Newport-Mesa school scores fall slightly

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- While most school in the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District continue to rank high on the statewide Academic Performance

Index, many have slipped several notches when compared with similar

schools.

“We’re going to look at that, because we don’t know why” the

similar-school rankings dropped, Supt. Robert Barbot said of the report,

which was released Tuesday. “There has to be a reason why.”

Barbot said he was pleased overall with how the district’s schools

fared.

“I want to commend the rate of improvement of minority students,” he

said. “It was one of our goals that has happened.”

The index is the system mandated by Gov. Gray Davis’ Public Schools

Accountability Act of 1999. It ranks each public school according to

student performance.

In October, 6,209 schools statewide received a score between 200 and

1,000, based on the results of the Stanford 9 test taken by students in

the spring.

The state has set a target score of 800 for every school. Each school

ranked below 800 is required to improve its score by a fixed percentage

each year until it reaches 800. Schools that receive 800 or higher are

expected to maintain or improve each year.

The update released Tuesday compares each school’s index scores to

that of 100 schools with similar socioeconomic and ethnic

characteristics. A rank of 10 is the highest; one is the lowest.

Although most Newport-Mesa schools ranked well in this category, many

slid by a couple of levels since last year.

Of the 27 schools ranked in the district, 12 lost ground as compared

with similar schools, nine stayed the same and six increased their

position.

The most noticeable drop was at Kaiser Primary Center, where the

similar-schools rank dropped from 10 last year to five this year.

District officials will study the data of the other schools to see

where Kaiser Primary fell behind or if mistakes were made on demographic

data, said Jaime Castellanos, the district’s assistant superintendent of

secondary education, who began analyzing the data Tuesday.

Of the six schools that saw an increase, four were Costa Mesa schools.

Rea, Sonora and Whittier elementary schools each saw an increase in

their standing. All three ranked at the highest level, 10, compared with

schools with similar demographics.

“I’m so happy,” said Sharon Blakey, principal at Whittier. “We went to

the top percentile in similar-school ranking.”

District officials will continue to study the data, Barbot said.