Newport-Mesa ahead of state on API targets

Deirdre Newman

The Academic Performance Index Growth Report for 2001-02, released

Thursday, brought the school district a mixed bag of results.

While some schools exploded in growth, others saw double-digit

declines, including all four of the main high schools.

College Park Elementary School in Costa Mesa and Middle College

High School at Orange Coast College were the district’s shining

stars, showing stellar growth of 80-plus points.

The negative growth at 10 of the Newport-Mesa Unified schools may

be due to this being the first year that results from the state’s

English/Language Arts standards test were used in the growth

calculations, said Peggy Anatol, the district’s director of

assessment. In the past, the Academic Performance Index has been

solely based on the Stanford-9 Achievement Test.

“California has set the bar very high for the accomplishment of

the state standards,” Anatol said. “When you get to a high school

that has [a lot] of kids, it gets very difficult to ensure that they

are all receiving the state standards at the same time at a high

level.”

The Stanford-9 test, taken last spring, covers language arts and

math. The English/Language Arts Standards test was also taken last

spring.

The API, a numeric index ranging from 200 to 1,000, is the

foundation of the statewide accountability system. The score is

calculated from the test results of all the students at a school. The

statewide target is 800. The scores will be converted into statewide

rankings in the next few months.

The district as a whole made a strong showing, with 62% of its

schools meeting all targets, which include school-wide scores and

scores by subgroups of ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Only 53%

of all schools statewide met their targets.

Eleven district schools exhibited enough growth in all areas to be

eligible for awards through the Governor’s Performance Award program,

which has no money invested in it this year because of the state

budget shortfall. Eligible schools, however, may receive the cash

awards if the money becomes available next year, state Supt. Delaine

Eastin said.

College Park outshined all other elementary schools in the

district, exceeding its target growth by 75 points. Its target growth

was 9 points over last year’s score of 627, but its score this year

jumped 84 points, to 711.

Principal Carol Lang said she was excited by the results and

attributed the phenomenal growth to her teachers’ commitment to

excellence and dedication past regular school hours.

Last year, College Park teachers participated in CORE --

Consortium on Reading Excellence -- to help them improve their skills

in reading instruction based on the state standards. The

administration scheduled time for them to work and plan lessons

together.

The staff also wrote their own benchmark assessments -- for

reading and for math -- and gave them to students every six to eight

weeks so teachers didn’t have to wait until the end of the year to

see how much their students had mastered and where they needed help.

The school also benefited from its status as an under-performing

school, getting grant money from the state and from an anonymous

donor to hire a teacher on special assignment and a reading/English

Language Development teacher to support the staff.

“Educational research shows that one of the most powerful factors

in increasing student achievement is what goes on in the classroom,

like teachers and students working together, so we’ve crafted

everything now that’s going on in the classroom,” Lang said.

This year’s score for Whittier Elementary School in Costa Mesa

dropped by 17 points from last year’s. Between 2000 and 2001, the

school’s score improved by 54 points.

After examining the data, Principal Sharon Blakely said the

students who have been at the school for two consecutive years have

shown significant growth.

“That tells us that our program is strong,” Blakely said. “We look

carefully at all measures including the improvement in language,

which is significant at Whittier ....We take in our new students who

don’t speak English and work with them as quickly as we can.”

The district’s two middle schools both showed growth, although

Ensign Intermediate’s score only grew by 2 points, while its target

was 3. TeWinkle Middle School’s score increased by 21 points.

Trustee Martha Fluor attributes some of TeWinkle’s growth to the

placement of Julie Chan, the district director of literary

instruction, at the school last year. This year, the district will be

moving Chan over to Ensign Intermediate and Costa Mesa High School,

Fluor said.

At the high school level, Estancia High School in Costa Mesa

dropped the farthest, falling by 26 points.

Supt. Robert Barbot said there were two likely reasons why the

four main high schools did not show an increase in growth. One is

that the district’s priority for the past two years has been the exit

exam, which is supposed to be a graduation requirement starting with

the class of 2004. The other is that the district’s emphasis on

standards started at the elementary level and is just now reaching

the high schools, Barbot said.

“Our focus is, if we got to where we generally wanted in movement

for K through 6, and we did -- those kids are moving forward

aggressively -- our next focus is to focus on how our kids perform at

the 7-12 level,” Barbot said. “We believe with what we just saw

happen with the exit exam, if we can transition that to [the API], we

expect a major jump in the next year.”

Fluor echoed those sentiments.

“I’m disappointed that we didn’t show growth [at the high school

level], but I know that it’s an area of concern for all of us, and we

just keep pressing on,” Fluor said.

The district will continue the ongoing process of aligning its

standards with the state’s, including this year’s rollout of

standards-based report cards and a new standards-based assessment

system, Anatol said.

“It’s a honing of the standards so that every student has access

to all of the standards in every classroom,” Anatol said. “We don’t

want everyone to be the same because [every teacher] has a style and

strategy to get students to the end product. But where we are all

going is how important it is to clarify those standards with kids and

parents.”

Next year, the Academic Performance Index will be comprised of

different criteria -- the CAT-6 will replace the Stanford-9, and the

state math standards test will also be included.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.