The achievement gap remains at Morgan Hill Unified School
District this year after the federal measure of student progress on
English and math standardized tests show a consistent trend of a
35-percent chasm between the Hispanic students and white and Asian
students.
Morgan Hill – The achievement gap remains at Morgan Hill Unified School District this year after the federal measure of student progress on English and math standardized tests show a consistent trend of a 35-percent chasm between the Hispanic students and white and Asian students.
Good news did come in the form of the Academic Performance Index, which is the state’s yardstick to measure a school’s progress. The district reached the Academic Performance Index goal of a score of 680 or above or a growth of at least one point – MHUSD improved by 23 points.
The Adequate Yearly Progress scale is a federal standard that determines whether a school is meeting the No Child Left Behind standards. Together the two scores determine state and federal funding for schools in some cases and also set the pace for next year’s goals and expectations.
Eleven of the district’s 13 schools met the Academic Progress Index growth expectations of at least a five-point increase. Two elementary schools did not: Barrett improved by one point on the index and Jackson fell by 24 points. Several more schools’ subgroups – defined as a groups with a significant number of students – failed to meet the standard even though the school as a whole was deemed proficient: Nordstrom, P.A. Walsh, Paradise and Britton Middle School did not meet the growth target for its subgroups.
The agreed-upon goal for the Academic Performance Index is a schoolwide score of 800 on a scale of 200 to 1,000. It’s a score that just four of MHUSD’s schools have achieved: Charter School of Morgan Hill with 887, Paradise Valley with 881, Nordstrom Elementary with 871 and Los Paseos Elementary with 836. Ann Sobrato High School is the next closest with a score of 799, followed by Barrett with 796, then San Martin/Gwinn with 795, El Toro with 794, Martin Murphy Middle School with 782, Britton Middle School with 777, Live Oak High with 768 and Jackson with 768, and P.A. Walsh with 742. Despite Walsh’s score, it was an 11-point increase from last year.
Central Continuation High School is not included in the report.
The tests that are given to third- through eighth-graders also decide whether a school is given a check mark in the Program Improvement column that mandates more restrictions for schools that are considered failing to meet the requirements of AYP. There are five “years” of PI until a school is sometimes closed or transformed into a charter school but begin with a number of transformative changes leading up to PI year five. Currently, MHUSD itself is in its second year of Program Improvement due to the number of schools in PI: El Toro is staying in year two, San Martin/Gwinn moved to year two, P.A. Walsh into year four and Jackson into year five.
If a school can show a 10 percent improvement over two consecutive years and every subgroup tests proficient it can move to “safe harbor” and out of PI. The requirements can include revamping curriculum, firing staff and rehiring new teachers, changing the layout of the school day and increasing instructional minutes.
At the district’s PI schools, El Toro increased by 33 points, San Martin/Gwinn did better by 27 points, P.A. Walsh made a small jump by 11 points and Jackson was the only school to regress, sliding 24 points. El Toro will not move from its PI year two status to year three thanks to its 33-point increase, while San Martin/Gwinn, P.A. Walsh and Jackson move into their respective PI years.
On the AYP report, the district’s English learners, students with disabilities, socio-economically disadvantaged and Hispanic students did not meet the No Child Left Behind standard of 56 percent of students in every subgroup scoring at a proficient level or above. Every year, according to No Child Left Behind, the number of students that test proficient increases until it reaches the 12-year goal of 100 percent of students proficient in English and math by 2014.
