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The issue of accountability within the educational field has been brought to the forefront in the State of California with the passage of the Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999. Passed in March of 1999, SB 1 X provides a comprehensive method of measuring growth of a schools performance over time as well as a way to rank schools on an annual basis. The major component of this bill is a ranking index called the API or Academic Performance Index. This index gives each school a ranking on a scale from 200 to 1000, with the average goal (or performance target) for each school being 800. Along with the API, there are incentives for growth (a 5 % growth target) for those schools who scored below the 800 goal. The positive incentive which is given to those schools who have met the growth target is an allotment of up to $ 150. 00 per student in discretionary funds.
The negative incentive is to have an external evaluator come and conduct a needs assessment and improvement plan for the school. Overall, the API has been met with mixed results. The California Teachers Association (CTA) is extremely cautious at this point, whereas polls indicate a positive response by the average California voter. I first got involved in this process as a response to a phone call from a concerned parent. As a private school, North Hills Christian Schools is not required to participate in this ranking procedure. The parent, however, asked me where North Hills ranked among public schools in our area.
This started me on a search as to what was the nature of API, how the process of ranking was calculated, and comparing our scores to the schools in our immediate area so we could come up with a comparative score. After doing much research, I found out that the scale used (API, 200 - 1000) was loosely related to how each school scored on their SAT 9 tests. (Mean Scaled Score) More interestingly though, was that the vast majority of people at my school really wanted to know the Rank score (1 - 10) which was also given to each school. This score placed a school basically in a percentile ranking, with a 1 " being in the bottom 10 % and a 10 " being in the top 10 %. (Obviously, this was a lot easier for them to understand. ) After comparing our scores with the two local school districts, I concluded that our school was a 9 " at some grade levels and a 10 " at others. I was both pleased and disappointed in my findings. My pleasure came from my comparison with my immediate school district. (same city) I found that the vast majority of them scored below a 5 ", with the highest score being a 7 ." My disappointment came when comparing North Hills to the neighboring district, a much more affluent, homogenous district.
I found that we fared no better than they did, and in some cases, we scored below them. I put my findings in our weekly newsletter, (both good and bad! ) and waited for the response. Fortunately, there has been little fallout, but that has simply prompted me to make adjustments already for our upcoming SAT 9 test! I have met with the administrative staff to share with them both my findings and the interpretation of the findings.
The interpretation was this: we must do better - because we are barely matching the results of our neighboring public school. (Private schools generally advertise that they offer an advanced curriculum, higher test scores, etc. ) And, if we dont do better, we potentially will lose some of our students to that same school district. I also instructed my administrative team to pass this information along to their respective teachers, to encourage them to take steps immediately to make sure that we do as well as possible on our upcoming tests, which are scheduled for mid-April. Specifically, I directed them (the teaching staff) to spend as much time as necessary on the essentials; reading, writing, and arithmetic. Additionally, we would all take it upon ourselves to make sure that the seriousness of this test, (which we now see as OUR report card) is understood by all parties involved: administration, teaching staff, parents, and students.
It is my goal that next year at this time we will not only exceed the expected 5 % growth goal, but surpass every school in our immediate area. A lofty goal, I know, but certainly attainable.
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