API Scores: Practical Effects on Local Schools

As Patch has been posting recently-released Academic Performance Index scores for San Francisco schools, we have asked local administrators how the federal API scoring system affects local education, beyond just comparing numbers.

“It serves as a motivator,” said South San Francisco Unified School District assistant superintendent Shawnterra Moore. “We do have a couple of school that [score] over 800 which is nice, but we have some schools that do not.”

In South San Francisco, Parkway Heights Middle School and Spruce Elementary School are in the state Program Improvement, which reflects an Average Yearly Performance (AYP) lower than federal standards set for those schools. API scores contribute to AYP. If schools don't meet AYP targets, they can become eligible for government funding to improve certain aspects of the schools. Parkway has been in the program for five years and Spruce for three.

Program Improvement is similar to a probationary period, said South San Francisco school board member Maurice Goodman. He said that if a school is in the program without raising API scores enough for six or seven years, the federal government will impose certain sanctions.

The sanctions can include reassigning a specific percentage of teachers, recertifying as a local education agency, or even closing and reopening as a charter school.

Critics of the API system say that focusing exclusively on the scores means schools risk spending more time preparing for tests than teaching toward long-term academic achievement.

“It’s not our only data point that we use in our district to measure whether or not we’re succeeding,” Moore said. “I think it kind of keeps us on our toes. It causes some anxiousness because our staff has worked so hard.”

For some schools that have hit high marks in recent years, API goals continue to increase along with their improvement.  

“It’s getting to the point where it’s unreasonable for kids to continue to make the stride that we have to make,” said school board member Goodman. “To South City’s credit, the trends have been that we’ve been increasing those scores. But to the expectation on federal or state level – that remains to be seen.”

Nancy Magee, an administrator with the San Mateo County Office of Education said in an email that what outside observers often overlook about the API system that can be useful to schools is that each significant subgroup of a district's or school's population receives in API score.

"In the case of South San Francisco," Magee said, "its Hispanic/Latino students have a 2011 Base API score of 777 while its students with disabilities have a 2011 Base API score of 632. When the 2012 Growth API Report is released this fall, SSFUSD can measure what academic improvements these particular groups of students have made since last year."

Magee said that prior to our current systems of accountability, students in minority subgroups were too often under-identified and underserved.

API Growth numbers, which indicate academic performance growth in the past year will be released in September. For all other South San Francisco K-8 2011 API scores read and for high school scores read .

Tell Patch what you think of API scoring in the comments section below.

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