When it comes to the 2012 Base Academic Performance Index – California’s yardstick for measuring student achievement – the Morgan Hill Unified School District still has an uphill climb to catch up with other state schools with similar “educational challenges.”
In the California Department of Education’s 2012-13 Accountability Progress Reporting, released late last week, six of MHUSD’s schools – two at each the elementary, middle school and high school levels – received the lowest ranking among a group of 100 “similar schools,” as designated by CDE education assessors.
“It does mean they do have challenges and, if they don’t meet their growth target in the fall, then the state is ready to offer them assistance if they don’t already receive that assistance,” explained CDE spokeswoman Pam Slater.
In Gilroy, only one of the 15 schools – Rucker Elementary (781 API) – received the lowest possible similar schools ranking.
In their accountability report card, the CDE gives a state ranking, solely based on the 2012 Base API scores. It also gives a similar schools ranking, which takes into account eight demographic characteristics. This information is used to group 101 comparable schools based on similarities in student population, including race and ethnicity, socio-economic status, percentage of English Language Learners, average class size and students with disabilities.
“Sometimes the schools don’t make sense that you’re grouped with and sometimes they seem to make sense,” said Assistant Superintendent Steven Betando for Human Resources, who will be taking over as MHUSD’s interim superintendent in July. “(The CDE) created a formula that’s very difficult to justify statistically.”
Administrator Jenny Singh in the CDE’s academic accountability unit said the CDE started the similar schools and state comparisons in 1999 to give school districts a gauge as to where they rank among similar schools. It also gives districts a growth target to shoot for by the following year.
“I think the more important (data) is did they reach their growth targets, did they close achievement gaps, and how are they (bringing along) students that are traditionally lower performing,” Singh explained.
The four MHUSD schools with the highest API scores – Nordstrom Elementary (915), Charter School of Morgan Hill (902), Paradise Valley Elementary (849) and Los Paseos Elementary (830) – reached their target growth for the 2012-13, as well as their API target for 2013.
None of the four, however, received a ranking higher than 4 out of 10 in similar schools ranks. Nordstrom and Charter, for instance, were in the same group of 100 similar schools that included Brook Knoll Elementary in Scotts Valley Unified, Garfield Elementary in Clovis Unified and El Rodeo Elementary in Beverly Hills Unified.
“They are high performing schools,” Singh determined. “But clearly schools with similar educational challenges are doing better, so (Morgan Hill) can, too.”
Nine MHUSD schools did not meet the CDE’s growth targets including Barrett (757 API) and El Toro (781) elementaries; Britton (778) and Martin Murphy (796) middle schools; and Ann Sobrato (786) and Live Oak (765) high schools. All are at the bottom of the similar schools rankings.
“We’re in a constant cycle of self review and finding ways to get better,” said Betando, who added that since there is “such a delay in getting the information” on similar schools rankings that it is “hard to pinpoint” where exactly change is needed or if it has already been done since the tests were taken.
However, Betando added, “if there’s any programs out there that are finding results, we want to look at them.”
Sobrato was grouped with three schools within Santa Clara County: Westmont High in the Campbell Union High District; Piedmont Hills High in the East Side Union High District; and Milpitas High in Milpitas Unified. In a different grouping, Live Oak was compared to Christopher High in Gilroy Unified as well as Branham and Prospect high schools in the Campbell Union High District.
Singh said the difference between a 10 ranking and a 1 ranking within the same group of similar schools may be “very, very small” and that is “especially (the case) when you get higher up in the API groups.”
For example, the CDE wants Sobrato and Live Oak to shoot for 5-point increases in their API scores for 2013. But the same findings – which show Sobrato at 7 and Live Oak at 6 in the state rankings – also give those two high schools the lowest score of 1 in similar schools ranking. The same holds true for Britton and Martin Murphy middle schools when compared to schools with similar educational challenges.
“Whenever we look at data, as a Board, we celebrate what we’re doing well, but we do look at the areas where we can do better,” said MHUSD Board trustee Claudia Rossi. “Personally, that’s where my focus is: where can we do better and how can we do better.”
Rossi identified several developing variables that have MHUSD schools “on the right track” and “headed in the right direction.” This includes:
• Training 80 district teachers as early adapters of the Common Core Standards (a more rigorous, reflective style of teaching and assessing students in English Language Arts and Mathematics adopted by 45 states) to be implemented in the 2013-14 school year;
• Plans that are already in place for in-school, on-site intervention methods to quickly target and help students who fall below grade level;
• A focus on English Language Development instruction.
At Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, Rossi requested that district staff ask each school site to provide Board members with information on what early intervention programs they have implemented to curb the pattern of poor student performance that result in MHUSD’s low standing in the county and state.
“I want this information in part to let the community know that we recognize that we have these challenges and shortfalls,” Rossi said. “And that we are looking at it and are just as concerned about it and this is our course of action (to rectify the problems.)”
Ten of GUSD’s schools earned a 6 out of 10 ranking or higher when compared to similar schools. This includes the Dr. T.J. Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, or GECA, which has a 931 API and raked in perfect scores of 10 for state and similar schools rankings. GECA is bested only by Gilroy Prep School’s 978 API.
Seven GUSD schools also reached their 2012-13 growth targets and 2013 API targets issued by the CDE. At the high school and middle school levels, where MHUSD schools were all at the bottom of the similar schools rankings, GUSD’s Brownell, Solorsano and South Valley middle schools were ranked 6 or higher, while Gilroy’s Christopher and Gilroy high schools have 6 and 4 rankings. GHS is the only school in Gilroy that failed to meet its growth and API targets.
