow also used to calculate API)
-Students who were not a part of the initial CBEDS (it’s an attendance form filled out sometime around 1 month after school starts) are excluded
-Movement from one school to another (essentially the same thing as the last reason, but given as a separate reason)
-EL students who have been in the country less than 1 year (imagine the scores of those who take grade level English tests and have been in the county 1 year and 1 day!)
-no testing by parent request (it is illegal for teachers to even mention this as an option, however any parent can do it)
-Special testing conditions (mostly special ed, like having to have the problem read out loud to them due to IEP)
-some crazy thing I don’t understand given as, “writing and multiple choice not matched”, I have no idea what this means

Anyway, my school had 100% of tests taken used in the API, this should be the norm if the school is following the rules, however the above exclusions might account for a handful of tests (other than those grades and kids who didn’t take the test at all) being excluded.

I will call next week. I was also randomly digging into some other high school’s scores. Every single one had some degree of tests excluded even after accounting for the ELS, disability, parent request, etc. Very interesting.

Mcdonna1980 - 18 September 2009 04:51 PM

I will call next week. I was also randomly digging into some other high school’s scores. Every single one had some degree of tests excluded even after accounting for the ELS, disability, parent request, etc. Very interesting.

Give me some names and I’ll check those out also. Are you finding that the Fullerton High problem is the extreme or are there others like this? I can understand that somewhere near 75% of high school students are included in the API, I’m more interested in the number actually tested compared to the number included in the API, from all I can see, the two numbers should be very close.