San Francisco school districts are reporting a jump in test scores. Is that due to increased focus on students whose second language is English - or does the change in tests explain the increase?
Ask school superintendents and principals why standardized test scores increased so much this year, and they will credit increased focus on helping students who do not speak English. But a change in the way the scores are calculated may also have something to do with the improvements.
All but one school district in San Mateo County increased its Academic Performance Index scores over last year...
In past years, the index, or API, was based in part on a test given nationwide called the Stanford 9. This test did not take into account the California teaching standards. It has been replaced by the California Achievement Test, Sixth Edition -- known as CAT/6...
Christine Baumgardner, supervisor of assessment and research at South San Francisco Unified, agrees that the shift in the API contributed to the districtwide increase from 707 to 730.
"What really helped improve our performance on the API was they focused on standards rather than on normed reference," Baumgardner said. In past years, the scores were based more on comparisons with other schools and student groups, she added.
Panorama's scores had been dropping five years ago, Presta said. Administrators found that non-native English speakers were scoring poorly, and the school hired a specially trained teacher to help. They also increased individual student assessment, especially in reading. "We really believe that it's the reading," she said. "The kids weren't reading at the level they should be."
This article describes how the API works:
According to the Academic Performance Index, an annual survey of standardized test scores at elementary, middle and high schools throughout California, 90 percent of schools showed an overall improvement in their scores during the academic year 2002-2003 over the previous year.
Since it was created in 1999, the API uses a point system to track schools' progress. Each school scores between 200 and 1,000 points, with the standard being 800.
Schools falling short of the standard are issued a "growth target" for the following year. The growth target is determined by subtracting a school's actual score from the 800 standard score. The following year, the school strives to improve its score by 5 percent of that difference.
In San Francisco, 86 percent of all schools met their growth targets during the school year 2002-2003, according to district officials, who were in a jovial mood at a news conference Friday morning to announce the results.
The same effect is being seen all over California, which is not surprising. Increased district scores in Monterey are described here. The California Department of Education has all the API results here.
Here's the information for parents (requires Adobe Acrobat). This documents points out that the CAT replacements for the Stanford 9 are specifically aligned to California content standards, but the entire STAR system allows California's students to be compared with each other, and with students in other states.
Posted by kswygert at October 28, 2003 10:37 AM