EDITORIAL

There was continued good news from our schools last week in the not

always easy to understand form of the Academic Performance Index, the

statewide measuring stick that also compares California campuses along

socioeconomic demographics:

* Harbor View Elementary School in Corona del Mar once again was the

highest-scoring school in the county;

* Newport Coast Elementary School more than beat the state target of

800 on the 200- to 1,000-point scale and also received a highest ranking

of 10 when compared with similar schools;

* Seven Newport-Mesa schools received that top comparative ranking,

one more than last year;

* California Elementary School became the first Costa Mesa school to

crack the 800 benchmark with an 808 score, as well as a high 9 ranking

compared with like campuses.

That is a quartet to celebrate. But with this good news should come

the same caution typically raised when API scores aren’t so rosy. Numbers

are both easy to manipulate and rather limited representations of how

students, let alone schools, are performing.

High schools, for instance, have a roughly 25% change in student body

each year as seniors graduate and freshmen take their place. While that

means scores can certainly go up, it also means they can drop. And

numbers did drop at four schools: Woodland, Paularino, Pomona and Ensign

schools. All saw their statewide ranks decline.

Are the results at those four schools the equivalent of a four-alarm

fire? No. But they do suggest there may be a bit of smoke to put out on

our campuses -- before there are any flames.

Newport-Mesa is a desirable place to live in large part because our

schools are so good. Parents, school officials and, most of all, teachers

all spend much time and effort to make sure they stay strong, to stoke a

flame we do want to burn brightly: the fire of our children’s education.

These latest results seem to show that fire is hot.