Gilroy
– Gilroy Unified School District’s student performance is all
over the board this year.
Test scores aren’t showing a step back, necessarily, as the
district met the federal government’s Adequate Yearly Progress
requirements and didn’t lose ground on its state score.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Gilroy Unified School District’s student performance is all over the board this year.
Test scores aren’t showing a step back, necessarily, as the district met the federal government’s Adequate Yearly Progress requirements and didn’t lose ground on its state score.
But looking closer, there are both impressive gains – a 25-point improvement in Antonio Del Buono Elementary School’s state score – and surprising drops – South Valley Middle School’s 21-point loss.
“I guess I was hoping for that kind of improvement, but it was hard to know what it actually translates to as far as formulas to the (state’s Academic Performance Index),” said Tammy Gabel, Del Buono principal, shortly after the school staff toasted with lemonade Tuesday.
Gabel attributed the school’s continued growth – it leads the district – to consistent implementation of research-based instructional strategies and close collaboration among teachers.
“Look at how high their API is after only three years of being open and with a very diverse population,” Superintendent Edwin Diaz said.
Del Buono’s API of 752, up from 727 last year, is now the second-highest in the district, after Luigi Aprea, with 829. Also of note is the proficiency level among Del Buono’s subgroups, including English learners.
Low-income students and those whose first language is Spanish were proficient at rates of 25 to 35 percent in English and math, some of the highest in the district.
Schools are given a target API score each year. They won’t find out until October whether they met their growth targets for this year, when information about student subgroups is released.
Based on the school-wide data, though, it already is clear that six schools did not improve enough to please the state: El Roble, Glen View, Las Animas, Rucker, South Valley and Gilroy High.
The remaining four schools that appear to have met or surpassed their growth goals could actually fail, if a given subgroup does not improve enough. Luigi Aprea, with an API above 800, does not have to grow as long as it remains above that level.
South Valley Middle School’s state score took the biggest drop this year, falling 21 points to 653 from 674. It is the lowest-scoring middle school in GUSD by 59 points.
Diaz said the school’s drop surprised him.
“That probably indicates we don’t have enough formative measures throughout the year to indicate how students were progressing,” Diaz said.
The dips at some schools – including nine points at Las Animas and Glen View, and eight points at Rucker and Luigi Aprea – are even more troubling considering that the federal government’s bar jumps higher next year, requiring schools to double proficiency rates.
To show Adequate Yearly Progress toward the federal No Child Left Behind target of having all students proficient by 2004, GUSD this year had to have 12 percent of all students – and all subgroups – proficient or advanced in English-language arts and 12.8 percent proficient in math. That benchmark has stood since 2001.
Next year, it jumps to 23 percent and 23.7 percent for English and math.
To make that, Diaz said, GUSD’s goal this year is 12 percent growth across the board.
“That’s the type of growth that we’re looking at for all students,” he said.
Diaz said it will be up to schools to figure out where they need to make the most growth and how they will target that goal, but he made it clear it’s possible: In a class of 32, for example, 12 percent means four more students moving to proficient.
Officials at Gilroy High School, where math scores fell for the third year, say there is much room to improve, although the school met its adequate progress goals this year. Its state API improved two points, short of its seven-point goal.
“I’m surely glad that we met AYP. I’m glad that we made growth in API – of course, the growth is slight, so we have plenty of places to grow,” Principal Bob Bravo said. “We want a bigger jump, but I think it’s showing that our jump (last year) wasn’t a flash in the pan.”
Gilroy High, like other high schools across the state, did a better job of getting students to show up for testing this spring. Last year, GHS did not make its federal progress goals because fewer than 95 percent of sophomores took the California High School Exit Exam, the one STAR test that is used to calculate participation rates for high schools. The participation rates apply to all subgroups, too, so if 94 percent of low-income students are tested, for example, the entire school will fail AYP.
This year, 100 percent of GHS students completed testing. The rate was slightly lower – 97 to 99 percent – for some subgroups on some sections.
At Mt. Madonna High School, however, it was a different story. The alternative school did not make adequate progress because it failed three of its six AYP requirements, and two of those were its participation rates for English and math tests.
The third reason the school failed was its API score, which must be above 560 but was only 468.
“It’s tough news to take,” Principal John Perales said. “Especially after working so hard.”
The students that were tested – 58 percent in English-language arts and 77 percent in math – did meet the proficiency requirements.
After Mt. Madonna missed the participation rates in 2003, Perales and other Mt. Madonna staff tried a unique incentive to get students to show up for the CST this spring. When 100 percent of students were tested, they shaved their heads. But it was only the exit exam participation that counted toward AYP.
Perales said he and Mt. Madonna staff will continue to push for participation this year.
“I gotta get on the drawing board on this one and figure out how we’re going to coordinate with the district and ourselves to get all those kids,” he said.
But without better test scores, though, Mt. Madonna still won’t make the grade.
“Really what it’ll boil down to this year is, ‘Are we going to make the API a 560?'” which is the minimum benchmark.
