Results from California’s 2008-09 Accountability Progress Report, released Sept. 15, show most schools are continuing to make gains in academic achievement.
The APR consists of results from the state Academic Performance Index, as well as the federal Adequate Yearly Progress and Program Improvement. Both the API and AYP are based upon assessment results from the Standardized Testing and Reporting program and from the California High School Exit Examination.
“For the seventh year in a row schools at every level have made real progress toward the statewide API target of 800, and almost half of our elementary schools have met or exceeded this goal,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. “The API results also show a slight narrowing of the achievement gap that historically has left Hispanic or Latino and African American students trailing behind their peers who are white or Asian. I am delighted to see this trend of progress continue.”
The results show 42 percent of all California schools are now at or above the overall statewide target API of 800, up 6 percentage points from the year before. This includes 48 percent of elementary schools, 36 percent of middle schools, and 21 percent of high schools.
The 2009 API report shows that all student subgroups statewide demonstrated improvement between 11 and 15 points. African American, Hispanic or Latino, and socio-economically disadvantaged students increased their API this year by 15 points, while the API of white students increased by 14 percentage points and the statewide increase for all students was 14 points.
Despite this slight narrowing between subgroups, white and Asian students continue to have significantly higher API scores, a major indicator of the achievement gaps that persist in California schools.
O’Connell said while California’s API system recognizes improvement across all performance levels, the federal accountability system reflects only the number of students that have reached proficiency on California’s rigorous standards. Thus, students showing significant progress may, in some cases, appear to have fallen short on federal measures.
“We learn different things from the state and federal measures; however, the two systems of accountability can often send conflicting messages to educators and parents. While we can never abandon the goal of proficiency for all students, I continue to support efforts to create a single accountability system for California that combines the best of the state and federal systems in order to reduce confusion and still push schools to help all students improve,” O’Connell said.
While the federal target for students expected to score at the proficient level or above on state assessments increases approximately 11 percent each year, fewer schools and LEAs made AYP than in 2008.
Fifty-one percent of schools made AYP in 2009, a slight decline of 1 percentage point from 2008. There was a similar decrease in the percentage of local educational agencies making AYP, which fell from 41 percent in 2008 to 38 percent in 2009.
Twenty-nine percent of middle schools made AYP in 2009, as compared to 61 percent of elementary schools. The data also show a sharp decline in the percentage of high schools that made AYP from 2008 to 2009, falling from 49 percent in 2008 to 37 percent in 2009.
The decline was even more precipitous for high schools that received Title 1 funds. Only 30 percent of these high schools met their AYP targets in 2009, a decline of 14 percentage points from 2008. There was also a parallel decline in the percentage of high school districts that made AYP, from 35 percent in 2008 to 25 percent in 2009. Altogether, nearly half of middle and high schools missed both their 2009 API and AYP targets.
As the Obama administration works to revamp the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which became No Child Left Behind under President Bush, one of the most important proposals is the recognition that all student academic achievement growth should be recognized and acknowledged in an accountability system.
ACSA’s position is that recognizing growth at all levels – from far below basic to basic to proficient to advanced – is crucial to student success. “Only counting those at the ‘proficiency’ bar diminishes the tremendous work of students and teachers working daily to make progress no matter where a student starts,” states an ACSA position paper.
Meanwhile, the sanctions in NCLB continue. Schools, school districts, and county offices of education that receive federal Title 1 funds and do not make AYP criteria for two consecutive years are subject to identification for Program Improvement. For the 2009-10 school year, 675 schools were newly identified for PI.
Fifty-four schools exited from PI after making AYP for two consecutive years. In 2009-10, 57 LEAs were newly identified for PI and one exited, leaving a total of 298 LEAs in PI. This represents 31.8 percent of the total number of LEAs receiving Title 1 funds.
Schools and LEAs have an opportunity to review their APR data and make corrections. API, AYP and PI reports will be updated in November 2009, and again in February 2010. All reports and data files are available through the APR Web page at www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ar/index.asp.