PAUSD Ranks 5th in API Scores Statewide; Most Racially Diverse District in Top Six

A report presented on Tuesday at the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) board meeting places the district fifth in the state in terms of academic performance index (API) despite having significantly more disadvantaged students than other top schools.

The district received an API score of 926, one point more than last year. The API is based on students' scores on the California Standards Test (CST) in math, English language arts, science and social science and the California High School Exit Exam. It also includes the California Modified Assessment and the California Alternate Performance Assessment, which are given to students with disabilities. 

PAUSD ranked fifth in the state, while San Marino Unified School District ranked first with an API of 955. But the district saw the greatest API gains among socio-economically disadvantaged students, according to Dr. Diana Wilmot, a data analyst and educator hired this year to examine student test performance. PAUSD has 50 percent more students with an 'academic risk demographic' (those that qualify for free or reduced lunch, have English as a second language, or have a learning disability) than the other top six districts.

The district was also the most racially diverse among the top six.

While PAUSD ranked far above the California's average, some board members, including superintendent Kevin Skelly, were "disappointed" by the API scores.

"I was hoping we would improve more than we did," he said. "If you look at the results last year, we saw a big jump in lots of different levels, but this year we didn't."

"We continue to not make the kind of progress we would like to make in terms of the achievement gap," said Board member Barbara Klausner, who suggested "disaggregating and re-aggregating" data at the district level to better find solutions.

The report additionally examined the results of the CST in English language arts and math, which were a major part of the five "strategic planning goals" created in 2008 that the district aims to achieve by spring 2012.

The report presented last night is the first of two this year and only covered the first three goals, which were focused on increasing student performance on the California Standards Tests in English language arts and math. The second report on the remaining goals will be presented in October. 

According to Wilmot's report, students have improved in most areas since 2008, although none of the goals have yet been achieved.

CST English Language Arts and Math goals to be achieved by 2012:

Goal 1: Have 95 percent of students in grades 3-8 on grade level.

Progress: In 2008, 10 percent of students did not meet this standard in ELA. This has been reduced to 7.7 percent in 2011, which is almost the same percentage as last year (7.6 percent).

In math, 9.9 percent did not meet the standard in 2008, a number which has decreased to 8.7 percent -- about one percent better than last year. 

However, less students in grades 6-8 meet the standard today in math than they did in 2008 - 10.5 percent of students didn't meet the bar then, a number which has increased to 11.9 percent.

There were consistently fewer middle-schoolers on grade level each year than those in grades 3-5. 

Goal 2: Have 85 percent of students in grades 3-8 show one year's progress or more in the grade level curriculum.

Progress: Although the overall percentage of students who did not meet the mark in ELA has decreased from 5.9 percent to 3 percent, slightly fewer students met the bar this year than last year. This year, 82 percent of students showed one year's or more progress, compared to 82.7 percent last year.

In math, the number of students who made a year's progress in 2008 was 78.3 percent, which has gone up to 80 percent. But again, this number for middle school students fell from 78.3 percent to 77.8 percent.

Goal 3: Reduce the percentage of students in grades 4-8 who are "not yet proficient" in these areas by 50 percent.

Progress: Although the goal is a 50 percent reduction, so far there has only been a 21 percent reduction since 2008.

The report found that 75 percent of students not yet proficient in math had at least one "academic risk demographic," namely those who qualify for free or reduced lunch, have English as a second language, or have a learning disability.

The following are the percentages of students who have at least one academic risk factor and are not yet proficient in English language arts, by race:

• 67 percent of Asian students
• 77 percent of white students
• 85 percent of African American students
• 94 percent of Hispanic students

The following are the percentages of students who have at least one academic risk factor and are not yet proficient in math, by race:

• 52 percent of Asian students
• 57 percent of white students
• 80 percent of African American students
• 92 percent of Hispanic students