Dublin Schools Show Significant Gains in API Scores

The Dublin Unified School District showed its highest-ever score in the Academic Performance Index, according to data released Monday by the California Department of Education.

The API measures and compares the academic performance and growth of schools on a variety of academic benchmarks. The state goal for all schools is a score of 800. The 2010 Growth API measures the amount of growth a school or district makes since the release of the previous Base API.

The overall 2010 API growth score for the district was 878, up 24 points from the 2009 API Base score.

Dublin High School's score of 868 is a 70-point improvement in the past two years.  The school was named one of Newsweek's "America's Best High Schools" in 2010.

Dublin High principal Carol Shimizu said, "The results are a testament to the hard work our DHS students and teachers put forth each and every day."

Dublin High wasn't the only success, as seven of the nine schools in the district saw a rise in their API scores. The district-wide increase was due in large part to dramatic increases in scores for significant sub-groups, including students with disabilities (a 67-point increase), socioeconomically disadvantaged (37 points) and English learner (36 points) students.

"The test scores this year are a testimony to the outstanding work of our teachers, support staff, leaders and parents.  We strive for continuous improvement in our scores and are confident that every student will be successful," said Superintendent Stephen Hanke.

Statewide, 37 percent of all California schools are now at or above the overall statewide target API of 800.

The API is the cornerstone of the state's academic accountability requirements. The API is a numerical index (or scale) ranging from a low score of 200 to a high score of 1,000. It reflects a school's or district's academic performance based on annual results of statewide testing at grades two through 11. Each year, schools receive two API reports, the API Base (reported in March) and the API Growth (reported in September).

Highlights from the API reports:

• The largest individual gain was posted by Wells Middle School with an increase of 49 points over 2009.
• Murray Elementary's score increased by 34 points.
• Frederiksen Elementary saw a growth of 29 points.
• Dublin High School showed a growth of 26 points.

Specific 2010 Growth API numbers as compared to 2009:

Dublin High  

2010:  868

2009:  842

Difference:  +26

Wells Middle 

2010:  838 

2009:  789

Difference:  +49

Fallon

2010:  910

2009:  898

Difference:  +12

Dublin Elementary 

2010:  890

2009:  870

Difference:  +20

Frederiksen

2010:  861

2009:  832

Difference:  +29

Green

2010:  933

2009:  925

Difference:  +8

Murray

2010:  870

2009:  836

Difference:  +34

Dougherty

2010:  939

2009:  944

Difference:  -5

Additional information regarding API scores is available here.