Students in the Guadalupe Union and Santa Maria Joint Union High School districts made great strides toward meeting state and federal academic achievement goals for 2007-08, according to an annual “report card” the California Department of Education released Thursday.

Students in the Lompoc Unified, Orcutt Union and Santa Maria-Bonita school districts experienced steady growth or flatlined.

Relying heavily on students’ performance on standardized tests, the state’s Academic Growth Index (API) and the federal government’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report gauge schools’ improvement in math and English, as well as their graduation rates.

Despite gains in API, not a single district in the Santa Maria Valley or the surrounding area met all their AYP targets, which the state raises on a yearly basis, primarily because English language learners fell short of meeting English/language arts targets, school officials said.

“We must accept that challenge that we have to get more kids proficient and advanced, and we’ll work to do everything we can to see that that happens,” said Santa Maria-Bonita Superintendent Dave Francis.

Both the API and AYP are based upon statewide assessment results from the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program, and from the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE).

The state API and federal AYP results report progress in different ways, and combined, the two measurements form the Accountability and Progress Reporting (APR), and serve as a report card for California schools.

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The API measures a school or district’s year-to-year improvement, while the AYP system focuses solely on whether students are scoring at the proficient level or above on state assessments and meet state graduation rate goals.

API scores gauge the academic performance and growth of schools on a variety of measures, and scores range from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000, with a statewide target of 800.

This year, 53 percent of schools statewide made their API growth targets, an 8 percent increase from 2007. Thirty-six percent of all California schools are now at or above the target of 800, up 5 percentage points from the year before.

In 2008, the AYP target for the percent of students expected to score at the proficient or above level on state assessments increased nearly 11 percentage points from 2007.

The AYP targets will continue to rise each year to meet the current federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act until all of the nation’s students score at proficient or above on their respective state assessments.

As well, significant sub groups in each districts, such as English language learners, economically disadvantaged students, and special education students, must also meet the state criteria for each specific category or the APR will reflect that the district did not meet its target for the category in question.

Because of the moving targets, fewer districts made AYP in 2008. Results show that 52 percent of schools made AYP in 2008, down 15 percent from 2007.

If schools or districts do not consistently meet these targets, the state classifies them as program improvement, and they are placed under various sanctions.

Guadalupe had the biggest API gain of any district in the Santa Maria Valley.

The district’s API score jumped to 696, up 30 percentage points from last year’s score of 667.

“We came out on top,” Guadalupe Superintendent Hugo Lara said. “I give a lot of credit to the teachers and the support staff and (our) intervention programs.”

However, as a whole, the district did not meet any of its AYP targets, which Lara attributed to the fact that the proficiency bar is raised every year.

Meanwhile, the Santa Maria High School district’s API score also improved by leaps and bounds.

The district’s score rose 13 percentage points from 680 in 2007 to 693 this year.

Despite the district’s success with the API, the AYP report indicated that, of the district’s four high schools — Santa Maria, Pioneer Valley, Righetti and Delta — only Righetti met federal goals for graduation rates.

“It’s always been our position that any kid who drops out of high school is a failure for the system,” Santa Maria High School District Superintendent Jeff Hearn said. “There is a disproportionate number of kids who do drop out (who are) either English language learners or economically disadvantaged.”

This is because many English language learners become discouraged when they find they cannot pass the CAHSEE, and many economically disadvantaged students leave school in order to work full time to support their families.

Though its gains did not quite match the leaps and bounds of Guadalupe or the Santa Maria High School District, Santa Maria-Bonita students made significant improvements — which may result in the district’s removal from program improvement status as early as next year.

“I think the issue is to continue to press forward. More people are making progress and gaps are closing at a statewide level,” Francis said.

Santa Maria-Bonita’s API score hit 708, up seven percentage points from 2007, though performance of individual schools fluctuated.

While the district did not hit most of its AYP targets, because of the progress its students made on standardized test scores, the district did not advance in program improvement status, and if the progress continues to hold, Francis said, the district will no longer be in program improvement after next year.

With an API score of 824, of all the five local school districts, only Orcutt met or exceeded the API target score.

However, Orcutt saw zero API growth from its 2007 score of 824, and it missed its AYP language arts criteria.

“We really feel that we have high performing schools — seven out of eight of them are above 800,” Orcutt’s Director of Educational Services Bob Bush said. “We are still a high performing school district with some sub-groups that are not progressing as fast as other sub-groups.”

Like Orcutt, Lompoc Unified saw little improvement in its API score, and for the first time, was sent into program improvement status.

Lompoc’s API score was 728, up just one percentage point from its 2007 score of 727.

As well, Lompoc missed most of its AYP targets, though it did meet the target for graduation rate.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Lompoc’s Director of Student Services Jeff Bass said.

“It’s basically outlined what we have to do. We know the focus that we have to have.”

Natalie Ragus can be reached at 347-4580 or nragus@santamariatimes.com.

September 5, 2008