Schools
Piedmont Gets Straight A's Again
Almost every high schooler passes the exit exam, which, along with STAR testing of students in lower grades, gives PUSD another outstanding API rating.
With high school exit exam results released Wednesday and results of STAR testing of students in grade 2-9 released earlier this month, the scored far better on the Academic Performance Index (API) for the past academic year than federal and state targets required, and showed some growth.
Piedmont administered the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) in March, with the vast majority of test-takers passing on their first try in 10th grade.
93 percent of the 226 students (209 10th graders) who took the math portion of the test passed, demonstrating grade level competency in arithmetic, data analysis, and mathematical reasoning. 98 percent of the 222 students tested (206 10th graders) passed the English language arts portion, demonstrating grade level competency in reading and writing.
Complete CAHSEE data for Piedmont and the state is at http://cahsee.cde.ca.gov.
Find out what's happening in Piedmontfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The exit exam results combined with scores showing nearly all Piedmont's elementary and middle school students to be proficient in math and English language arts to give the district a 930 API score.
PUSD's performance far exceeded both the federal and state bars and represented a 4-point improvement over 2009-2010. To meet federal requirements, a district and each individual school had to demonstrate growth of at least one point or score at least 710 on the scale from 200 to 1,000. The state gives an A grade to each school that meets its target of 800 or better.
API was up a notable 12 points, from 905 to 917. improved one point from 942 to 943. Millennium High School did not receive a growth score due to the number of students excused from standardized testing.
The school district has been working to rectify a small disparity between its three elementary schools, and has done that, though perhaps not entirely in the manner administrators would have liked. came within 7 points of the other two schools as its API improved by 15 to 952 while score slid by 9 to 959 and by 5 to 959.
Find out what's happening in Piedmontfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Complete state and local API data is at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ap/.
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