Schools retain high marks Schools retain high marks (March 12, 2004)

Castro Elementary scores surge 66 points over last year

By Julie O'Shea

With Castro Elementary continuing to show the greatest signs of improvement, Mountain View-Whisman schools held onto their high marks when the state released its final Academic Performance Index report for 2003.

The API report, made public Tuesday, evaluates schools based on how well they perform on various standardized tests, including the SAT 9 and the California Standards Test in English and math.

Additionally, schools are ranked between 1 and 10 based on how well they do overall, as well as how well they perform among schools with similar demographics. A score of 10 is considered the best.

In the statewide ranking, Huff and Bubb finished highest in the Mountain View-Whisman district with scores of 10 and 9, respectively. When placed against schools with similar demographics, however, Bubb received a 10 and Huff scored a 6.

At the other end of the spectrum is Castro with a statewide score of 2, up from 1 last year, and a similar schools rank of 4, again up from 1 the previous year. What's significant about Castro is not so much its ranking as much as its API score, which saw a 66-point surge from last year.

"That's a big, huge jump," Superintendent Jim Negri said. "I am very pleased."

Scores range from 200 to 1,000 with the state goal for all schools at 800. Schools are expected to improve their final scores by 5 percent each year. Overall, Mountain View-Whisman scored 758, a 25-point increase from last year. The district also saw a big jump in the scores of its socioeconomically-disadvantaged students, mostly due to Castro's improvments.

Castro, where more than 80 percent of the student body speaks a language other than English at home, is among the lowest performing schools in Santa Clara County, yet its final API score jumped from 552 in 2002 to 618 for 2003, and this has administrators delighted.

And the school met its API target this year. In fact, every school in the district met its goals this year, with the exception of Crittenden Middle School.

Most of the district's nine schools scored in the 700 range or above. Crittenden, however, was the only one which failed to show growth on its API, scoring 721, which is a decrease of six points from the previous year.

Principal Karen Robinson said the school added longer math classes in the seventh and eighth grades this year and brought in a new math and language coach to help improve scores for 2004.

Statewide rankings for Mountain View-Whisman schools are: Huff, 10; Bubb 9; Graham, 8; Landels, Monta Loma and Crittenden 7; Slater, 6; Theuerkauf, 5; and Castro, 2.

"No big surprises, so we're really pleased," Negri said.

The API is part of the Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999. The act has three main components: the API, the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program (II/UPS), and the Governor's Performance Award program (GPA).

Complete Academic Performance Index results are available at http://api.cde.ca.gov.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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